Am what I'm seeing in 2009 regional championship results what has been finalized for RM?

Lee,

The points listed here for 2009 are official.

I'd still like to see more opinions about points and drops. I'd really like to hear more about how the groups feels we should handle Nationals.

I'm going to stir the pot a little more. What about using some sort of equalizing system like the REWARDS system of the Speed World Challenge Series?

Basically, the minimum weight of a car would be adjusted based on finishing position. I like what the Touring Cars use. If you finish in the top three, you add to your minimum weight. Finish 6th or worse, and you loose the extra weight. The total weight added would be limited to 150lbs and you drop back to the rules minimum weight. Here's how I see the weight being assigned

1st -- +35lbs
2nd -- +20lbs
3rd -- +5lbs
4th - 5th -- 0lbs
6th -- -5lbs
7th -- -20lbs
8th+ -- -35lbs

Nothing like season point standings to show just how frustrating the season was! I like the idea of adding weights because it will foster closer racing with the mid pack and top 5 drivers. It should make for better racing and therfore better racecraft, mid pack all the way to the division leader even if it is a pain the keep up with adjusting weight i.e adding gas or attacheng weight to car. Of course, no weight addatives for Nationals.

That being said, the weight does become a penalty for winning in a class with pretty evenly matched cars already.

I like that there are good intentions here, but this effectively lowers the bar and I believe that hurts us overall. The more I think about this, the less I'm able to support it. If we want Rocky Mountain to dominate Nationals next year, aside from bringing tires that don't completely suck, we will need more drivers able to race with our podium finishers, and we need to do that by helping everyone get faster, not by making our podium get slower. We're already the slowest class at enough of our races.

As always, I'm in favor of working to equalize cars (not drivers), and rewarding good driving, which will help push everyone else to improve. If someone wins because they're a good driver, then they deserve to win and we should not penalize them for that. If someone wins because they have a better (or lower weight minimum) car, then that's a problem and takes the value out of this.

We've had enough problems with artificial intervention this year that I'm finding it very difficult to remain interested. I want a level playing field, and I want it to be hard to do well, but it should be equally hard for everyone. If I don't do well in a race because I suck or have some occasional bad luck, then I can deal with that, but I'm done getting screwed over damn near every time because of things outside of my control. For the $$$ I've spent on my horrible 2008 and 2009 seasons, there are a lot of other things that would have made me a lot happier, and I don't intend to repeat that mistake in 2010. You know I love our group and all, but if we're not going to have "low cost, equal racing", then there's just no value for me and I'm going to move on to something else...

The weight definitely comes off for Nationals. Even though our cars are fairly evenly matched, we still have some disparities in the region with the level of build of some cars. I see the weight penality as a way to overcome that and make the cars even more even so that race craft becomes more of a factor. Plus, if you get used to driving your car 150lbs over weight, imagine what it will feel like at Nationals when you lose all that weight!

If we can improve the race craft of all our drivers, it will help our region drivers that go to Nationals next year that much more. From my experience, there were people at Nationals this year that were faster than me, but I had the edge in race craft and could get my car into the right position to get by and keep them behind me.