2010C League Adjustments

[Note - I'm posting this, but it's a joint statement from AJ and myself.  It was drafted with contributions from both of us.  (...in case it seems like not entirely a typical hoss post.)]

The admins have processed the information from the recent league survey.  We've talked, talked, and talked some more. The result is that we're making some significant adjustments to the league that we hope work out well, balancing some hard tradeoffs between our goals and the realities of life.

Schedule/Competition Structure

As a preface, it's important to note the reason for this change.  In an ideal world, everyone's personal schedule and commitments would be compatible with a single perfect time on a perfect day.  However, the reality is that this is not possible.  And while our existing day/time has worked reasonably well, it's been getting less compatible and is about to get a whole lot less compatible for both AJ and myself.  We both have evolving home/life schedules that will soon prevent us from making a consistent commitment to our existing Saturday time slot.  The reason for including such detailed schedule questions in the survey was precisely so that we could identify a day/time that was as compatible as possible with the existing league members, without sacrificing the opportunity for us to continue to administer and participate in the league.

We thought about delaying any significant change until the 2011A season, but this was too precarious.  The schedule conflicts hit hard before 2010C would finish.

However, perhaps the most important thing to know about the impending schedule 'change' is that it's actually more of a schedule addition.  The racing opportunities that the league has traditionally offered on Saturdays (@ ~2100UTC) are not being eliminated.  There will still be racing at the same time as everyone is used to.  It just won't necessarily have the same level of admin/marshal participation.

There will be two time slots every week.

• Friday @ ~9pm or 10pm EDT (6,7pm PDT)
• Saturday @ 5pm EDT (2100UTC, our traditional time).
  

Both slots will run identical grid-gp series (same tracks on the same weeks).  At least for 2010C.  In the future, the Saturday slot may have the freedom to use different tracks, depending on whether or not a sponsor picks it up.  These two series will be competitively independent, meaning that scoring and standings will be applied individually to each slot.  Everyone can (and is encouraged to) race on whichever day best suits them, including both if they wish.  Their participation in either (or both) series will be treated as independent.

On the weeks in which a grid-gp event is not scheduled, the slots will function as follows:

• Friday: Zack (if he is willing, he has not been informed of this plan yet) will run an oval series.
• Saturday: Matt will run the GTCC, as he has the last several seasons.

In the long term, everything beside the Friday grid-gp series will be a 'franchise' series, meaning (as Matt and Zack have already done) a sponsor will propose a series for the slot, and they will execute on that proposal if it's feasible and accepted.  Matt and Zack have already shown that this works.  If nobody sponsors the Saturday grid-gp series, we (GM admins) will simply mirror the Friday grid-gp series (i.e. same tracks).  However, due to the server switchover required for the current format, a sponsor-less Saturday series would likely adopt a format that could function with no server intervention (like a 3x30 or 2x45 format), much the way that the oval and GTCC series have done.

So in summary we have:

• Friday grid-gp series, sponsored by the admins.
• Friday oval series, sponsored by Zack.
• Saturday grid-gp series, currently unsponsored, mimicing the Friday grid-gp schedule.
• Saturday GTCC series, sponsored by Matt. 

GMWC Event

After a typical season schedule is finished, and we have four completed series, we will host a single mega event that acts as a capstone competition.  This will crown the official GMWC champion.  Each of the series that support it will have their own distinct names and will have crowned their own champion according to their format and season standings.

The format of this capstone GMWC competition has not yet been decided, but it will likely be a multiple race event, with points awarded for each race.  One idea is that it simply functions as a points-based mini-series, with the points leader at the end of the event declared the winner.  However, points might not be awarded only for the races.  The top finishers from the 4 series might be assigned seed points (not their series points, but some scale based on their finishing position in their series).  In this scenario, any single driver would only get points from his best series.  I.e. he does not get the sum total of his points from each of the series in which he may have participated.

Another idea is to have a certain number of drivers from each series qualify for the final event.  This is logistically trickier and has more corner cases, so we're not sure we'd go this direction, but we haven't talked all the way through this one yet, so it's still on the table.

Again, though, none of the details of this GMWC event competition have been finalized, and much discussion will ensue, I'm sure.

Regardless of format, the intent is to host a big event each season to tie all the series together.  Hopefully, with sufficient advance notice, as many people as possible will be able to accommodate the GMWC event into their schedule. It's purpose is as much to provide a fun opportunity to intermingle again with drivers that you might not have gotten to race with during the season, and to celebrate the completion of another hard-fought season, as it is to host a capstone champion.  Think of it like an all-star game that actually culminates the season competition, rather than just being an after-thought.

