For 2014, what do people think about dropping each competitor's lowest event score when calculating the overall/class standings?

-Obviously if you miss an event, your lowest score would be that one (a zero)
-You would still benefit from attending every event (it might allow you to drop an 11 or 14 that you would be otherwise stuck with)
-You still couldn't miss a double event (Digby/Slemon) without being stuck with a zero, so attendance would still be focused on those 2 large events
-It should allow more people to compete at the top (instead of being excluded due to missing one event from car problems/sickness/life in general), which would be more fun for more people

With 12 events per year at the MMSC's club level, we are considering it. Personally I think it becomes a no-brainer once you get to a certain number of events per year, and the question becomes what that number should be. >6? >8? >10 or 12?

What do you think?

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MMSC #12/ASP

It used to be that way. It's not now?

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Locally it's not, and AFAIK it's been taken out of the equation elsewhere too
Not sure when or why

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MMSC #12/ASP

ASCC does this. I brought it up last night and I was told that if we have 9 or more events we drop 2. 8 we drop 1. 7 or less we use all of them. ARMS used to drop 1 but in recent years that has changed.

Sounds like a great idea to have a sliding scale established to determine what number would be dropped in a given year depending on how many events are scheduled

Why did ARMS stop dropping them? Too few events?

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MMSC #12/ASP

There are usually 8 regionals, right? Seems like enough to drop one. Sometimes you have commitments that are just unavoidable, and sometimes you show up only to have your car break on the first run.

I know other organizations tend to do similar things - ADRA only counts 5 of 8, for example.

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Yeah, there was a year or two that there were a few less events so they decided to count them all. Too bad for me as if they did go one less that year I would have tied Bob Guthrie for first. Now I wish we could drop 4 events.

I guess that demonstrates the benefit of deciding on a sliding scale that specifically outlines how many events to drop given a certain number of total events held
That way a specific number wouldn't need to be predetermined on a yearly basis - hopefully it could be set and left alone with minimal future tinkering necessary

If the Fredericton club ends up holding a regional next year like they've talked about, that would be 9 regionals in total

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MMSC #12/ASP

Agreed, should be best 7 or something, drop 1 if 8, two if 9, none if only 7. Fredericton used to hold a double, which is when I believe you could drop one, then when that stopped, the rule was changed. I agree, set it at a specific number, and bring it up at the AGM.

Well.. That would put me within 6 points of first place if we dropped one, I think. Now I only need Dan to beat Devon twice and win twice myself. Hmmm...

There won't be any changes to the current season, I'm sure
Just looking forward to see what might be done in the future

I'd suggest:

1-6 events - Drop none
7-10 events - Drop 1
11-14 events - Drop 2
15+ events - Drop 3


Thinking about both the club and the regional events (each would count separately, but it would be nice if they could use the same scale)

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MMSC #12/ASP

Ohhh. I see now, it's just ascc that does it and not arms.

I might get abducted by aliens too.......

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As I recall - we were trying to encourage attendance at more events.

If a driver wanted to compete for a class / overall title, we hoped they would make the effort to attend the more remote stand alone events as well as closer/bigger events.

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Charles

Yeah, but this one time in Digby...

Hahaha Dan is fast he just needs some space to use all his ponies.

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2017-18 BAC Overall Rallycross Champion

If the weather is good he may have a secret weapon......but it will exclude him from STX though!

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Some outsiders input: (ok , i have a handful of auto-x's under my belt)

In maritime karting, dropping races is (and has been for over the past 15 years) common practice. CKRA in moncton has a 9 race club series with 2 drops. I think 2 out of 9 is a little too much but it can easiy be argued at only 1 drop is too few so I have never made an issue with it.

The 2 sides of the coin is that drops can help or hinder attendance: Allowing drops allows people to miss races without fear of hurting their standing, that hurts attendance ...BUT... at years end, you have more people who are still competitive in the series standings and they have greater incentive to show up for end-of-year events.

It is very easy at the end of the year to only have one guy leading the points purely on attendance, and then the whole points series loses relevance. Make it so at years end you have more people competitive. That way people will keep showing up. Without drops, a guy can miss a race early in the season and then has an excuse to skip more events.

And yes, running every event in a series with drops still gives you an advantage, you can take out a bad day and basically substitute in a good day.

Speaking for ARMS, besides points calculations (finding a persons lowest scored event is sometimes a pain), this was the exact reason for it.
Some people make an effort to attend every regional in the year and this should be rewarded.

Also for example, what if it's a straight battle between two competitors for Class (which may also be for Overall).
Assume each has attended all events so far, and one competitor is ahead by 1-2pts going into the last event.
We could have a scenario where by having the lead competitor not attend he wins by default because there may not be a full class. Then even if the 2nd place competitor competes, he may only walk away with 14 or 17pts, which if either are tied with his previous lowest score, will not improve his position.

Where as if all events are counted a 1-2pts gap can still be recovered during the final event. EG 1st / 2nd place.
We've had it come down to the final event many times and it's always thrilling to watch. I'd hate to take that away.

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Jared explained all the factors that I've been considering, and I think he explained it better than I could have

Jason, I think that if we end up awarding points based on prep-level (as we're discussing in the other thread), it will alleviate the concerns you mentioned about dropping the lowest event(s). With classes (sort of) merged together, there should never be a risk of having <3 competitors in S, ST or SP/SM at a regional event, so 20 points will always be up for grabs. Also, having more competitors going head-to-head at each prep level means using much more of the point range (rather than just 14-20 and the rare 11), so there's a higher likelihood of each individual having a bad score or two that they would like to replace.

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MMSC #12/ASP