National Points Shootout

[Kevin]

The National Points Shootout begins this Thursday at Ipswich.

 

Qualification

 

Qualification for the shootout began at the very first meeting of the 2010 season and continued up to the end of the 5th grading period. The top six drivers in the Grading Points chart at the end of that period were TomD(1), Dazza(290), Mike(315), Johno(3), Murf(561) & Fasttrack(527), all of whom automatically qualified for the National Points Shootout.

 

The winner of the shootout will be entitled to wear a silver roof for the whole of next season and will also be graded superstar for the whole season.

 

As a point of reference, the winner of the Grading Points (season long points championship) will be recognised within UKDirt F1 (unlike real life) and be entitled to wear two silver stripes on their roof for the whole of the following season. They will also be graded superstar for the following season.

 

Fixtures

 

The following fixtures have been designated as National Points Shootout rounds:

30th September - Ipswich

7th October - Scunthorpe

14th October - Buxton - also Tarmac Masters Final

21st October - Kings Lynn

28th October- Birmingham - also Grand National Championship

4th November - Belle Vue - also World of Shale Final

11th November - Arena Essex

18th November - Coventry

 

All meetings are on Thursday evenings and start at 20:30 (UK time). The meetings at Scunthorpe, Kings Lynn, Belle Vue & Coventry will be run completely at nighttime; the remaining meetings completely in daylight. Thursday Night Thunder races will take place at each round and will always be run under the lights.

 

Grades

 

All of those drivers will be graded superstar, starting at Ipswich up until the end of the season. This means that TomD, Dazza & Mike will remain at their present grade and Johno, Murf & Fasttrack will be upgraded with immediate effect.

 

NOTE: This grade change is out of sync with the normal grade changes which will be announced after the Ipswich meeting and will take effect from Scunthorpe.

 

Grid Line Up

 

The shootout drivers will start every race in a particular meeting in a fixed formation. A draw was made at the real life World Final meeting to determine how they will line up for the first meeting (obviously 2-a-breast as normal):

 

FRONT OF GRID

Johno(3)

Murf(561)

Dazza(290)

Mike(315)

Fasttrack(527)

TomD(1)

BACK OF GRID

 

For each subsequent meeting, they will line up in point scoring order, lowest at the front.

 

The only exception to this is where there is a special race determined by point scoring positions. These are (1) Grand National Championship (2) Tarmac Masters Final & (3) World of Shale Final. Of those, only the GN Championship race is a point scoring race and will be run as the first race of the meeting with all six shootout drivers eligible to take part.

 

Further, where the meeting attendance requires a 2/3rds format to be used, an equal and random number of shootout drivers will be assigned to each heat, and if necessary each GN race.

 

At the end of each meeting there will be some Thursday Night Thunder races. The grids for these races are completely random. The shootout drivers will not be required to start at the back of the grid; they will line up in a random order determined by the meeting steward as normal. Further, the points scored in these races will not count towards the shootout championship.

 

Non Shootout Superstars

 

Any superstar driver attending a meeting who is not in the shootout competition will start their races in their normal position (ie one grade gap behind the red grade drivers). In this case the shootout drivers will line up one grade gap further behind. In other words the non shootout superstars will have a grade to themselves.

 

Points

 

Points have been awarded already based on the following criteria:

1. Two points per appearance from the qualifying rounds.

2. One point for every Grand Final victory in the qualifying rounds.

 

The points table as it stands before the first round is:

TomD(1) - 67

Johno(3) - 64

Fasttrack(527) - 61

Dazza(290), Mike(315), Murf(561) - 60

 

Points at each round will be exactly the same as a normal meeting. The exception being the final shootout round at Coventry where, for shootout purposes only, the points will count double.