Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

I've been trying to decide whether or not the pill draw/passing points format used for the Fall Nationals "worked" in allowing the best drivers to advance through their heat races into the main event. Was it "luck of the draw" or driving skill that formed the lineup for the Championship race? Supporters of the pill draw format say it encourages more passing on the track and therefore better racing for the fans and that the best drivers will always end up at the top of the leader board.

With the idea in mind that we all tend to believe our favorite driver is skilled enough to win every race he enters, I decided not to look at the drivers names but only the number of cars passed by each of the drivers that had earned enough points to start in the A main event.

As I was looking at the lineups and finishing positions I realized that 5 of the top 20 drivers who had advanced directly into A main event starting positions (4 of these drivers were actually within the top 10 in overall points) had each received 3 of their "passing points" as the result of the scoring decision which allowed passing points to be counted from the lineups off of the pit board and not the actual lineup at the green flag. This means each of these 5 cars was scheduled to lineup in a row behind a car that was a DNS for their heat race. As a result, each of these cars lined up one row forward from their original pit board posted starting position and each received credit as if they had passed 2 additional cars when the points were being counted.

I then noticed that the drivers who had earned 1st, 2nd and 9th positions in the overall points going into the A main event had all three come from the same heat race. They were lined up one behind the other in the outside rows of the 3rd heat. Each of these three drivers had benefitted from the "pit board lineup points" I mentioned above. In addition, these three drivers were also all moved up a second time when their heat race was realigned after a car from the front row jumped the start and was moved to the back for the restart. These three drivers all had the benefit of moving ahead two full rows before they needed to prove their racing skill and all three ended up in the top 10 in points out of the 75 cars in attendance.

Just in case you're not totally confused yet, here's an example of how it worked out in the race. We'll look at the car that was shown on the pit board as starting 6th in the third heat race. One of the cars starting in front of him was a DNS so he lined up 4th before the original start. At the start of the race, the car that was lined up in front of him jumped the start and got moved to the back of the field. So, now he lined up and started the race from 2nd on the outside of the front row. He ended up winning the heat race and was awarded points for passing 5 cars. This driver earned enough passing/finishing points for his performance in this race to be 1st in overall points out of the 75 cars.

Can anyone explain to me how these drivers were being rewarded for their driving skill and not luck?

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Designed to simplify torque ball maintenance. Locktite 
these studs into your existing housing and screw on 
your aluminum high nuts.

Format was a joke, the only way a pill draw show works is with dual inverted heat races.

All the drivers that I heard from say " it was a terrible format."

It works if you start 10th in your heat race.

I thought Natalie Sather got the worst deal She towed in all the way from North Dakota and was called for jumping the start in her heat race and set all the way to the back. Before she had even run one lap she was down passing points for 10 positions which killed her chances for the night. When they are counting passing points like that being sent to the back is way too big a penalty.

Sather got a break by being able to run again Saturday. Did you see how she faired on Thursday nights program?

what a bunch of crybabies you guys are.get over it!!it is what it is and the luckiest driver won.

from the results it seemed not too much passing was done in the heats. since i was not there i can not debate the matter much. WHAT? when has that ever stopped me? lol. i kind of wondered how people felt about the deal myself. but i guess it was what it was and everyone was just glad to get the thing in under a checkered flag and not an umberella.

THE LUCKIEST DRIVER WHO JUST SO HAPPEN TO PASS 12 OTHER LUCKY DRIVERS TO TAKE THE WIN... THE BEST DRIVER IN THE SITUATION WON.I AGREE THOUGH IT IS WHAT IT IS AND QUIT WHINING ABOUT IT ALL.

GO ALLARD!!!!!!

Personally, I wasn't trying to "whine" about the results. Jonathan Allard drove well and won the race. It's over, it is what it is. I do, however, believe there were flaws in the format that was used for the race. By examining the results of the race we can see where the format failed and try to improve it for the future.

TORQUE BALL STUD

Designed to simplify torque ball maintenance. Locktite 
these studs into your existing housing and screw on 
your aluminum high nuts.

SEE THE POINT. NOT ARGUING WITH THAT AT ALL.

GO ALLARD!!!!!!

At the end of the night, the best car won anyway. No way of saying he lucked into anything winning from row 7.

For those of you not fortunate enough to have been there for all 3 days of the Fall Nationals, they would not have needed to do 14 dual inverted heat races to accomodate all 75 cars. Thursday nights program was run as planned. 43 cars had already qualified and raced to earn their spots in the features. It was only after the Friday night program was cancelled that they decided to disregard the results from Thursday night.

TORQUE BALL STUD

Designed to simplify torque ball maintenance. Locktite 
these studs into your existing housing and screw on 
your aluminum high nuts.