New Points System

[Edmonton]

http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=7500

[Dov]

http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=7499

INDIANAPOLIS (February 5, 2004) – In a move that will promote strong racing throughout every lap of a Champ Car World Series event and reward those drivers and teams that run up front, series officials today announced a revised points system that will go into effect with the 2004 season.
In the new system, points will be paid to the first 20 finishers with 31 points going to the winner of the event. As has been the case since 1983, the winner will receive four more points than the second-place finisher, with point totals decreasing by two for each place down the order through the top 10. Beginning with the 10th-place finisher, the point total will decrease by one.

“I think this is a good move for the series and will help the drivers a lot,” said 2003 Champ Car World Series champion Paul Tracy. “If you’ve had a day that would have left you out of the points, now you can still get something out of it. It is going to be a very competitive series this year and good finishes are going to be harder to come by so this makes what would have been a bad day, not so bad a day.”

In addition, one point will be awarded to a driver for leading one or more laps in a race, another point will be given to the driver that runs the fastest lap of the race and one point will be awarded to the driver that improves the most number of positions from their place on the starting grid. There will no longer be a point given to the driver that leads the most laps in a race.

As has been the case for the last two seasons, one championship point will be awarded to the leaders of the Friday and Saturday qualifying sessions on road and street courses, while one point will be available for the qualifying leader on oval courses.

“We firmly believe that this new system will be better for our fans,” said Senior Vice-President of Operations John Lopes. “The point for leading a lap will add an element of strategy and the point for fastest lap provides incentive for every driver on every lap, regardless of position.”

All other rules regarding championship points will remain unchanged from 2003. Under the new system, the maximum number of points that a driver could earn on a road or street course weekend is 35. The breakdown of the points system is detailed below.

1st – 31
2nd – 27
3rd – 25
4th – 23
5th – 21
6th – 19
7th – 17
8th – 15
9th – 13
10th – 11
11th – 10
12th – 9
13th – 8
14th – 7
15th – 6
16th – 5
17th – 4
18th – 3
19th – 2
20th – 1

[macdaddy]

All other rules regarding championship points will remain unchanged from 2003.

What haven't they changed?!

Gonna take some time to digest this. Thanks for the info.

[Testure]

Hmmm, no more point for most-laps-lead, but a point for anyone who leads a lap? Sounds a bit weird...

[macdaddy]

I'd hate for a guy, finishing 18th but leading one lap early on, to win the championship by that one point.

[jjspierx]

Intesting...I don't agree with them taking away the point for most laps led, and I think giving points to the top 20 is a bit excessive, but I guess after the fields grow to 26+ drivers again it won't be so bad. Either way, its not like they went the to the Nascar points system, so I won't complain.

[macdaddy]

First time in recent history that somebody can walk away from a weekend with more points than the winner.

[Flatspot]

The one point for leading a lap could create some interesting pit stratagies. " Do I duck in for fuel or stay out for points?"

[Testure]

Points down to P20 is silly. Since there's little prospect of that many cars taking part this year, Dale Coyne is gonna get points for what - turning up?

[Dov]

This new point system reminds me to much of NASCAR....

[gaines]

I actually like it with the exception of two things:
1.) No points for leading the most laps.
2.) Considering we may not have more than 20 cars you get points just for showing up. I would like to see that number cut a little bit to say the top 14 that way the also rans don't get squat.

Besides, having a bad day is supposed to kill you in the points, that's the whole point isn't it? However, as a whole I think it's a good move. We need to give the guys in the back a reason to race for positions. The only question is, will it cause more wrecks in the back?

[The Snout]

Originally posted by macdaddy
First time in recent history that somebody can walk away from a weekend with more points than the winner.

Not sure that's the case. 1st gets 31, 2nd gets 27. If 2nd gets 1 point for Friday, 1 for Saturday, 1 for Fastest Lap, 1 for Leading a Lap that's 31. I might reread it again but I think they can equal the winner but not get more.

I still think there's a significant points spread to reward a winner and also consistency.

[The Snout]

I think MotoGP points system is a good one, points down to about 15th or 16th I think. But I don't mind this one. Does have a ring of NASCAR about it though.

