Club Championship

[Chalkie]

Hi guys, we're thinking of running a club championship no prizes just the glory of beating your fellow racers :woot:

Anyways before we start what would you like to see?

The current idea is a six week championship with four rounds to count, with points scored on both qualifying and final results. Scoring being 50 points for TQ counting downwards and similarly 50 points for winning the A final again counting downwards.

Any thoughts?

[dadger67]

Sounds good iam up for that... :thumbsup::woot:

[weejimmy]

How about doing a mini 'festive season' series instead? 4 rounds with 3 counting. Points given on qualifying results only BUT with a handicap applied.

We could use a reference driver - let's for arguments sake call him 'Alec' - who would have a handicap of 0%. Those typically in the A final would have of around 5% handicap down to 40% or so for the beginners (exact numbers to be worked out). Every driver has his best qualifying result boosted by his handicap and points given based on the 'boosted' results. The idea being to try and get everyone with the same result as the reference driver.

So someone with a 30% handicap would have their lap score increased by 30% and so on. If a beginner has a good result he will probably beat our reference score. Equally if the 0% driver has a good week he can win as well by lifting his score out of reach.

The idea is to reward improvement and encourage beginners. Our festive season champion could be someone who usually qualifies 11th but improves to 8th or 9th regularly. The tricky bit is getting the handicap right. If people like the idea I could work out some provisional handicaps based on last weeks results. We can just make a best guess for those who weren't there last week sampling the new improved track markings.

Or if there is already a know way of running handicap meetings then we could use that instead.

Just a thought!

[Chalkie]

Best 3 from 4 sounds fine, we could do that no problem. I'm not so sure about a handicap system though as they're really hard to get to work fairly. I guess you could run a 10.5 blinky class but I can't see that getting enough support.

What do people think to using the same layout for the length of the championship? We can mark the track from the first week and just copy it for the next rounds, that way you get time to really get you car and driving in tune with the track layout.

[weejimmy]

I'm not sure it really matters if we get the handicapping wrong as it was just intended as a bit of fun. Not something we have to change cars/motors for or run a consistent track layout to implement. We just run the meetings as usual, then take the results apply the handicaps and publish the update scores on a Oople a few days later.

If we don't like it then we don't need to do it again. If we do, then we'll have a base for the handicaps that can be refined and improved. Hopefully it might encourage some beginners and improvers to come along and also to keep coming back. It's easy to get disillusioned starting out as aside from driving skill there is a huge amount you need to learn (and spend) to become competitive, even in the lower finals.

It would be something unique to us and wouldn't impact an evenings racing at all.

Happy to wind my neck in if people don't like it as an idea tho! :p

[Chalkie]

Ok perhaps we could run a separate most improved racer competition?

We could run the championship over four weeks with the best three to count and points as I suggested with 50 for TQ and 50 for an A final win. Then when we start the championship the second time we carry on the same but add an extra table for the most improved driver. This would work by taking the point scores from the championship before and using them for the handicap i.e. if you scored 290 points in the previous championship your handicap for the improved driver table is -290. Therefore to get a positive score your would need to get more points than the last championship.

This way you have a system where the better drivers can fight amongst themselves for the main championship plus a way to reward improving drivers.

[Smartalec]

I'm all in favour of a club championship, run on a normal basis though, i can 't see the point in a handicap system, it's totally pointless winning something you haven't actually won lol.

The only thing that will improve numbers at the club are improvements to the facilities. There are not enough juniors to attract (this is a fact based on numbers attending events all around the country) unfortunately so the best option is to entice the drivers that already exist in large numbers back to the club they used to go before they got the hump and cleared off ;0)

People will return, they just need to have a decent facility like before.

Just my view ;0)

[ejw]

Speaking as someone who has recently returned from an extended break from racing and someone who used to attend Telstar (as it was then known) I have to say that Alec is right, 18 months ago I would come to Telstar for quite a specific reason, not the best facilities in terms of building or space in general, not the closet to me but the tracks that were on offer always seemed to feature creative layouts with plenty of variety, jumps ( not nessesarily big jumps) , doubles/triples etc that required a bit of timing to get right (or fast) and that happened to be something that I enjoyed racing on.

This may seem like a small detail but it was something that set the track apart from others, and at the end of the day as nice as it is to be warm and fed and have acres of space to spread out surely we are all really their for the track!

Great tracks and great atmosphere should bring great attendance assuming their is demand in the area!

[Smartalec]

Speaking as someone who has recently returned from an extended break from racing and someone who used to attend Telstar (as it was then known) I have to say that Alec is right, 18 months ago I would come to Telstar for quite a specific reason, not the best facilities in terms of building or space in general, not the closet to me but the tracks that were on offer always seemed to feature creative layouts with plenty of variety, jumps ( not nessesarily big jumps) , doubles/triples etc that required a bit of timing to get right (or fast) and that happened to be something that I enjoyed racing on.

This may seem like a small detail but it was something that set the track apart from others, and at the end of the day as nice as it is to be warm and fed and have acres of space to spread out surely we are all really their for the track!

Great tracks and great atmosphere should bring great attendance assuming their is demand in the area!
:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[weejimmy]

There are not enough juniors to attract (this is a fact based on numbers attending events all around the country)


Unsurprising without attempts being made to encourage or retain them. Often they are making huge strides in terms of improvement, but it is totally unrewarded as the gulf between a first timer and the next person up the list is vast. They can come for weeks and weeks, improving by margins that an A-finalist would give their right arm for, but still be flat last each week.

Not many kids (or beginners) are up for that.. so they find something else to do where they can compete on an equal basis without having to spend vast sums or learn about car setup to the nth degree, or where there is a sliding scale of reward for beginners (like Karate, or swimming etc).

[weejimmy]

Speaking as someone who has recently returned from an extended break from racing and someone who used to attend Telstar (as it was then known) I have to say that Alec is right, 18 months ago I would come to Telstar for quite a specific reason, not the best facilities in terms of building or space in general, not the closet to me but the tracks that were on offer always seemed to feature creative layouts with plenty of variety, jumps ( not nessesarily big jumps) , doubles/triples etc that required a bit of timing to get right (or fast) and that happened to be something that I enjoyed racing on.

This may seem like a small detail but it was something that set the track apart from others, and at the end of the day as nice as it is to be warm and fed and have acres of space to spread out surely we are all really their for the track!

Great tracks and great atmosphere should bring great attendance assuming their is demand in the area!

Agreed. And with a way of helping to attract and retain beginners and juniors it would be a sure fire success. :thumbsup: