I have to be honest that I don't know the myriad of rules and requirements for going to the Runoffs, but I find it hilarious when I go to a National, say at Lime Rock, where we have a pretty good number of competitors, and I watch guys pull off after the middle of the race. In perfectly good cars
.
"Why did he do that" I ask my seasoned National friend watching with me.
"Because he only needs XX points/starts/whatever to qualify for the Runoffs."

Huh?

Then I look at Runoffs results, and I see lots of classes with HUGE time spreads, and they aren't filled...or in some cases, even close to being filled.

To me, that seems like a broken system.

For the club as a whole to flourish, it needs to allow those that want to race, to race. Having guys show up and run a half race the bare minimum of times just so they can go to the Runoffs....and finish well back (for the example I noted earlier) seems silly.

Anothe issue I used to think was important, but is slipping more and more into oblivion every year, is the fact that our little club racing world gets put on TV once a year.

I watch the races, and sometimes I wonder what the average interested, but not indoctinated into SCCA viewer thinks. "Yawn"? "Is this vintage racing"? Some races play well on TV, but there sure do seem to be lots of less than full fields. Thats a big waste of precious media exposure.

Even me, an SCCA guy, if faced with the prospect of setting my TIVO for a British Touring Car race or an SCCA Runoffs race, would probably choose the BTCC on the odds that the racing would be better.

And thats not what our National Championship should be.

To me, it's clear making IT National would help the club. Whether it would help IT is, maybe, a slightly different story.