Several thing jump out at me about this series when I look at the PRO website:
There still is not a good description of the competition events (earlier on,
there was a little more information than there is now), and no information at
all about the relative weighting of each event in determining winners. There
will be some interesting choices to be made wrt vehicle setup once the
weightings are known. The best setup for autocross is not likely to be the hot
ticket in this competition.
If the event scoring is of the simplest possible form - autox time + drag strip
time + skid pad time - then the optimum setup will depend on the length of the
autox course, the number of laps around the skidpad, and the length of the drag
"strip." One would think that the "drag race" is very unlikely to be 1/4 (or
even 1/8 mile) mile in length, so the drag race portion of the competition may
turn out to be entirely about the best launch (can you say, "AWD"?). If this
scoring method is used, then the autox and skidpad will effectively be given
greater weighting (since they will take up a greater portion of the total time)
than the drag race.
The timing of the publication of the schedule and the rules, combined with the
complete lack of information about the competition events, have the (possibly
intentional) effect of preventing serious competitors from prepping their cars
specifically for the series. The complexity of the car preparation rules has a
similar effect. Given a specific points limit for a class, a competitor would
have to do a lot of testing in order to determine which combination of mods will
give the best results in the three forms of competition. In the absence of
information about the events themselves, this is an utter impossibility.
Given all the above, it appears to me that the series is intentionally set up so
as to minimize the ability of current "top dog" competitors (including autoxers
and drag racers) to dominate the competition, as well as to maximize its appeal
to inexperienced competitors. Given the low turnouts of the earlier PRO startup
attempt, this approach would be entirely understandable.
My car (Lotus Europa) isn't listed as eligible (I get 1311 points for the SP
mods I have done to it), so the issue is entirely moot for me. I have close to
zero interest in skidpad or drag race competition anyway, so I don't think I
really fit the target demographic.
It's an interesting concept, but not my cup of tea. I suspect that, if the
series is ultimately successful, it won't get a large percentage of its
competitors from the ranks of current autoxers.
Jay
|