NASTE 2014 Season - Race No. 12 (Page 1 of 2)

Hi Dorothy, Thanks again for taking photos and video, and of course for bringing your fabulous treats!!!
Monte & Victoria, thanks for an excellent race day!!!

As far as the moving up to expert rule, I believe what we decided in regards to amateur status was; if an amateur wins the NASTE CHAMPIONSHIP they have to move up to expert status.

It's the Odd Thursday Racing where; if you win you are required to race magnet-less, which is basically joining the expert ranks.

Dennis or Victoria, please correct me if I'm wrong. I know we have it written down somewhere...........

P.S. Yup, no longer on Facebook........

Thank you Monte and Victoria for being such gracious hosts especially since I got the time wrong and showed up an hour early or so.  Still not 100% sure how I won the lightning round.  Sounds like maybe I won it at Bill's expense?

For those of you who are friends with Kelly on Facebook you probably have seen/heard what a fun night we had last night and for those who aren't; it was a night we will not soon forget.  I had a rough weekend and spent 8 hrs Saturday repairing a roof on my mom's rental and then I woke up Sunday at 4:00AM and could not get back to sleep. Back tracking slightly, one of AJ's roomates had left his car in front of our house while he flew to Montana for the weekend to interview for a intern position.  I was supposed to pick him up at 10:00 last night at the airport but his flight ended up getting cancelled due to mechanical problems.  I went to bed around 10:30 and was quickly sound asleep for a while.  I was startled awake by the sound of a heavy duty car crash and my first thought was someone had smashed into his car.  Out the door in my robe to find his car not smashed that I can see.  Gathering my bearings I now spot a car in our yard smashed into the dog wood tree so hard it has toppled the tree.  The driver is out of the car and the passenger is getting out.  I ask them what the hell they were doing and get the reply that at least they had managed to miss both cars.  The passenger then proceeds to get in the drivers seat and to my suprise got the car started.  By now, I figured they were going to make a run for it and stood behind the car and yelled for Kelly to call the police.  He puts the car in reverse, revs the engine and starts back and I had to give way or be hit.  The former driver gets in and they make a dash down  the culdesac giving the police a little time to arrive.  They were apprehended 8 blocks later.  Needless to say I wasn't able to sleep much last night either.

Regards
Rico

No issue on my end as far as the race results......That's racing!

It was an interesting format for sure. Dorothy beat me! Who you are on the track with really can affect your score. I think we did say that once you won a NASTE race you were an expert. I'll never claim to be an expert, though.

Terry, You are much closer than I on the actual rule! Here it is per the meeting 2013 BBQ Meeting at Monte & Victoria's:

"Expert Racer - Any person who has placed first, second or third in an expert race with other expert racers. Expert status is forever. Experts may not move down to race in amateur only races. Any racer can, at any time, self declare as an expert. Such declarations are irrevocable."

I see 19 points added to Dorothy's Point Series total. That would indicate a second place finish in an expert race. Looks like she now has "Expert" driver rating.

So my question would be; does she have to race Expert for the rest of the season?
Or does her "Expert" status start with the beginning of next season?

OK, now I'm confused.........

How were the points awarded for this race?

Typically only overall finish position points are awarded, correct?

OK...........

So she was second overall, right?

Good question Dorothy. Using the scores as an indicator would depend on whether you raced with the expert class or not. The digital enduro races were a team event so I don't think those races should affect a racers standing as amatuer or expert. Finishing in the top three in an amatuer race would not force you to move to expert. Only finishing in the top three of a race AGAINST experts would affect your standing.  We score the finish positions in order for each division (amatuer & expert) seperately. The points assessed for the Championship are the racer's OVERALL finish position (amatuer & expert together. i.e. you could finish 2nd in amatuer, but be 5th overall). You scored your 19 points in the second race (using the point system + laps completed method of scoring the race) for second place in a race with experts. You BEAT ALL BUT ONE OF THE EXPERTS! .......NICE JOB! Sunday's race was scored using the Full Monte System where you get your best finish in EITHER race (the Full Monte System is essentially 2 individual races on the same race day)...............clear as mud???

So, the interprtation I seek is; are you an expert as of that race (now), or do you finish out this season as an amatuer and start next season as an expert?

I would think you would finish this season out in the amatuer ranks? To me that would be the fair course, because I think you should still be elligible for the NASTE Challenge Championship for 2014.

Dorothy did not finish second in a race with the experts but her total from the "amateur" race was so high that it placed her second overall.  As I understand it. 

One of the problems with points series is events where there are few entrants.  I won my first rally trophy on a day when we ran an extremely difficult event not knowing any better.  There were three of us in the Novice class.  They gave us all trophies and instantly promoted us to the advanced class based on the rule of once you trophy.  Felt like we got short-changed.  But at least we got the first place trophy.

In my opinion you should not advance during the season but after/prior to the next.

However, I also did once win two classes in the same season.

Maybe we don't really need a rule as to how someone becomes an expert. It becomes obvious when you race someone if they are good or not. Thomas, Russell and Dorothy all have become very good drivers as they have proven by consistently winning the Challenge races to move up and race with the "experts". As for the different format we used at Monte's, it could work with a little tweaking. Dorothy scored well because she didn't crash. There were only five experts racing and of those, Monte sat out, Tracy crashed out early twice and Bill got the TooBad curse twice. That helped the three remaining drivers score big in the bonus points. It was a fun experiment, but it also can be frustrating to amateur drivers.

I agree on just having the Challenge champion moving up. The crash and burn can work with the right rules, but I still think it would cause more frustration than we would want at our races. The KISS rules work best. Gotta get my track uncovered and get some practice in!