The FCRA board is soliciting comments on 2012 proposals for team trophies. Right now the rules allow for cumulative points. The rationale is that the team that brings the most cars participates in the series the most and thus should win. I like this rule, but I also see it's drawbacks. A small dedicated team, universal, Ansa, and others that participate in every event with extremely good drivers who race clean, cannot really have a chance of winning. I have had one proposal from Pete Spinella that I like. Each team can have "sub teams" designated by color. These red, blue, green teams have 3 teamate cars, which aggregate points to a team win. I like this concept for three reasons. First it would be cool to see more team cars, potentially in the same or marked livery for the crowds. Second, it opens up for more teams to win, however, it still promotes participation because teammates will encourage there teammates to commit to run, and will make sure they do. third it promotes the social asspect. The backbone of this series is social, and I think this helps all of the goals. The idea would be that teams could be 3 430s, 3 360s, 3 355s, or 1 of each class or any combination. The teams would still signify thier main team, but would race for red/blue/green universal or CC team. Thoughts?
Sounds like a very good idea... maybe try for 2012 and see how it goes. Hopefully we will have at least two more for 2012 Regards, Jim
+ 1 The trick will be to find a mix that allows some equality between a team that has say strong 430 participation but is not able to make up more than a couple of full rep sub teams with all 3 classes. Possibly results could be weighted?
Colin I see what you mean. I thought of this but I didnt think it would make too much difference, because the biggest factor for 2012 will be max participation. Keeping your teammate in the game is key to both winning and the championship. Any thoughts on how to weight? (want to keep it simple)
Maybe Scale all cars during tech and top three finishers and another random three to be weighed after race. Regards, Jim
Maybe a combination for teams with lesser numbers. Like a combination Universal/ansa team for lets say a 348C. Just a thought. Regards, Jim
That will get complicated too, mighty quick as teams change between races even over the same weekend. One idea I saw used in the Rally world is allocating points to each team based on the number of cars in each team finishing. With points scored only up to the last position of the smallest team. So if Team Ansa had 3 drivers, Universal 6, and Classic Coach et al 8 but Ansa's lowest finisher came in #8, then points would accrue only up to 8th place. This makes sure that a smaller team can be a player if it has good cars/drivers and finishes. If it does not then its SOL and that's life! A tweak to this scoring is to weight the top 3 positions with more points than the lower ones so that in theory a team that has only three or 4 drivers that win all 3 classes, could block out much better populated teams. Because of this the rule usually requires that points will accrue to the top 2 or 3 places irrespective of where the smallest team finishes. Not simple by any means but a way to embrace a wider group and cause/force the drivers to get to know each other in order to better understand where and how points will be scored.
