2013 Rules Proposals

[Kiwi]

Sorry folks, I have one! An alteration really...

General Regulations
35.

Proposed text is:
35. Annual points are computed by dividing each driver’s time for each event into the winning time for the event. For Class points the winning time for the class is used. For King of the Hill points FTD is used. The resulting fractions are totaled for the year, highest total wins. A DNS or DNF counts as a zero fraction. If there are 5–6 events, then the worst event for each driver will be dropped. If there are 7 or more events, then the worst two events for each driver will be dropped. All events that are not dropped must be in the same class to qualify for the class placings. If an event is rained out both days, all drivers who have gone through registration will be awarded a score of 1. Any entrant running under a promoter's exception and not meeting these rules will have that event be excluded from the annual points. Events that impose additional restrictions on drivers or cars beyond these rules, other than those required to use the hill facilities, will not be included in the annual points.

Removed sentence reads:
A driver must enter all events, minus any that can be dropped, to qualify for year-end placings.

Thoughts:
The current rule is supposed to encourage people to enter all events in the NEHA series. However it is a "stick", not a "carrot", and I am skeptical that it actually works. My belief is that few if any of our competitors feel pressured (encouraged) to enter all events because of this rule. More likely they wish to enter because they like hillclimbing. However some regular competitors in the series have been hurt by this rule, including myself. I would like to show up in end of year points, even if I only did two or three hillclimbs. (Of course I want to do them all!). If we really want more competitors at hillclimbs, then some form of advertising, marketing, word of mouth/social media, etc. might be more effective.

Please add your thoughts below. Thanks!
Jamie

[Rabbit Farmer]

There are a couple sides to that coin. I know with the SCCV autocross series, we mandated a min. number of events (50% rounded up) for the sake of trophies. We had some classes where someone showed up to one event and won the year.... so, we took the time/money to get them a year-end trophy, but since they weren't truly involved in the club, we never saw them after that one and only event they entered. The logic was to reward those that get involved in the entire season (with a min. number of events) by presenting those people with an award at the end of the year.... it saved the club from having to purchase trophies for people we would never see again.

[sachilles]

OK so how about?
In order to receive a trophy, you have to have entered at least three events(in the same class). Yet you are in the points from your first event on. Five best events can be counted for points, if you do not have 5, a zero will be placed for each event to reach 5.
So if you compete in just one or two events and still manage to win your class, no trophy for you.
Still rewards people for attending multiple events but allows you to drop events.

Looking at last year, it would have issued two more class trophies playing by those rules.

Basically no need to link trophy eligibility with points eligibility.

[Kiwi]

Do we even get class trophies in NEHA? I don't recall getting one when I won SP2 in 2010. If we are concerned with the cost of trophies (or giving a trophy to someone who runs only one or two events in an uncontested class), why not just change the requirements for handing out trophies?

I still would like to see a list of all competitors over the whole hillclimb season with their points standings. Additionally it makes it look like fewer people contested the hillclimb series (when you remove people who haven't run enough events to qualify for points).

In fact there might be some backlash where people don't bother to enter an event if they have already missed a couple. If they aren't going to get their name in the points list, that might sway them to stay at home, especially if they are already "on the fence" about going...

Jamie

[KevinGale]

Do we even get class trophies in NEHA? I don't recall getting one when I won SP2 in 2010. If we are concerned with the cost of trophies (or giving a trophy to someone who runs only one or two events in an uncontested class), why not just change the requirements for handing out trophies?

I still would like to see a list of all competitors over the whole hillclimb season with their points standings. Additionally it makes it look like fewer people contested the hillclimb series (when you remove people who haven't run enough events to qualify for points).

In fact there might be some backlash where people don't bother to enter an event if they have already missed a couple. If they aren't going to get their name in the points list, that might sway them to stay at home, especially if they are already "on the fence" about going...

Jamie

We give out awards and t-shirts at the NEHA meeting for first place in class. In the past we have sometimes given out plaques to anyone who qualified for points because it was a small list. We could change the awards requirement. I'm sorta with Steve that I'm not crazy about giving out awards to people who showed up to one or two events. More than a few times in the past we never saw the person ever again.

Although the points docs will go to multiple pages it would end some confusion. I had to create an option to print out a non-official version of the points that includes all entrants. Because someone is always asking why they didn't show up in the points. I print this out to show them they missed two events but they would have been third in their class. So I already have the ablity to calculate the points this way.

[KevinGale]

Jamie what if we just changed the text
"A driver must enter all events, minus any that can be dropped, to qualify for year-end placings."
to
"A driver must enter all events, minus any that can be dropped, to qualify for year-end awards."

I think that one word change would allow everyone to appear in the point results but only obligate the clubs to give an award to people who show up. So it still gives an incentive to show up to more events.

[sachilles]

So with the preliminary points released before philo and 5 of the 6 events tallied. At that point we had 88 that entered at least one event. 51 that did at least 2, 35 that did 3 events, 23 that had done 4, 9 that had done all 5.
So we had 23 folks eligible for points and king of the hill going into the last event. We ended up with 21 total for king of the hill. Only 5 peoples placement in king of the hill did not change with the Philo being added.

[sachilles]

Jamie what if we just changed the text
"A driver must enter all events, minus any that can be dropped, to qualify for year-end placings."
to
"A driver must enter all events, minus any that can be dropped, to qualify for year-end awards."

I think that one word change would allow everyone to appear in the point results but only obligate the clubs to give an award to people who show up. So it still gives an incentive to show up to more events.

I like that.

[Rabbit Farmer]

To answer Kiwi's trophy question...

2012 season / SCCNH / the banquet next month... unsure what they are doing
2011 season / KSCC / I don't recall what they did, but Michele or Sherman can answer that; might have been the same as the 2010 season
2010 season / SCCV / Everyone received a "trophy". The trophy was a plaque with a geared background with name and class on it / 1st place rec'd a t-shirt

2009 season and prior (at least back to 1998; I'm sure they may have been some variations in there that I am not recalling): Everyone who qualified for the season points rec'd the generic NEHA plaque (they were all the same). 1st thru 3rd rec'd an engraved brass plaque. 1st rec'd a t-shirt.

**The 2010 season essentially combmined the NEHA plaque with the season winner plaque which means that everyone rec'd a trophy as there was no additional cost to make each plaque unique. With the new printing process, the cost per plaque is unchanged even if the design was different. Saved a lot of money starting in 2010

[sdwarf36]

And wood!