[thomas sheehan]

Tracy

All 183 will be racing (eligible to qualify). Once they are accepted into the field...... they're in.
The computer takes the first 180 entires that are eligible (by grade points).
Fomer world champs are exempt from this process as well as the defending champ.... they can enter as late as they want (that's how you get more than 180).
These 183 (or what ever the final number is) will try and qualify by being one of the top 128 qualifiers.
Only those 128 will compete in final eliminations. This is a change from previous years where class winners running at least .50 under their indexes would automatically qualify (see prior posts on this subject).

Tom Sheehan