GTS National Championship lessons learned and plans for 2012

[JSG1901]

I mentioned in another thread that I'd post this as a new one. I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about last year's GTS National Championship race and the current plans for this year's. I know it's very early to be talking about this but my impression from numerous conversations I've had is that it is still an issue of concern.

 

The 2011 GTS championship week has been pretty loudly--and probably rightly--criticized for a number of reasons but primarily for the amount of contact incurred between cars and the lack of penalties imposed on those making the contact. While there were a few other issues which have raised concern here and there, contact is the issue which is most consistently brought up with regard to that event.

 

With the clarity that hindsight often brings, I think that week's contact and other issues can be attributed to several factors.

 

1) Not a heavy enough hand from the race director and myself early on. This has been cited a number of times in a number of ways--some saying we should have used the 13/13 rule, others that we just should have had more penalties or disqualifications--but the bottom line is we could, and probably should have been more draconian about it. While I think it's fair to say our mind-set was that this was a national championship and that people were naturally going to be racing hard, I think it's also fair to say we didn't do enough to nip it in the bud.

 

2) Weather. Mid-Ohio is a challenging track under any circumstance and more so when it is wet as there are places that are absolutely trecherous in wet conditions. The fact we had mixed weather all week...including starting Sunday's race with some of the track wet and some of it dry, certainly helped contribute to the contact we experienced.

 

3) Gridding by class instead of by time. For two separate reasons, I personally believe this was the biggest contributor to the event's contact problems. First, with every class break (from GTS5 to GTS4, from GTS4 to GTS3, etc) this method of gridding put slower cars in front of faster ones. In some cases, those speed differences were extreme. When you take the close racing that happens at the start of any race and add in poorly-mixed cars from a speed standpoint, you have already set up a situation ripe for body contact.

 

The second reason gridding by class, I believe, contributed to the issues we experienced, is that the penalties for doing something wrong were so small. A full disqualification would move a driver to the back of his or her class. Not to the back of the field, to the back of the class. As penalties go, when you're facing a 40-minute championship race, having to start a few cars deeper in the field is not much of a disincentive.

 

A minor side effect on this same issue is that at least a few drivers completely sat out wet sessions and/or wet races because they didn't like those conditions and not participating in those sessions would only move them back a few grid positions. However, what it also did was deprive them of any chance to learn about the track under wet conditions. When Sunday's race turned out to be mixed wet and dry conditions, those drivers had no previous experience on the tricky wet Mid-Ohio track.

 

4) Both the race director and myself (as the acting series director) were also racing, dividing our attention between two masters.

 

I believe all of the above contributed to what we experienced last year and to the extent I helped cause it, I'm sorry about that.

 

Now, let's talk a little about the 2012 Championships.

 

I have already begun talks with pretty much everyone I can think of who has decision-making power in the 2012 event. There are several important changes which are going to be implemented this year to make sure we don't have a repeat of 2011. The ones I can talk about so far:

 

1) Both the race director and the series director (myself, presumably) will not be racing. This is a change which, with a little luck, will be implemented throughout the event, not just in GTS.

 

2) We will grid all sessions leading up to the championship race based on time and not based on class. If you drive a GTS1 car and qualify faster than a GTS5, you will start in front of him.

 

3) Because we are not gridding by class, penalties will move you all the way to the back of the field. If you are considering whether or not to try that aggressive low-percentage move, you will now have to factor in that if you make contact (or pass under yellow or do something else penalizable) you will not just move back half a dozen places, you will go to the back of a 60+ car field. I would like to think it's a different calculation of risk.

 

4) Finally, we will follow the CCR with regard to contact and the resultant penalties. While there are those who think the 13/13 is more strict, in fact it's the CCR. My intention is to be fair but firm with regard to penalties and--again--those penalized, if they are allowed to continue, will likely start from the back of the field.

 

My belief and, honestly, my hope, is that the combination of these adjustments will result in a better, safer, more fun, and much less damaging event in 2012. I hope very much to see everyone there.

[Eric W.]

Awesome Scott. I think gridding by time will go a long way to solve many issues.

[Michael G.]

That is what (grid by times, not classes) we had back in '07 and '08 and it worked fine.

Michael G.

NE GTS Dir.

[TexaST-1]

Best plan yet!

[cstreit911]

Good analysis Scott. I think the theory of the penalty moving people back in class only was sound. ...practice was slightly different. Perhaps the thing to do would be to compromise and put that penalized car behind the last non-penalized car in the class? Just thinking outloud. It WOULD be a tradgedy for a guy to lose all hope at a win over a small penalty, but perhaps this is the cost of what we've learned...

[RSCoupe]

A small transgression can be penalized by moving the offender a couple of spots. Moving them all the way to the back isn't always called for. Ultimately it's up to the Race Director, with possible feedback from the Series Director.

[JSG1901]

Chris/Mark,

 

I agree with what both of you have said. Obviously, minor infractions could have less severe penalties. My point was really that actual penalties (for more non-trivial incidents) will have much more severe penalties than last year. And, considering the range of speeds, going to the back of the class would be pretty close to the back of the field in many cases

[scottbm3]

Sounds like a good plan, no pun intended

 

 

-Scott B.

[onefastviking]

I think you are dead on with your observations, and your plans for 2012 corrections, for all the concerns/issues I saw in 2011.

 

Thank you for your work put into this.