TL : DR - I support smaller divisions of closer racing rather than larger fields.
Sorry for the wall of text, it didn't start out this way... But I have a bit to say on this topic and I do hope that if this knowledge is spread around and everyone understands the work that goes on in the background to make the racing here as competitive as possible it will bring people back.
To expand on this, this was exactly why put my hand up to see if a better system could be devised to assist in leveling the competition.
By having racers who are close to each other, racing in the same room, it invites competition, improvement and a desire to 1UP your fellow racers. Point in case was Emmo and Incey last season. They were practicing above normal levels for them and giving it all they could on the track. They are very close in pace to each other and should be racing against each other (incidents aside) Sorry to the both of you for bringing it back up (
@emmo46 @incey )
Now you add in lets say the remaining of D4 which were at least 1 to 2s per lap in behind the leaders. For us, we see no hope in obtaining a win / podium due to the uneven distribution of racers. Either due to numbers or incorrect information. The same happened in S1, where a group of 5 racers could not be caught by the remaining grid.
I should point out that last season I had 1 good battle. In all my 4 seasons of racing, aside from my first win (by chance with brain fade on
@Jcp part) I can recollect no other close battles.
What happens here is that after the first race, if a racer knows their pace is by far not in the ball park, they are less likely to try. They might stick it out, if they don't have anything else to do with their night or they might just not show up for the rest of the season. It depends on the mindset of the racer at any given time.
Now when I did this seasons division breakup with Hat, my only guiding rule was to keep the racing as close as possible to allow any racer the chance at a podium inside their division. This might mean that if you have traditionally been in say high division and now all of a sudden see yourself in a lower division, this is due to the fact that your lap and race times compared to the best performed showed that your pace is regulates you with racers of similar pace. This is a cultural shift in thinking and is sometimes a hard pill to swallow to be told that you aren't that fast yet.
There are times when we'll make a decision based on improvement and a discussion will happen with X said racer and if happy to accept the challenge a move to a higher division will be made, with the privso that they can stay if they can prove they deserve to be there.
This season, due to numbers we've had to squeeze the divisions together. What's done is done. However I'm very keen to see the results to see if racers who have been left in their 'original' divisions stack up against the racers who have shown they are capable of racing at that level. I'll also be interested to see the results of the combined divisions to see if the original breakup of racers. IE - if the lower part of the division stays in the back half of the grid and really don't have much hope of a podium / win. Then to also see if the drop off happens of those racers.
Then again, I could be completely making this incredibly complex and should let everyone choose their own division and let them see how good / far off from the pace / winners they actually are.
Time will tell.
As a side note,
@Hatfield do you want the race results from the MnG?
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