"Regional Championship" Nationals exclusion?

[tom91ita]

Steve, i may be old but i intend to beat you in ITA this year at the IT Fest!

if i remember to go that is.....

[jumbojimbo]

edited to try to differentiate between how it used to work and how it works now.

Not sure if it is clear, but he means points, not races. In the past you could run any race you want, but you were not eligible for regional championship points. Which technically should have been called divisional championships, since they were divisional championships made up of points earned at regional races. Which seems to be what they did this year, rename it "Division Championship", almost got to "divisional championship", but not quite, maybe next year.

But for this year:

Per my reading, major races don't earn points toward the division championship series. Just the 6 regional (there's that regional word again) weekends count to the DCS, a total of 12 races. 12/2+1 = best 7 finishes.

Paragraph 6 is quite clear: Everyone now earns divisional points. If someone runs majors and even qualifies for the runoffs thru majors, that person is still eligible to earn divisional points and even "win" the divisional championship series. In the past the points earned at each event are based only on drivers within GLD, out of division drivers are ignored, so you could finish 4th and still earn 1st place points by being the first GLD driver. I don't see that explicitly mentioned in this year's rules.

Also note that there is a difference between earning the right to go to the runoffs thru the DCS and winning the divisional annual championship since there are regional races after the runoffs. So drivers A,B,C could be in 1st,2nd,3rd place when the eligiblity for the runoffs is decided, but driver D could earn points after the runoffs and win the divisional championship. That's not confusing at all, is it?

[tom91ita]

Our Championship races this year are:

May 10 & 11
GingerMan
South Bend /Detroit/Western Ohio
Double Regional
June 28 & 29
Grattan
WMR
Double Regional
August 9 & 10
Mid Ohio
Cincinnati
Double Regional
August 30 & 31
Mid Ohio
Ohio Valley
Double Regional
October 11 & 12
Mid Ohio
Ohio Valley
Double Regional
October 18 & 19
NeOhio
Pittsburgh International Race Course
Quad Regional **


From page 3 of 6 of the 2014 rules:

NOTE: The fact that the Great Lakes Division has two to three regional races that occur on or after three weeks prior to the Runoffs each year, points earned from those races will be included in the pathway to the Runoffs for the next year. Points earned after the Runoffs cutoff date will be accrued for the calendar year.
Drivers can run in multiple classes, but they must meet the same race minimum criterion for each as delineated above.
No out of Division races will count toward the GLD Championship Series.

so the races in October count for Runoffs points in 2015 but GLD Championship in 2014 is my understanding.

[jumbojimbo]

I think you got it. That's pretty simple, eh?

It would be simpler if we just used the current points up to the cutoff for the runoffs qualification, but the thinking probably is that it would affect entries to races after the cutoff if they don't count toward the runoffs.

[tom91ita]

I wonder if there are any stats on which path folks took to the runoffs. My guess is that it is the majors.

[Greg Amy]

So, if someone ran these races all year and accumulated points, that driver would have to decide at the end of the year if he wanted to forfeit a possible "division" championship so he could attend the Runoffs? And what of the subsequent "division" winner, the guy that actually finished second in al the races? He's now suddenly the "champion" because the actual champion decided to go to Road America (to finish mid-pack)?

I understand the point, but that's pretty wonky.

[tom91ita]

No. I think that conflict is now gone as I read the current rules. In the past it was sort of similar to restrictions for the arrc. Didn't that have something about runoffs drivers not being eligible?

I think it was likely to encourage regional Participation. Certainly for IT it is not much of an issue.

Greg do you know of any stats on which path folks took the runoffs? The majors seem to be the more direct/sure thing. Also least expensive in terms of events.