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Re: the whole NT/participation thing

To: <dg50@daimlerchrysler.com>, <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: the whole NT/participation thing
From: "Jay Mitchell" <jemitchell@compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 09:45:32 -0500
dg50@daimlerchrysler.com wrote:

> I think there may be a place for a series that requires one
> to qualify first.

Like, uhh, the Runoffs? The idea is OK in principle, but you have
to have a much larger pool of motivated competitors to make it
work as intended. Club racing has had their share of problems
populating some classes at the Runoffs without bending the
qualification rules so as to let additional cars in. Do you think
Solo II would somehow fare better?

> As the sport gets more and more popular, you're going to
> need to stratify somehow in order to meet demand,

Not necessarily. IF the sport's popularity grows sufficiently,
one way to accommodate  increased demand is to have more events.

> and a series that caters
> to the better drivers (and requires qualification to get in) is
not a bad
> idea.

Until you try to actually make it work. There are now 54 classes,
not counting ST, F125, SM, and whatever else has been added while
we weren't looking. If you force people to qualify for a spot in
an event, it will always be statistically easier to get into a
lightly-subscribed class than a much larger one. You will thus
find yourself having to make direct decisions regarding the
appropriate relative class sizes at an event. For example, if you
only have two EM entries for an event, and both have trophied,
but in one- or two-car classes at an earlier event (therefore,
they meet your qualification criteria), how do you justify
allowing both of them in but turning away half a dozen BS entries
simply because you hit the class limit?

More to the point, the notion of requiring qualification
necessitates placing limits on CLASS sizes, whereas the
objections raised on team.net have been to excessive EVENT sizes.
Two different animals entirely. Fixing one doesn't fix the other.

Jay




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