Good morning gentlemen,
Was a very busy day yesterday, so I just caught up with alot of the dialogue, and glad to get everyone's input.
In regards to the bop balancing, there are so many variables to consider: cars that favor certain tracks, tracks that favor specific drivers, how much practice, tuned/not tuned, etc etc. The goal is and always has been to get everyone within a 0.5 sec avg pace potential. Will it always fall in?....No. And even when it does, there is the fast side of that 0.5 sec and the slow side. With that being considered, at just a 0.5 sec off the pace over 20 laps, it does come out to a 10 sec deficit, and then when you take in consideration of poor laps mixed in the field it can spread even farther apart. I do believe we have done a great job, all things considered, with the varying skillsets among our field. I will take the next few weeks in between events to review and average everones lap times in an effort to verify/adjust to bring us in even closer, but at some point it will be a wall and it just becomes chasing. Just know that I will do everything I can to draw it in as close as possible.
On another note, it is highly unlikely that we will see another split room event. Last night did see some great racing in the GS Class, but the spilt event left a bad taste in my mouth by not maintaining the numbers we started with in GS, and seeing that the TCR group had spread open so much despite maintaining good numbers on the grid. I originally had planned for 3 reserves for each class, but when the interest built and numbers expanded I built the reserve rosters to allow up to 6 on each class. I then came up with the room expansion idea to accommodate when a huge number confirmed present. Unfortunately we were not able to hold the numbers on race night resulting in a less than what we have come to expect event.
A big nod to all drivers for communicating and for the great turnouts overall, and the fact that we did have to attempt a room expansion this past event with 21 drivers originally confirmed to race was evidence of the enthusiasm over the series.
I have reviewed the roster, and thinned out the drivers list, dropping any drivers that have not communicated or have been MIA so far for the season. This has left us with the following Reserve drivers moving forward, a very solid group id like to point out.
GS Class-in order of priority to move up
@GTR4MROD
@R1600Turbo
@DesertPenguin
@Kermit_2142
TCR Class- tied in event participation, 1st to confirm for next events gain priority
@Herimopp89
@Fudman420
For now, these are the Reserve rosters I hope to maintain. Any additional drivers that choose to join will just have to wait their turn in the hope something opens up.
It was worth the try on expanding to 2 rooms, but just didn't deliver the hoped for results. Therefore, to even consider splitting the rooms again, I have changed the threshold to 14 GS Drivers confirmed, 10 drivers for TCR...which as you can see by our current drivers list is impossible...but the option will still be in place. To our committed Reserve drivers, I'd ask that you continue to practice and prepare and be ready to move up at anytime, even up to the start of qualifying.
Now all that is out of the way for now, I have another busy day ahead, but am hoping to get scores, photos, and post race race report delivered sometime tonight or tomorrow with race broadcasts to be added later in the week.
Great racing to everyone, and thanks again for the great commitment and enthusiasm over the series.
