Time Trial League Suggestions

It was a fun season in the Autobahn Tuesday Night League, but I have a few suggestions in mind for how to make it even better, should Autobahn decide to do another season:

1. Three heats per night instead of two. We were all so closely matched this year that sometimes it just came down to which kart you were in, and some of the karts were real duds. In order to reduce the effect of the different karts, it would be great to average the best laps over three heats. Plus, if we're going to take the time out to be at the track anyway, why not get out there for three races?

2. Two drops per season instead of one. People are busy. Sometimes you can't make it to every race. Giving two drops would let more people earn full points for the season.

3. More track variety. This season we did Monaco six times and Le Mans twice. Not only should that be better distributed, but if we ran each track in reverse that would add even more options.

4. Ignore non-participants. We had several people only show up for one night all season. Giving those people 3rd-place points for the evening (for example) disrupts the points race for the people who are actually participating in the league. Recommend only giving points each night to the people who end up participating in, say, half of the league nights.

5. Start on time. The league this year was advertised as starting at 6:30, but we frequently weren't on track for the first heat until 7:00 or 7:15. I'm not sure what they'd need to change to get us on track quicker, but that should be a priority. If it means moving the advertised start time for the league earlier or later to fit better into the other track sessions, so be it. Or, maybe they need to give a cutoff time where they won't put any more racers on track so they can prepare for the league.

6. Lower cost. At its core, the league nights are really just arrive-and-drive sessions. We're just racing for fastest lap, just like we would be with arrive-and-drive. The cost is $35 for two sessions ($17.50/ea) when you can get three sessions for $40 ($13.33/ea) or eight for $100 ($12.50/ea). Granted, they do more to ensure the karts are evenly matched (some nights more successfully than others). And, if we could do tracks in reverse then that's something they won't just do for arrive-and-driver racers. Also, the league has the advantage of actually getting fast people out to the track to race together. But, we're paying a big premium for all these league advantages.

7. Online Standings. Part of the fun of being in a league is seeing where you rank in the overall standings throughout the season. Autobahn doesn't post the standings anywhere, so the racers are left to tally points themselves and hope they match Autobahn's records. The standings for the leagues should be posted somewhere online for everyone to see each week.

As far as altering the way points are done, if we had used suggestions #2 and #4 above this season, these would have been the standings going into the last week of the season:

Bob: 498
Peter: 498
Taylor: 492
Paul: 492
Greg: 484
Andre: 482

So many positions up for grabs! With the way Week 8 played out, we would have finished with:

Bob: 597
Peter: 596
Paul: 592
Taylor: 589
Greg: 580
Andre: 577

The only difference in finishing order from the actual results is Peter jumping up to 2nd since he wouldn't have lost out by missing two weeks. Still, going into the last week with the standings so close would have been awesome.

Of course, even with all these suggestions and all the fun I had this season, I'm not totally sure I'm up for another 8 weeks of Autobahn evenings. It's such a big time commitment, especially with a toddler at home. I could see doing more arrive-and-drive racing every two or three weeks, with the odd Monday night race-for-position league night mixed in. But, we'll see what info we get about the next seasons for the leagues and go from there.