Getting Rid of Regional/Majors Distinction?

[Knestis]

And given your lack of familiarity with the program, I should also probably ask the guys that are ready to drop the distinction between the Majors and Regionals:

"Have you ever been to a Majors event?"

<raises hand>

In my opinion the quality of events varies more region-to-region than it does majors-vs-regionals (or national-vs-regional before that).

Majors trophies were nicer than most regionals, but I was frankly a little annoyed by the number of national office staff that seemed to be just sitting around or socializing while the region ran the race. (Nothing personal, Butch.) The longer races were offset (for me anyway) but less competition. I didn't race for a position in four Majors (two doubles in the STU Jetta TDI) in 2013, but had a good race or two last year in STL. Fields were still thin, although less than the least-subscribed ITB regionals in recent years and much more than the best of those B brawls (e.g., pretty much anything at Summit). The paddocks at the Majors events I did were typically more packed but with fewer racers if that makes sense; more big rigs with less hanging out at the track. It was nice to have some consistency in the day's schedule major-to-major but some variability won't kill anyone and can be managed by standards to apply to ALL club events.

At the end of the day, if, say, we went to a model where all of the current GCR classes were available at all events, and points were accumulated for regional and divisional championships, and some combination of points from those results served as a qualifying process to the RubOffs, competition would allow the cream to rise to the top - in terms of driver/car entrants. Let only the best-subscribed classes from 2014 go to the 2015 big dance, and the same would happen for classes. The market would decide.

The distinctions are all manufactured and artificial. If they went away, some of the people at any given "Club Championship Race" would be all SRS BSNS and some would simply be glad to participate. It would take a little while for folks to shed their biases and preconceived notions - most of which are flawed - but with the kind of turnover we have, it wouldn't take long for the culture to change. To be clear, this whole issue has bamfoozled me since i went to my first SCCA race in 1979. Nothing has changed my opinion on that.

K

EDIT - if we think there's value in having a small number of "showcase" events, just do the above but with one double-points "festival" or "super" event in each region.