From my experiance of the lap system with mixed abilities it favours the better drivers. Simply because the better driver will always have more chance of winning the heat than a newcomer. And the more you win the higher up you finish. It also means that a newcomer will be in a heat with at least one good driver for say 90% of their races, which gives them a seriously reduced chance of ever winning one of the races. At least with the grading system they have a better chance in every run to win their qualifying heat.
At times we all like to race against the top guys, if only to show that we aren't as good as we thought we were.
However going back on the point I just stated, the first time I did lap racing I had a none finish, and then won all my remaining races. Because the Laps system I was racing to meant all your qualifying heats counted I ended up 4th or 5th on the A final grid. With the current round by round format or simply being able to drop one or two bad runs I would more likely have qualified pole for that meeting. Therefore this format does help to give a lessor ability driver more chance of finishing higher up, assuming of course that they can finish every single race. On the flip side though a lower ability driver that has a none finish for what ever reason is even less likely to be able to drag themselves from the bottom of the listing as they have a lower chance of winning races which is what they would need to do.
You could still mix the drivers up, but put people into more closely graded heats than say an F1 with an F5. It may mean racing against the same person more than once and I am not 100% sure how you could work out the points. But it would make the racing closer for the drivers and more entertaining for spectators too as it would be less predictable as to who is going to win.
The laps system however does work, especially at Laword Buggy Club where they are one if not the biggest off road club in the East of England, and one of the friendliest clubs I have ever raced at.
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