On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Dave Whitworth wrote:
> The bottom line is that I see AS and ASL as two totally separate classes,
> and many see them as the same class, with a subset? From my point of view,
> I don't look at results and say, GS won with a 99.876 overall time, and CS
> won with a 101.545 therefore the CS win is flawed.
>
> KeS and Mark and probably tons of others choose to compare them directly.
>
> Opinions vary...........
>
> DaveW
But not all opinions are equally valid. This sport is called "SOLO" for a
reason. It's run primarily against the clock, not against other drivers.
Unlike NASCAR or most other racing venues, where the direct goal is to
finish in front of the other drivers regardless of the speed, the goal is
to run a given car on a given course at the greatest speed/lowest time
possible. It's much like golf (stroke play or whatever they call it when
the lowest score wins rather than winning individual holes).
Given the same equipment and the same surface, which happens often enough
to bring statistics to bear, someone running slower times has not achieved
the same level of performance. That they won the class by the same margin
isn't really relevant to anything but possibly the psychological pressure
involved.
Granted that in a single event it is often invalid to make direct
comparisons from class to class (your GS/CS example), due to course
dependencies, weather, attendance, etc. - we certainly do make them on a
larger and longer scale - that's how cars are classed.
Similarly, it is equally valid to look at the Ladies' class performance vs
Open class performance, on a larger/longer scale, and clearly see that the
times are not comparable. This is not really subject to debate -
it's a simple matter of looking at the results.
Your contention is that "performance" is based on margin of victory within
the class. Mine is that "performance" is based on timed results against
the course. Your definition is more readily validated at any individual
event, mine is not - there are always reasons/excuses for any single
position finish.
KeS
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