NOVICE TO EXPERT PROMOTIONS FOR 2019!!

[Josh Henke]

So, if I'm understanding this right, this highlights the problem we have. So you are saying that there was an incentive for you as a Novice...that's great. Would you agree that upon being promoted to Expert, you reduced your participation because contingency wasn't as readily available? I think what you are saying is that you would not have competed as a Novice if incentives weren't available?

Moving contingency rewards from Novice to Expert would encourage people to self-promote and move individuals forward in their riding and ultimately a bigger challenge. This is what we want - riders getting better and having increased incentives as they progress in their riding.

Right now, we have Slow Novice (not winning contingency) to Fast Novice (winning contingency) to Slow Expert (not winning contingency) to Fast Expert (winning contingency) with an uneven spread of opportunity as you progress. If incentives is a primary reason for someone to compete, I can see why people would quit as soon as they get their Expert plate.

I would have just stopped racing (or not raced at all). When I was promoted, I stopped defraying costs thru contingency money, so I could only make a few rounds. I make enough money now to race, albeit only in endurance.

[dean webster]

I’ve been busting it all year. If I don’t get bumped, I’m finished

[Rab McNaught]

I would have just stopped racing (or not raced at all). When I was promoted, I stopped defraying costs thru contingency money, so I could only make a few rounds. I make enough money now to race, albeit only in endurance.

I wish there was more awards available as you improve riding, rather than this dropoff - sounds like you still have some incentive available in endurance. Thanks for the information. Going by the survey, 25% of respondents put these incentives as "makes me happy" and 30% had "don't care".

[CASEY SCHOLTEN]

Do I still get to run the #1 plate next year?

[Andy Rutkus]

Taking contingency money from the Novice group doesnt seem like the right answer at all. Like you said, the answer to "sandbagging" sounds like it would be forced promotion, which should not only be based on laptimes but also maybe crash vs participation ratio,because someone could be fast while being unsafe as well. Maybe the forced promotion comes after (2) consecutive years of consistently fast lap times that are comparable to EXPERT times?

[Josh Henke]

I wish there was more awards available as you improve riding, rather than this dropoff - sounds like you still have some incentive available in endurance. Thanks for the information. Going by the survey, 25% of respondents put these incentives as "makes me happy" and 30% had "don't care".

Need to know who responded. As an expert now not even racing for contingency, I might have selected I don’t care. I think contingency is important to novices

[Rab McNaught]

Need to know who responded. As an expert now not even racing for contingency, I might have selected I don’t care. I think contingency is important to novices

The survey was anonymous on purpose. Maybe next years survey can split this out between novice and expert. I think it’s important to both novices and experts.


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[Rab McNaught]

Taking contingency money from the Novice group doesnt seem like the right answer at all. Like you said, the answer to "sandbagging" sounds like it would be forced promotion, which should not only be based on laptimes but also maybe crash vs participation ratio,because someone could be fast while being unsafe as well. Maybe the forced promotion comes after (2) consecutive years of consistently fast lap times that are comparable to EXPERT times?

I think safety is a different item - if people are riding dangerously, they are either going to be consistently crashing or getting complained about to the race director - I don't think we log crashes, at least not in the results page - I'm not 100% on that though. You make a good point in that, for someone to be eligible to be promoted, it's not simply race results, lap times, race completion - it's a combination of everything so difficult for criteria to be defined.

With 2 years of consecutive fast lap times, this makes the sandbagging problem worse - someone could dominate novice for 2 years instead of 1 - are you OK with that? 1 competitor winning everything in Novice when they have proved themselves to be expert level from the first race potentially. Then likely quit the sport when they get promoted.

Riders should be promoted to expert as soon as they are ready in my opinion, and the incentives should be there for them when they are promoted, just like they are as a novice. Novice should be seen as a stepping stone to Expert.

This is the only sport I have seen where there is an incentive to sandbag at a lower level like this. It baffles me that this is the way it is. If theoretically, there was no incentives for Novices, then fast novices would self-promote to become eligible for contingency - we wouldn't have a sandbagging problem, and we definitely do have a problem with it - it's systemic. Last year I had a Novice rider come up to me at a track day talking about his lap times which were very good - easily into mid-pack expert, but said he planned on collecting tire money for the rest of the year before he is promoted...pretty clear we have a problem here.

The idea of taking contingency away from Novices is not quite correct - I'd rather that incentives increased linearly as a rider progresses in their abilities, which isn't the case right now. If that does involve shifting contingency rewards from Novice to Expert, then it evens things up a bit, but we still likely have a problem. I'm, of course, talking theoretically here because we can't 100% control contingency programs.

[Joe Lopez]

Do I still get to run the #1 plate next year?

Lol.
The shameless plug goes unnoticed in my eyes.
Congrats.
Represent for us plus size riders!

[Scott McDaniel]

Just my opinion but:
This shouldn't be a choice. We should promote them based on a different format than we currently use. Our current format doesn't factor in all variables when promoting certain novices. Adjust the formula, the board should discuss the individuals being promoted, and take a vote.
Contingency should be far better for an expert than a novice. The reality is most of the contingency offered doesn't get paid out anyway because of low entry numbers in expert and novice classes.