iRacing Poll on Possible Championship Points Structure Changes

Keep an eye on your e-mail inbox, because iRacing will soon be sending out a poll question via e-mail to collect feedback on possible changes to the Championship Points structure for official iRacing series.

The current Championship Points methodology is an oft-discussed topic within the iRacing membership base, and some iRacers feel that the current structure actually discourages people from participating in more online races throughout the week.

Per the Sporting Code, Championship Points are currently calculated as follows:

The best 50% of a driver’s race performances (based on points scored) in a given Race Week will be averaged at the conclusion of each Official Series Race during the week.  The final average at the conclusion of the Race Week will be the driver’s Race Week Point Total and count towards the season championship in that series.

Example:  If a driver competes in five official races in the Skip Barber Series in a given week, the driver’s best three-race-point totals are averaged and those points go towards the driver’s season championship points total.

Many iRacers feel this typically means that if you score well in one of your first two race it is not worth risking the possibility of scoring lower points in a subsequent race and therefore reducing your points total for the week.  This mentality is viewed by some as playing a significant role in limiting participation because it actually encourages people to race less.

“Check your e-mails, consider the options carefully, and reply to iRacing ASAP to make your voice heard on this issue.”

Fellow iRacer Carlos Pedro Vasconcelos illustrated the passion that this issue can stir up when he recently posted the following in a forum thread on how Championship Points are calculated:  “Come on STAFF, we are RACERS, we are a highly competitive community here.   Give us some attention here.   This is not “Second Life” or “Facebook”. We are doing the official series to compete to win, and everybody surely hates losing points by WINNING a race.”

iRacing’s upcoming e-mail poll indicates they are indeed giving this issue some attention.  iRacing will be putting forth the following alternatives for consideration:

•    Keep as is.   Average the points of the top 50% of your races for week.  For example if you raced 3 times, average of best 2 would count.   Raced 5 times and average of best 3 would count.

•    Average the points of the top 33% of your races for week.   For example if you raced 3 times, best 1 would count; race 4 to 6 times and average of best 2 would count; race 7 to 9 times and average of best 3 would count; etc.

•    Average top score of the top 25% of your races for week.  For example if you raced 4 times, best 1 would count; race 5 to 8 times and best 2 would count; raced 9 to 12 times and average of best 3 would count; etc.

•    Include a Maximum of 3 races in the average.  Meaning 1 or 2 races count the best 1.   3 or 4 races, count the average of only the best 2.  5 races and above, count the average of ONLY the best 3.

iRacing decided to conduct the polling via direct e-mails to its members in order to ensure that people wouldn’t be able to vote twice, and to ensure that only iRacing members would be able to respond, which addresses two complaints that arose from how the Season 3 Schedule Survey polling was conducted.

The e-mails may already be waiting in your inbox now, and iRacing is planning to tabulate the results one week after they are sent out.  iRacing has indicated that they will announce their plans after analyzing the responses — if the responses indicate that a majority of iRacers would prefer one of the given options over the current Championship Points methodology, then iRacing would attempt to implement the selected solution for the start of Season 4.

So, make sure you check your e-mails, consider the options carefully, and reply to iRacing ASAP to make your voice heard on this issue.

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