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Old 03-18-2007
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cdh cdh is offline
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To Sportsman or Not To Sportsman

Some may think my motivation for this thread is the fact I will be racing in the Championship group this year, and that is true to some extent. I find the two categories are way out of balance. Look at the trend over the last few years, Sportsman groups have come to dominate every race weekend, to the point of strangling Champ to a single, low car count group. This is not how it was only a few years back.

I am not an old timer at SB yet (in experience that is) but I started when there was no Sportsman, everyone raced in one category. However, since there were 4 or 5 race groups, SB did a good job of grouping together drivers of similar skill levels so you would always (hopefully) have drivers to race with, it worked pretty well. Sure there were times I ended up lapping on my own, but those were the exception (and more motivation to improve).

Racing with Champ drivers offers opportunities you don’t get in Sportsman, namely observing the racecraft of drivers with superior skill, getting lead-follows of a sort in every session, every race. In trying to keep up with a faster driver once passed, you can observe their technique, brake points, lines through corners, turn in points, entry speed, etc. Believe me, following someone as experienced as Chris Willcox or Dick Lippert can offer a ton of "free lead follow" experience, your lap times definitely improve more quickly.

When I was in my first (and only) full season in 2002 I recall lamenting to Gerardo "I don’t have a chance against these guys, I’ll never see a podium, blah blah blah". Wrong, P3 at LRP that summer (thank you rain). If you are a Master, there is the possibility of a P1 trophy in every race, and I saw a couple of those that first year, it’s not as gloomy a prospect as some believe, as long as there are enough drivers in Champ.

This brings me to the point of this thread. Should SB add written rules defining when a driver must move up from Sportsman? Could be after a win or two or to my way of thinking, based on lap times. Your average lap time = X therefore it’s time to move up. The intention is positive, to improve driver skills more quickly and increase the number of Champ groups. With more groups and larger fields of more varied drivers, Champ would be less intimidating, more fun and offer closer racing. As it seems to be going, Champ is getting smaller, definitely not a good trend.

There are many sides to this that fog the issue. If one driver dominates his/her Sports category every race but wants to compete for that Championship, should that not be allowed? I say no, not if that driver completely outclasses the other Sports drivers. This question would not exist if there wasn’t a Sportsman Championship, only offer trophies, no points. You want to run a Championship season? Well, let’s see, where might that be? Maybe in the Championship Group?? That may not be realistic, but I believe some changes are necessary to keep the Champ group strong, get it back to the level it used to be.

and that’s all...
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Last edited by cdh; 03-19-2007 at 04:19 PM.
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