I have to agree with Tom here. I don't know who did what at Maple Grove that prompted this, but the "random pairing" in D1 has been a joke for a long time. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people park at the back of the lanes to wait for their "chosen" opponent. I can tell you that I would certainly give up lane choice to race a guy that I knew couldn't get better than an .050 light, or better, knew that he was running his car flat out and couldn't run the number because of the weather conditions.
A ladder is the BEST way to stop this, but it may not be the most practical because of the time it would take to implement. I've raced at both D1 and D3 races, and I have to say the D3 procedure is MUCH better than that used in D1. The only downside that I can see is that if you're 3 cars from the front, you had better be strapped in your car and ready to go, as it's entirely possible that you could be the 3rd pair pulled, even though there are still 80 cars in the lanes. As I'm sure all of you know, this isn't necessarily the most pleasant thing when it's 90 degrees outside.
But, I would gladly put up with this to know that I can pull into the lanes pretty much whenever I want, be almost assured that I would get the lane that I want, and feel comfortable in the fact that it's going to be a random pair. Now, is it possible that the official at the head of the lanes could be in cahoots with a racer to two and help them get a favorable random pair? Yes, it's possible. But, IMHO, the likelihood of that happening is extremely low compared to a driver duck hunting on his own.
The excuse that D1 can't use the D3 method is just crap. That's just an excuse not to change. And though there are bigger problems in the world, that doesn't mean that this shouldn't be fixed. If somebody's giving it to me in the *** and I don't like it, I'm most certainly not going to keep my mouth shut because there's bigger problems in the world like poverty, war, and world hunger.
Jason Oldfield
S/G & S/ST 1838
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