Incident Peer Review

Lastly, there is one more pending league change that will likely be implemented for all or part of the 2010C season.  We're investigating a post-race peer review policy for handling the kind of race incidents that are normally the responsibility of the marshal.  The franchise series would rely on this policy if/when it becomes finalized.  The Friday grid-gp series would also transition to it in order to alleviate me (hoss) from all or part of the soul-crushingly awful marshal burden.

That's all.  We know this is a lot to take in, and we know it will mean different advantages and disadvantages, and create different incentives and disincentives, for each of you.  The old adage always applies: you can't please everyone all of the time.  Our sincere hope is that these changes contribute to a net-positive effect in the long term, allowing us to maintain the core aspects of the league while keeping the administrative side at a manageable level.  As always, thanks for your patience, participation, contributions, and understanding.

My first comment about this is that I am almost 100% not going to be able to run a Friday night series. I have already put in my availability change  at work for school and the coming fall semester, which gives me Tues and Thurs off for school (which is why the previous oval series were on these nights) and Saturday night off for the GPs/real-life. A bit better notice of the intentions would be have been nice, but there's no blaming you guys.

I'd say this leaves up to you guys what you want to do about the Friday nights that wouldn't be used. IMO, the oval series would likely still have minimal turnout at best on these nights because it's still going to exclude those in the UK (by 9pm, its 2am there), which make up a large portion of our prospective turnout on Saturdays. A proposal that I would make is that we turnover either the main Saturday slot to the GTCC OR to an IRL like series that would run a mix of Ovals/Road/Street tracks. I could run the latter series with ease since that is the time I have off for sure. If you make the GTCC the main saturday slot, then an IRL-like series could run in the off week. I would really still love the opportunity to run a side series, but its just impractical for me to do so on a Friday night (which is the exact reason we are making these changes because Saturday afternoons are becoming impractical for you guys).

Turning attention to the GMWC Event, I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea. I know the details aren't worked out but it addresses an issue somewhat that I've been wanting to throw out there for a while somewhat. With us running multiple series, and combining event would be a great addition. Would be nice to crown a GMWC champion for each season.

Another idea that is an extension of that is the idea of a Driver of the Year award, or DOTY event. We run multiple seasons in a single year, why not work to combine performance between all the series, and their respective seasons into an single championship of some sort. I think this could help increase turnout overall as each series not only works towards its own championship in each season, but to a larger championship overall. Just a thought I had.

Hoss/AJ, please get back to me as soon as you can about what you guys would like to do about having me sponsor a series, which I would really like to do. Thanks.

Ouch.......Fri. nights are going to be tough to swallow.

Zack, that is ok.  You can still run it in the Saturday off-season slots, as you already had planned.  I already talked to Matt about GTCC running the full sized series, but his judgement, and I agree, is that the GPs are still the cornerstone, and should remain the flagship on both days.  If you sponsor the main slot on Saturday, a good CART-like series proposal would certainly get a support from this reviewer.    However, sitting in the main slot, it would have to be heavy on road courses and light on ovals to get through the whole review process.

Scott, the Saturday time is still being run too.  You should be fine.

edit: Zack, if you sponsor the Saturday GP series starting now, meaning for 2010C, even though it follows the Friday GP schedule for 2010C, and has no ovals, that would be a big help /AND/ it would likely give you more strength to propose a CART-like format for 2011A.

Ok. I've decided the 7th of August is fine BTW for the oval off-season to start. I'm assuming we are looking at the 7th, 14th and 21st?

What all would be involved in running the Saturday GP? Would I need to run it in a Hoss-like role (Marshalling) or in the same role I ran the oval (making it go smoothly, but still racing). I'd be fine with being able to still race, especially if it would help in pushing a second CART-like format starting in 2011. This would also make for a great test bed for incident peer review post-race. Any ideas on how you guys may want to pursue this, so it could be tested?

Also, AJ if you can get me the dates for the Friday off-weeks, I'd actually like to propose using that night, if I'm available or anyone else would like, to run test events. Could be an excellent way to test out tracks and formats (dusk or night races) to see how well they might work for the GTCC, GMWC, or another side series like the GMOC. EDIT: I know my Fridays roughly three weeks in advance, so I'd be able to work things out far enough in advance regarding test events IF i have the night off.