It's that throw out question (again)

[hmeeder]

Trying to recall what the final call was on the AX throwout policy for this year. It was pretty extensively covered in the previous forum, but my memory has gotten a bit fuzzy.

Correct me if this is wrong:

1. One throw out for the year
2. Rainouts are not thrown.
3. Can only throw out points (in other words, cannot throwout a no-show. Otherwise someone who attends every event would be penalized by losing points whereas the driver who skipped one event would have zero points deducted.)

Does any of this sound familiar?

Buehler?

[Dan Chambers]

Herb:

You're exactly on the right line. 1 throw-out allowed of your lowest earned points; rain-outs and no-shows excluded.

So if you decide to throw out your 10 points for 4th place, you keep the rest, including the 5-point rainout, and 0 point no-show.

[Carl Scragg]

Dan,

Your response makes it sound like throw outs are optional. Why would anyone choose to throw away points?

Carl

[hmeeder]

Exactly my question. I believe it would be mandatory for the lowest earned score for all drivers be dropped, or the system wouldn't work at all. No one would voluntarily lose points, would they?

[MikeD]

Also, why would you not allow people to throw out a no-show? Seems like that is the whole point of having a throwout in the first place .

[Dan Chambers]

Sorry, guys. That did sound a bit vague. Let me try to clarify:

Everyone will have one throw-out who earned points this year, excluding rain-outs and no-shows. Typically, it will be their lowest score that is thrown out ..... unless someone wants to make it a closer trophy challange and take a higher number out.

Historically rain-outs and no-shows have been excluded. I'm aware of many different reasons, but for the sake of a simple explaination, it's what we did last year, if memory serves me right.

My personal opinion for not including no-shows is, I don't think it's right to reward a person with not participating by allowing them to throw out a no-show. In cases where numbers are really close, it would be very frustrating if someone were to lose an award place to someone else who drove in less events, AND dicovered the person who beat them was rewarded for driving less by tossing a no-show. You drive, you earn points. You skip it, you earn no points. If it rains, we're all on an equal par due to and act of the "Guy Upstairs." It is a bit simplistic, I'll agree. To me, keeping things simple helps keep things fair. Fairness is my goal. Everyone is on an equal playing field at these events, as far as I'm concerned. In fact I strive to make sure it's fair for everyone every time an event comes up. You go and complicate things, and someone gets the short shrift, whether its points for driving, or driving without corner working. Fair is fair. Keep it simple, keep it fair.

Anyway, I hope that helps. I'm off to catch a plane. See you on the 11th/12th.

[ttweed]

Also, why would you not allow people to throw out a no-show? Seems like that is the whole point of having a throwout in the first place .

I'm with Mike on this. I thought the throwout was to allow people who missed one event because of family vacation/emergency/etc. to not be penalized. It doesn't make sense to me to throw out a points-scoring event. I'd just as soon have them all scored.

TT

[Jad]

I think Dan's brain is already in the south pacific I recall not being able to throw out rain-outs, but my memory from the previous years is the no shows can be thrown out and are the reason for the rule like TT said.

I guess you are better to sign up and then go home to your family, take your 1 point DNF and throw it out instead of staying home and getting stuck with a 0 and having to throw out a second place or something

My vote would still be the simple - throw out the lowest score, period. No exceptions. There is SLIGHT logic I guess in limiting the rule, but gaining attendance just isn't that big a concern for AX's.

Can another AX chair confirm or clarify in Dan's absense?

[Lewis Wise]

I also recall the same as Jad & Tom. The initial purpose of throw-outs was in fact to allow a driver to miss an occasional autoX, and still be able to compete for trophies. It was never meant to level the playing field for the bad driving day, but to let us have a life outside of the parking lot.

I think as the tweaking of the policy continued, the true (and best, IMHO) purpose may have been overlooked.

Thanks for all your hard work AX team!

-Lewis

[Jad]

Lewis, welcome to the club, maybe you will come down and try a driving event sometime and see if you like it

[Lewis Wise]

[Curt]

Lewis, welcome to the club, maybe you will come down and try a driving event sometime and see if you like it

Dang, Jad is on fire lately!

[Larry Clark]

Instead of thinking of it as a "throw out," simply count each contestant's N-1 best scores, where N is the number of events in the year. That allows a contestant to miss one event due to vacation/illness/having a real life/etc. without totally sacrificing the whole year's competition. Even so, it still gives an advantage to the contestant who runs them all, since he can drop his worst rather than having to count everything he runs.

As for rain-outs, I see no reason why they should be treated differently. If an event gets rained out while I am on vacation, does this rule say I cannnot count it as my throw-out event? That would mean I have to take 0 points for not showing up, rather than half points for being there and getting rained out, and I still have to drop some other event? Sorry, but I don't see how that makes the competition fairer.

[MikeD]

Everyone will have one throw-out who earned points this year, excluding rain-outs and no-shows.

Just to be clear. There were no throw-outs last year. Maybe the year before, but not last year.

[Kim Crosser]

After much discussion at the beginning of the year, I believe the "official" policy was:

One (1) throw-out - your single lowest score for an event, which is a zero if you missed an event, five points for a rain-out, or your lowest finishing place points. (If you showed up every event, including one or more rain-out events, and had a finish that scored less than 5 points, then the lower points would be discarded.)

I am not sure why you would be allowed to pick which points to discard, since anything other than the above would adversely affect your overall score.