Dennis--
a lot of good thoughts there. You have not dissuaded me one bit, but you
have given me some more good stuff to chew on.
> Any class, given sufficient organization and motivation, can meet an entry
> target once. There has been no shortage of car fads and other "flash in
the
> pan" scenarios over the years - remember Sport Truck? If you make an entry
> target twice (or more) though, then the concept behind your class
> _probably_ has enough legs to justify being included as a Championship
> class.
Sport Truck never made numbers. Not even close. One or two. I like F/SAE as
an example also (even though it has never been officially accorded even
"supplemental" status, it is a class-within-a-class and thus fits my basic
concept). With dozens of them around the country, we get 6-8 of them to
nationals. So they run within AM and do not break out.
But yes, the target has to be large enough to be significant. I'm thinking
something along the lines of, a class needs at least 10 cars at Nationals to
keep championship status, but twice or more that for a supplemental to GAIN
champiolnship status.
> the class should be deep enough to make bottomfeeding either class
> a low-percentage option.
Agree, but how long must the wait be? How many times does it have to do
that?
> That is what happened in SM at least. Two years ago, a year ago, a
> decently-prepped ESP car could be a top-tier SM car.
Yes, but that happens in any class, new or old. Once upon a time my Spitfire
was competitive in DP with a 10.5:1 motor. Then people learned how to make a
13:1 motor live. Now it is up to 15:1 and more. IMHO it is less a situation
of what someone could do in a given class in a given year, as that any class
ends up with a winner and then everyone else tries to do what is necessary
to catch up with that winner. If you get some "decently-prepped ESP car"
winning, then the class is challenged to rise to that level. Woulda happened
the same way if the winner was a decently-prepped SM car that had its ducks
in a row. Hmmm, in fact, that is how it happened, wasn't it? :-)
> True enough. But the current sup system protects the embryo sup classes by
> making them unattractive to all but the people who really "are" members of
> the class.
Seems like working against itself there. You want attractive. And even if
the bottom feeder does come in, there should still be the notion that, "Hey,
I can put something together to beat him." Thus, in an ironic way, the
bottom feeder actually helps by spurring the development of the class.
> (on the fellow who won with the SP car but is building his own SM for '03)
> Then he, by definition, is NOT a "bottom feeder", is he? He's a future
> class member working to ensure the system works - and, incidently, EXACTLY
> the kind of person we want in the SM family. If you want it, ya gotta EARN
> it.
The funny part is he entered as "Bottom Feeder Racing." But yes, he seems to
be exactly that valuable participant who will push others to greater
heights.
> Kent did the best job of
> either getting his ducks in a row or driving around his misaligned ducks,
Just an aside, loved the metaphor of the misaligned ducks!
> But at the same time, our performance as a class relative to the rest of
> the sport and to our own potential was way, way below the curve.
Says who? What, for example, is the curve in Prepared (with which I'm more
familiar because that's my category). So explain how an EP is the fastest P
car on the lot. Where is the curve for AP, BP, CP, FP, who all theoretically
should be faster? Yeah, otherworldly driver in EP is part of it, but the
curve varies year to year and is not always according to the "ideal" (and
BTW, all the P classes but DP drove the same days).
If you think SM had reached its potential this year, wait until you come
back in 2007! You may not recognize your own creation. That's the nature of
the curve in this game. It has no peak.
> If we had been buried
> under xSP (time to stop picking on ESP) bottomfeeders, would he have still
> won?
There is still a deliberate uncertainty to my proposal. Gotta make the
numbers. And the initial numbers should be high enough that making them is a
challenge of itself. Frankly, I do think 18 too easy -- especially when it
is Open/Ladies combined. But had it been 25, two of the three Supp classes
would still have made it (STX would have remained within SM with none
declared a winner there -- might have gotten a "fastest STX" award like the
"fastest F/SAE" that was given). I would not think the class attractive to
the bottom feeder if he is uncertain there will even be one. I also doubt
the prospect of being "buried under bottomfeeders" because then they just
kill each other off.
But keep it coming Dennis. Every hole you shoot in my idea makes me think of
a patch for it, and that's good for the process.
(Hope we'll agree we both want a program/process that is good for startup
classes -- worthy ones, at least).
--Rocky
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