RE: Why am I asking this? - How About...
Daphine is correct. The biggest problem is in the middle to back of the pack, i.e. seeds 4-7. The problem is compounded by the starting order within a seed of Open, Grp N, PGT, GRP1/5, then production. (Seeds 0-3 are generally running open or grp N cars, so you don't have a seed 1 driving a production car.)
Within a seed there are slow open/pgt drivers placed in front of fast grp 2 and production drivers. THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT SYSTEM! There are also a few persons that because of their long history and past successes retain their seed, but are no longer driving as fast as their seed peers.
The speed factor will help solve these problems or when the organizer does not want to make an adjustment.
Case in point, at Rim my driver was a seed 7 in a production class car. Being production we were right behind two drivers in Group 2 cars that are KNOWN to be slow. We chased them the first night and bacause of the dust we had to slow down. The situation was was never resolved because of technical problems no re-seed was done during the service break. It was very fruststrating! We started in position 72 and finshed 25th overall. That should tell you something about the current system.
My driver is now a seed 5 and that will help. However, I was looking at some of the other seed 5 drivers in PGT/Grp2 cars for Gorman and noticed we consistantly had faster stage times. Thus using the start order, we still may be catching some slower cars just because we are production class.
As usual the SCCA doesn't want to address and fix the real problem.
As for the topic of this discussion, the Australians use a speed factor, so I think starting with this system is a good begining.
http://www.rally.com.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=arccompetitors.seedings&cfid=819963&cftoken=64267759
It reconizes that equipment problems could unfairly penalize a driver so it accounts for that in the system. As for the fast and crash driver, an adjustment can be made to place them in the right location. Even the Aussie system allows for the organizer to make adjustment as needed to the start order.
Finally, the speed factor is a tool to achive a good starting order, but it not the final word.
Paul Nelson
Navie