new indexes

[Myron Piatek]

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

Simple. It helps bring back some performance to two eliminators that were founded as "performance based".

Sorry Mike, but I can't see how it brings back some performance. All it does is force people who can afford to, or barely afford to, spend even more money to go faster and effectively eliminates a lot of potential future racers who can't. Like everyone says, top qualifiers would still be at the top! It seems that many people who want to class race start out with what they can afford and try to at least make the index. Then, as time and resources allow, make their combo faster. But at least they can participate, support the class, buy stuff from contingency sponsors, and enjoy the opportunity to mix it up with the racers they always read about. True, some people may just be content to make the index. But that's a very small percentage. Most want to run faster.

The "performance" is showcased in class eliminations and through those who can afford to show what they got at the top of the qualifying sheet. If someone can afford to feed their ego, fine. But not at the expense of new, less affuent racers or difficult combos that they happen to have. I'm not saying to make it easy to race class, like a bracket race where anyone can run. The indexes do set a minimum, which isn't always easy to achieve, especially for a newbie. Raise the bar too high and you decrease participation, reduce contingency parts sales and give the sanctioning bodies another excuse to consider combining Stock & SS. Putting too much emphasis on "performance" simply makes things more expensive and brings the ones with the deepest pockets to the top, like heads-up classes. Driver "performance" has to be a big part of the equation in the sportsman classes, which is why indexes and dial-ins have helped Stock and SS survive.