My point was that total time is not "one stat". It is an overall average of lap times in traffic. Getting hit by other drivers happens...good drivers recover, bad drivers panic and end up way off course. Eventually everyone settles into their comfort zone. If you want, remove each driver's worst and best times and you'll account for races they had uncharacteristic accidents or were not challenged by other drivers. I will concede that incidents filed against drivers is definitely missing from this stat, but points are somewhat irrelevant when you aren't racing your peers or your peers don't show up to compete. If they don't show up, you don't all of a sudden post total times several divisions above your current division.
I disagree. It's a stat that says how much time it took a driver to complete the race, period. A number of factors can come into play to determine what that number is. Not all of which are in the drivers control. Here's a few:
1. Someone took them out (even a good driver will never catch up when this happens).
2. They took themselves out (even a good driver will never catch up when this happens).
3. They are not good with that car on that track.
4. They are not good at that track.
5. They are not good with that car.
6. Someone at home distracted them.
7. Someone on track distracted them.
The list can go on and on. Thing is it's one piece of information that will never tell the whole story about a driver's race.
Consider this, someone can run 4 of 5 laps at near qualifying speed, they do it all the time. But because they mess one lap up, they always end up in the middle or at the bottom of their Division. If you looked at just their total time, you'd relegate them and perhaps put them in a group where they always qualify first, race alone for 4 laps and maybe meet up at the finish line with someone. Not what we're striving for in S.N.A.I.L.
Anyway, I've already stated I don't mind staying in D4. This criticism is not a way for me to move up the ladder. I just think several drivers currently in D5 were overlooked for promotion and judging from reports from lower divisions there are other drivers that fit the same bill. It seems to me D1-D3 fall perfectly in line with this stat while D4+ is possibly suffering from growing pains with mismatched driver skill.
Something else that most people overlook is the fact we try to keep our Division grids as even as possible. The line has to be drawn somewhere, some S.N.A.I.L.s fall below a line and some above it. It's in the nature of having Divisions. In fact that's why they're called Divisions, because, well, there's a Division between S.N.A.I.L.s
Something else to consider is people get better. They get excited about being in a league and able to race people of their ability. So, they spend time practicing, listening, understanding and getting better. Now they can beat their current division on most nights and this is somehow a problem of placement???
It's been said over and over that the difference between drivers in D2 through D4 is negligible. And you could argue that near all the way through the Divisions, D3 through D5, D4 through D6 ...
ok now that I have said that I want to say this. You guys that are having trouble understanding your division placement need to take a deep breath and relax. You are there for a reason. If for whatever reason you are in the wrong division im sure it will get worked out by those who go over and update the data every single week. (By the way did I mention these guys dont get paid for there time either) just have fun. I myself have never been nor will I ever see d1 but I still enjoy hanging out with friends. I thought I had an issue a while back with being in the wrong division so I pmd kcheeb to see what was up. (I think I went from d4 to d6) he told me to just run with d6 and if I was in the wrong div they would take care of it. Well to my surprise, theres really not much difference between d4 and d6. All im saying is before you get mad or start going on and on about changing the way things are run, give it some time and it will all get sorted out. And just remember to have fun. I know these guys spend countless hours going over the data, and replays, penalties etc and the truth is they dont have to. I personally want to thank all of you guys for what you do so I can enjoy my sunday nights. My hats off to you gentleman. RACE HARD, RACE CLEAN, RACE SNAIL!! 
