Another Thought for National Meeting

[jpro60]

What are you guys thinking????

This has no reason to waste time at the National Meeting
"With 2 heats, if people jump the gun and others just stay in the back with the hope of people jumping he/she can win when it wasn't deserved,"
WHAT To me it seems that two heats is perfect.
First, it works, and dont screw with something that aint broke. Also, why should nationals work any different from any other boat race, you start saying 3 heats at nationals and people who jum at a regular race will ***** about wanting 3 heats then too.
Lastly as a racer and kind of a purest, it seems to me that you're saying someone who doesnt jump, doesnt deserve the win. To me it seems that part of racing is intelligence, and the fastest guy doesnt deserve to win if hes too stupid to stay legal.
We Have RULES and we have them for a reason, because if somebody jumps the gun that sways the race in their favor, i.e. a "false start" and weather intentional or not, that IS cheating, and deserves disqualification. Having said that, it seems to me that staying legal is part of winning a boat race, and "Deserving" to win a boat race.
I mean, if someone doesnt pass inspection after the first heat, should we say, "oh go get the lead for the 2nd heat and we'll forget about it" NO!! That is essentially what this boils down to. PART OF A WIN IS STAYING LEGAL!!! Proposing this, is like proposing that we should have 3 heats for if someone crashes, just because they're fast. That my friends is just STUPID

-Mike Perman 32-R
(also varsity debator @ my high school)

[Merc1]

Absolutely

The guy who Makes TWO legal starts, has passed inspection and the most points after TWO heats is the WINNER. It doesn't get any easier than that!

[D_Allen_III]

The idea isnt to make it so people can jump the gun and still win, because its only one additional heat, odds are that there will be legal starters that are obviously gaining a significant amount of points while the gun jumpers are gaining zero. I give praise to those who do stay legal when there is a pack full of gun jumpers and 3 heats would in no way take away from the skill it takes to win a boat race and nail a start. The proposal would not be to provide 3 heats so people can avoid not being able to start. We have 1 week a year when everyone from the country is at one race site. There is no better racing then when you have 12 boats on the water at one time fighting for one championship.
In stock car racing, go-carting, or moto-cross their Feature race or championship even usually has more laps or heats, since the race has more importance then the typical series event. This in no way would trickle down to the local events, and when drivers pay 45-50 dollars for an entry fee at the nationals, you'd think that would convert into more water and boat time. I agree with all that people shouldnt get a second chance at winning, and another heat wouldn't do this since, they would be 400 points behind to begin with. And it ain't broke, and there is nothing to fix, but if we can make it better and more exciting for the participants, why not.

[pops67g]

Once upon a time...

I'm not exactly sure when the pros went to the three heat format, but back then the Konig was such a balky, unreliable motor that I think they decided to run three heats just so more guys would get a chance to finish two. Another thought, this year at Whitney Point I ran four heats in DSH (two elim heats and two final heats), if we had three heats it would have been one less and saved time.

[G Stillwill]

Pops at Whitny Point you would have still had to run your two elim heats and with the propsosed format you would have had to run three heats in the finials so you would have gained a heat to run. As far as the entry fee goes it includes your elim heats plus the finals so for most you get two races out of the deal if you qulify for the finials which is cheaper then alot of local races for each day per class

[pops67g]

A little humor couldn't hurt

Sorry that my attempt at injecting a little humor into this fell flat. Actually I knew that the pros ran elims besides their finals. I was surprised that we were running two heat elims at Whitney Point because I have been to more than one Nationals where we ran one heat elims. I think this three heat format might be OK for split Nats but for sure not when they are combined. I'll be surprised if a concensus is ever reached on this.

[jpro60]

Seems to me, a boat race is a boat race

I can sort of understand where you're coming from, but the fact is, that I personally find two finals heats intense enough to last me a liffe time (on the lighter side) on a more serious note, for one, the extra time it would take to run three CLEAN heats for each class would be a day. let alone that adding another heat adds another chance for some one to crash and for there to have to be a restart. And if you want to bring up "professional" motorsports I have two words Drag Racing. That is one of the most succesful forms of motor sport, and they only get one chance. Anyway, in all honesty this issue isnt even an issue at all, as nothing is going to be done about it.
-Mike Perman 32-R

[Dave M]

And if you want to bring up "professional" motorsports I have two words Drag Racing. That is one of the most succesful forms of motor sport, and they only get one chance.
-Mike Perman 32-R

Actually I prefer to think of boat racing as the most succesful, as it has the longest history of any other form of motorsports. No other form of motorsports has been around as long. Not to take anything away from drag racing, it is exciting to watch, almost as exciting as watcing 12 FEH's drag race to the first turn.................

[Andrew 4CE]

Just out of curiosity... do any other big motorsports have a solo Championship Event? I couldn't think of any that do (but I'm sure there is). Most sports I can think of emphasize the High Point Champion and being the Champion and don't even have a signle event that chrowns a Champion. To me personally it's ass backwards, one race means nothing.

[BentRod]

I've wondered about that too Andrew. There are some who just can't go half may across the country for the one big race.

[greybeard]

Can't think of a motorsports example but there are other forms of racing (Sailing - don't laugh) that select National and World Champions at single regattas. In some classes the entrants must pre qualify at a local or regional level just to participate in the Championship event. They get their time on the water and live with the outcome.

[Haüenstein]

Just out of curiosity... do any other big motorsports have a solo Championship Event? I couldn't think of any that do (but I'm sure there is). Most sports I can think of emphasize the High Point Champion and being the Champion and don't even have a signle event that chrowns a Champion. To me personally it's ass backwards, one race means nothing.

I guess that's a big advantage of Stock and MOD racing. Sure a single race Nationals can be a little flukey, but it's exciting and it ensures you have to beat (most of) the best to be the best.

Plus it's less expensive than attending series races all over the country.

What's the alternative?



Mike Perman -- I'm interested in seeing one of your debates. I get the impression they're very entertaining!

Mike Hauenstein
4-D

[Andrew 4CE]

I guess where I'm coming from is we have racers and then we have Nationals racers. There are many people who will only race certain motors/equipment at the nationals cuz they don't want to wear it out. Or wont race the couple weeks before the nationals in case they crash and wreck something. So they save all their best equipement for one event, that alot of the time comes downs to luck.

Just thinking... if you made the Nationals field only from results at the regionals, you have one hellva race with mostly the same drivers, but in a small time frame package, that you could market to tv and such. Likely run in one day. It must be a huge undertaking to run a nationals and one of the reasons it only travels to a few select sites that will tollerate a weeks worth of motor racing mayhem. I would think the driver has more earned it too as they had to pre qualify for it.

I dunno, just thinking, while things are slow at work

[Andrew 4CE]

Like Greybeard said... I think most things that have the one big event format... you usually have to prequalify.

Imagine a grass roots stock car, go-kart or MX winner take all championship racing event that had no prequalifying... it would last a month!!

[kws]

Andrew u must have a lot of time at work lol. seems to me u make some very good points .
most sports with regionals seem to do that.then the national championships (read competitors )are a natural progression of bracketed advancement.

but i think u might find it very hard to convence people that they need to give up their right to show up at the nationals to race if they didnt do well in their region.