[jjspierx]

Macdaddy - How many points did the winner used to get 20? And 2nd place got what, 18? So if the person who got 2nd, had the fastest time of the day Friday, and Saturday, and also led the most laps fo the race, would that give him 21 weekend points, vs. 20 for the winner of the race?

[Dov]

Hey JJ,
The winner used to get 20 and 2nd place would get 16 points, so the maximum points the 2nd place finisher could get would be 18. Please correct me if I'm wrong.....

[The Snout]

A good point made elsewhere is 1st is really worth 32 points cause the winner will at least lead a lap.

[jjspierx]

Originally posted by Dov
Hey JJ,
The winner used to get 20 and 2nd place would get 16 points, so the maximum points the 2nd place finisher could get would be 18. Please correct me if I'm wrong.....

''I think you are probalby correct Dov. I didn't feel like looking it up, so I was just assuming. And Snout, thats not necessarrily correct, especially with some of the starts we had last year, where the Pole position guy, didn't come across the Start/finish line in first.

[The Snout]

Originally posted by jjspierx
And Snout, thats not necessarrily correct, especially with some of the starts we had last year, where the Pole position guy, didn't come across the Start/finish line in first.

Huh ? I was refering to the winner of the race leading at least 1 lap, the last lap.

[jjspierx]

whoops...quite right there chap...thats what I get for trying to multitask at work. I guess I should devote more time to the forum and less to my job.

[The Snout]

Easy mistake jj, we've got a bit to digest lately.

[evo]

Yeah, Dov the second place finisher could have scored 19 points before. So in that respect it's the same, the winner will always get at least one more point than second. But I really don't like this new system. There was nothing wrong with the old system, in fact it was may favourite point system in racing.

[The Snout]

Hey, anyone here want to calculate how the points from 2003 would have finished under the new 2004 scheme ?????

No, I'm not putting my hand up...

[macdaddy]

Snout corrected me, in that the winner is guaranteed 32 points. So, on a road/street, 2nd place could conceivably score equal.
(31 + 1 bonus point compared to 27 + 5 bonus points)
Therefore, the winner should (IMO) get 32+, as he should always come out on top for the weekend as a whole.

I don't necessarily think that these point scoring changes are a bad thing, but they're certainly gonna take some getting used to. It's true that they can (and will) open up some interesting strategies.

[Snrub]

Traditionally I think CART's point system has been very good. However, last year I think if anything points going all of the way wasn't just. Non-finishers or guys multiples laps down don't deserve to be rewarded on a consistant basis.

Last year the point system wasn't that just at the front. PT was MUCH faster than his competitors and the points did not accurately describe his number of victories and his dominance of the series. Through last year my feeling was that more reward needed to be given to the winner as last year the winners tended to have a substantial edge over 2nd.

With the new system the 4 points between 1st and 2nd are massively diluted.
Scenerio #1:
Race 1: Driver A smokes everyone and finishes 40 seconds ahead of 2nd place Driver B.
Race 2: Driver A starts well but has a mechanical failure at the beginning and finishes 18th. 1/3 of the way through the race Driver B has been doing extremely poorly and crashes into one of the mobile barriers entered by the Coyne team. Finishes 13th. Points are now tied.

Folks that's BS. Finishing needs to be rewarded and lesser teams/drivers need to be rewarded, but not all the way to the back and not so strongly at the back.

EDIT: Macdaddy's post reminded me - The extra point for leading gives the 2nd place driver the incentive to go out slightly out of sequence to get that extra point, so I don't think there will be many cases where the is a 5 point spread between 1st and 2nd.

[macdaddy]

Yet another interesting scenerio, Snrub.

From CART.com themselves...
Under the new system, the maximum number of points that a driver could earn on a road or street course weekend is 35.

31 - Winning the race
+1 - Friday pole
+1 - Saturday pole
+1 - Leading a lap (the last one!)
+1 - Most improvement from grid position
+1 - Fastest lap of race

That's 36 points, no? I'm not sure if they've put as much homework into this as they think they have.

Like I've said, the winner should always walk away from a weekend as...
The winner.
And with extra bonus points added like this, the margin between 1st and 2nd should be increased from four points to five.