In the "good old days" we used to get points for "starting", so this might have made a difference (probably not in NASA land.........).
The Atlantic Rally Cup
does have start point, and yes, that's why it's relevant.
I think the question of what constitutes a DNS hinges on what constitutes a start.
I agree. I think that if you find yourself rallying during a weekend, you
must have started rallying at some point.
For how could one be doing something
now if one hadn't started doing it earlier?
So, at least in my opinion, as it relates to the philosophy of NASA Rally Sport, the "TC Zero" status is not relevant to the DNS status. There's a million ways not to
finish a rally, a wide variety of combinations of controls or days that could be missed (discounting superrally ideas) that would result in a DNF. But to my mind, the only way to DNS would be to miss
all controls of an event (after having successfully passing tech and completing registration, and thus being eligible to be on the start list).
It's certainly uncommon, but "starting" a rally at some non-TC0 location does happen from time to time, and that's when it gets more complicated. It would be entirely possible to have three simultaneous statuses:
Day1 - DNS
Day2 - Actively Racing
2DayEvent - DNF
The thought experiment came up as some of the racers at Empire State were listed as DNS.... when DNF more correctly describes the scenario. Danny, for some reason, missed the entire first day including TC0, and thus was marked as DNS in scoring. Day 2 comes around and he's racing again, but since he's obviously out of contention for the 2 day ARC standings, no one is really paying attention to DNS or DNF, and so the status does not change. Out of the twelve stages, he has times only for the last 4. In my mind, he's as deserving of the 4 start points as someone who ran the first 4 stages but no others. And this definition matches with the intent of the behavior the rules would like to encourage. (which is POR'ing and getting out on stage)
Of course this particular scenario (side topic) is also interesting in that it points out the dual potential meanings of "Finish" (in the language, not in the rule set), because Danny
did make it to the finish line, thus "finishing", in a way, although not
completing, the rally.
I didn't see any DNS definitions in the rule various books, and there's certainly some differing thoughts within this thread. I'll be adding a clarification to the NRS rules for the future.
Cheers
Anders