Early season qualifying groups unfair?

[BootsOntheSide]

On road and street courses, the CART qualifying system is to divide the cars into 2 groups. The top 13 in the championship go into the second group which hits the cirucit later than the first group, the result being that the track has more rubber on it, and the second group can go faster, the resultbeing that the top half of the grid usually has at least 8-10 of the second group. Of course you could cynically suggest that they qualify higher because they're better performing, which is why they are higher in the championship, but the quick improvements in performances by Moreno, Carpentier and Papis when they got into group 2 show that being in group 1 is an impediment to a car's performance.
My question relates to Moreno's comment after aking the Laguna Seca pole, when he said that his crash in race 1 put him in the first group, which consistantly left him unable to score enough good results to move up. So maybe early in the season, the previous year's championship table should be used to calculate the groups, or perhaps for the first 4 races use an average of the last races of last year mixed in to the early points standings. Anyone got any thoughts on the matter.

[macdaddy]

I've always thought that the qualifying groups should be split up according to the Friday practice times.

[R]

Is there any reason why CART can't qualify on road and street courses in the same way as F1 does? Everyone's got one hour, and you must time your run. The way that the CART qualifying system works now clearly is unfair. It really ought to be changed.

[BootsOntheSide]

Sorry R, don't agree with you. The F1 system reduces the level of precision a driver must palce on their speed and accuracy, as they have 3 more chances anyway which can be spaced out over the course of an hour. And any unexpected mechanical failrues can ruin a session, look at Belgium. The CART system provides real excitement bioth in qualifying and the race, and to me the 2-group system should stay as having laps blocked by slower traffic is jsut not fair game.

[R]

You may be right, but as you indicate in your original post, the current format certainly at least needs some adjusting to make it more fair. I posed the question, I don't know if the F1 format would be better for CART or not, but it clearly is a disadvantage to be in the early group. It's especially unfair, as you say, when so much hinges on just that performance in the first race.

[BootsOntheSide]

Well yeah, a fair system may be to use teh average numebr of points per race over the last 20 races, but this will not instantly be easily calculable, and will advantage guys like Casey Mears who had one fluke result at the end of 2000, and disadvantage people who had poor machinery the previous year but now improved. So maybe the answer involves using practce times, as Macdaddy says, teh only potential problem is if Friday was wet resulting in an uneven order. All the guys would try to do a fast lap at the end of practice under that situation as well.