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Just a couple of thoughts based on a lifetime of slot car racing.

1. I think Randy does a great job and his philosophy of keeping it fun, simple and like real racing works well with our group and is trouble free most nights.

2. I actually changed cars in the middle of my last heat this week. Now, I was in last place and finished there, so it didn't make a difference, but it did help me evaluate my car in a race condition (trust me I have a long way to go!). Having said that, I have never, and will never substitute a car in a race where it will make a difference. I think Randy has made that clear to all of us that changing your car while leading or at least competing for a good finish is not acceptable. To me, it's like saying it's OK to double dribble while playing basketball. You could do it, but are you really playing basketball?

3. I personally don't like other people changing my car's lane sticker at the end of each heat. I've raced my whole life where you are responsible for changing your car's lane sticker. During a lane change I like to take care of my car and get it ready for the next heat, including changing the sticker. I know that BSCC doesn't have easy access to the far corners of the track, but I still prefer the marshals  to hand me my car and then I give it back for them to put me in the next lane.

4. I have never seen Randy restart a heat for any reason. I have personally been a victim of my own stupidity (hooking a controller wrong) and a victim of the track (no power), but we go anyways. It's been the same for everyone, no exceptions and as long there aren't any, it's OK with me. Now, in all other racing I have been involved in it is the discretion of the race director and that works well too, as long as ground rules are clear that restarts are only for issues beyond the racer's control (like for example a car gets knocked off the table and can't be found or a marshal damages a car). We could do something similar, but it is up to Randy since he would need to enforce it, and be the judge and jury in each circumstance.

Just my $.02

First and most importantly, I'm easy, I'm here for the fun of it too. So what ever is decided is just fine with me.

Some further thoughts-

One point to make about my idea of awarding constructor points and driver points, where you seed the cars and teams with a qualifier each race: The effort to seed your car into the main to score constructor points should prevent the best racers from sandbagging since they will be in the running for both driver and constructor points.
Also, the lower half should still be working hard to get their car into the field each night- "for the fun of it" and I would say there should be no collusion or gaming going on there either.

If we split racing time up by segments in the final race, I would just mandate that it is done at the end of the segments and each team decides who runs what two lanes. Given our normal lane change time of over a minute is more than enough time to make the hand off to a new driver. No need for additional time. So you can have a scenario where one team has the first driver the first two consecutive lanes followed by the second driver or any of the three other possible variations...

Not sure how to do that on this forum. If you could give me some instructions I will get the pictures up.

Thanks!