Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich
What you're suggesting is just untenable.
Who decides what is "uncompetitive"? Because there's a lot of stuff out there that is being seriously sandbagged.
At Indy, you'd be rewarding people for searching for a single for class and avoiding a race.
And if you void the indexes, and run off records, what do you do where there's a "class minimum" instead of a record?
Who is going to tear down and tech all of these newly minted record holders?
If you start qualifying and racing off the record, your field will shrink dramatically, and rapidly.
Sorry, what you're suggesting just isn't viable, from the racers' side, or from NHRA's side.
Again, the simple solution, that doesn't keep anyone from qualifying because they can't run under a new indexes, is to leave the indexes alone. Just adjust at least the review trigger in the AHFS to a combination average of 1.00 under.
If you really wanted to increase performance as a factor, again, without reducing the indexes so that some who can currently qualify couldn't, is to start paying real money and real points for qualifying and for class eliminations.For those chasing money and championships, they're going to step up their performance, and maybe even move to a class with a few more cars. This will also drive the AHFS to correct combinations that are way soft, because people are going to try to take advantage of those in order to collect points and dollars.
By doing that, you substantially change only qualifying and class eliminations, while leaving regular eliminations changed only by the impact of a few people adjusting their class to score points and/or money. So people not able to run very far under still get to participate, they can qualify, and they can run the "dial in" eliminations.
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The reason I posted that all in Italics was that it was quoted from a previous post.. I also agree there are some problems with the ideas in terms of logistically making it happen but the premise still stands AFHS is broken and maybe instead of minor changes like we have seen over the past 10-15 year, that have essentially amounted to nothing in terms of eliminating the problem, aren't working... Maybe we need to present and entirely new system and work with the powers at be to make it happen.. Maybe the AFHS can work if implemented in a completely different fashion.
Also, if you were running off the record the rule of dialing index would have to be revisited.. The record is the record for a reason.. its the fasted car in class at Indy(in the suggested changed) that means all but 1 guy that year can't run the index.. obviously requiring us to dial under the index at that point wouldn't work..
I've argued in the past that qualifying points would work.. I agree it will work to a point. More people would run harder to get those points.. but it would have to be a substantial amount of points or it wont change anything.. no one is going to blast their combo for 10 points one time to finish 250th in the points.. It's gotta be monetary to the point people could take that money and invest it in making up for the HP they just added to their combo..