[quote]What is stopping someone baulking to keep in a class bracket? I think the idea is good because you say its working - so it has to be good for NSW SS racing!
Baulking hasn't happened at all so far, but we already considered it when planning the move to these divisions. Except in the case of a brand new car, we already history to go by. A quick scan of Natsoft results and you know what a car can do. We based the divisions on the first qualifying session of the year (which was EC in this case) and anyone who wasn't at that was placed in a division based on either their history or an equivalent lap time at WP (our only other circuit).
We also knew that with it being a new system we may encounter some teething problems and therefore kept it a little open and flexible to begin with. In fact our allocations were pretty close, with only one competitor requesting a move to a different division (from D1 to D2). His evidence of why he wasn't a D1 competitor was sound so the move was no problem, and he is running down the order in the D2 points, so he certainly didn't drop back a division and dominate it.
We also "regrade" at the end of the year, ensuring cars in each division should be in that division again next year. One comes to mind already who will be moved from D2 to D1 as his performance this year has improved - he started squarely in D2 but just really got into it this year and now sees lap times well inside the D1 benchmark. Having that flexibility in our system really helps with maintaining it.
I asked my Dad about the old D1 and D2. He said it was quite similar to your system, but they were two seperate races. The problems started when D1 cars were driven in D2 by a 2nd driver. This dwindled the class down to a non-split racinging again.
