New
Road Racing – Points SystemGerard Tobin, GerardTobin@wcma.ca
NASCC, Director Motorsport Development WCMA.ca
Spec Miata Road Racer
Create one single and simplified points system that is universal in use throughout the region. As this is amateur racing, allow participants to miss one event per season without losing points i.e. a “Best Of” system.
An extremely easy to understand points system allows followers and other onlookers, potential new participants, public, media and especially new potential sponsors and even existing racers, to more quickly buy into following our events and our series. Simplicity and no potential for confusion will help to remove a barrier to recognition of and participation in our sport. The current media attention span is less than 30 seconds thanks to mobile media training. All information has to be very quickly digestible. The end game is to attract new participants from outside of the existing roster of racers. This more closely follows the intent to truly grow the sport which helps to achieve long-term financial viability of events. A unified points system unifies our brand throughout the region as clubs will appear more unified in all of our activities. This includes when posting results to the WCMA.ca website or regularly reporting results to the newspapers. As every regular season race is, going forward with the new unified strategy, a "WCMA.ca" race in effect, there will be no need to separately schedule a single "WCMA Points Race" or call any race a WCMA points race. "Fun races", enduros, special events or races falling outside of the regular season races due to their general format would be counted, scored and reported separately from the regular season races and totals.
The Best Of system increases participation as those with family commitments, life events or emergencies during a season don’t feel disadvantaged when competing for a drivers’ championship within their class, for example weddings, funerals, graduations, work assignments, health issues, significant or mechanical issues requiring delayed imported parts etc. It also allows racers with slightly lower incomes or feeling a pinch from the economy but with potentially great driving talent to still compete for the championship on a slightly lower budget. We hopefully hear less of "I'll never win because..." Spirits of racers in all classes are lifted and racers can change car classes freely and be directly judged against their peers in performance-equalized car classes using the new NASA system. This more inclusive system will appeal to a wider range of participants, therefore better growing the sport overall. Racers from other regions can come and go and know that they will find fair competition based on the same NASA points system that their local racing is based on (for a Championship Event for example).
Use the F1 points system for road races: 1st) 25 points 2nd) 18 points 3rd) 15 points 4th) 12 points 5th) 10 points 6th) 8 points 7th) 6 points 8th) 4 points 9th) 2 points 10th) 1 point 11th+) 0 points. Formula E now uses this format too. At the end of the season, easily figure out how many races to include in the best-of total by removing the number of races corresponding to the event with the highest number of races in a single weekend (i.e. assume a racer missed that weekend). For example, in 2015 the NASCC held 5 race weekends for a total of 20 races. One weekend had 5 races in it, the most of any weekend during the season. The “best of” would be calculated on a racer’s best finishing results from 15 races. Each class would use this points system. A racer wins his class by having the most “best of” points. This only needs to be calculated once at the end of the season. Racers from different provinces would be awarded trophies based on their local track only for the regular season. In the case of a points tie, the racer with more superior results is the winner. This is the system currently used in the Spec Miata Championship and it has been found directly that certain major Sponsors like this system (in fact some insisted on the simplicity of it).
To allow racers to determine who is the best driver in a Region, there would be a completely separate single Regional Championship Event once a year where racers in the same class but from different provinces would compete against one another in a winner-take all race (or race event) (see WCMA.ca forum idea). Again, this would not be included in the regular season series best-of points total. In combination, the region could consider implementing a “Seed” system similar to what CARS Rally uses, Tennis or even the FIA etc as to which racers may seed higher based on certain criteria (see WCMA.ca forum idea).
Operationally, this simplified points system can be easily incorporated with MyLaps such that finishing places from each race are awarded our chosen number of points and those points are also instantly and automatically reflected on the MyLaps website along with the finishing positions. Furthermore, the San Francisco SCCA region has developed a free application that automatically pulls the MyLaps results and can upload them to the WCMA.ca website. This will help to get points results from an event out instantly which helps maintain interest and attention from racers, their friends, families media and other onlookers of the series. It may also be able to be quickly and more easily shared via Facebook along with the highlights of a race. It helps to reduce the workload on our administrators and volunteers. Timeliness is important. As always, results are unofficial until reviewed and approved by the Steward and this would be indicated on all posted results. This system will eliminate the need for multiple points systems overlays. Trophy budgets can be used to extend trophies down to 5th or even 10th place in a class without increased total cost.
Apparently Formula E now uses the Spec Miata Championship format where they allow drivers to miss one race too.
http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/results/driver-standings.aspx 
