The Pit Board
If the car feels like it is on rails, you are probably driving too slow. -Ross Bentley
"Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers." -Colin McRae
This week, Esh, dabneyd and myself are celebrating our one year anniversary with S.N.A.I.L. and what an amazing ride it has been, quite literally! A couple of nights ago I went to post #2, as I do every week, to make sure I am buying the right cars and check to see what tires and what tracks we are running for the week. Once I had gathered the info that I needed, I scrolled down to post #3... Then #4 and just kept going. Reading the humble beginnings of our league was pretty cool.
Twenty Seven Thousand two hundred thirty three posts later, SNAIL has really grown and matured so much but even in the beginning you can really see the heart and soul of what we have all come to love so much. What started out as a handful of drivers searching for some clean racing has blossomed into what I believe to be the most unique and well organized racing leagues on GTPlanet. There are many things that set us apart from everyone else on this site, but the one thing that truly puts us light years ahead is all of the data collection and documentation that has taken place since the very beginning and this is what The Pit Board is all about.
We have looked at some of what the
SNAIL Results document has to offer all of us as a league and as individuals. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been highlighting some of the general tabs and what kind of information that is available to us all but this week, I would like to give you all a more in depth description of what some of the numbers mean. Well, as much as I would love to have that ability, no one can really explain it better than the SNAIL Results creator. I would like to introduce our very own,
kcheeb, (Master and Maestro with way more spreadsheet-fu than I will ever possess!! ) to give it to us in his own words!!
The rankings at the bottom of the monthly scoring spreadsheet are calculated using average ranks from each race you participate in and have data for.
For the Fast Lap section, you are given a rank for each race you participate in and have a fast lap entered. The ranking is calculated based on where your fast lap is in relation to each driver that raced that combination and has data entered. For the month your fast lap ranks are averaged and then sorted in order of the average. Maybe an example would be in order.
Race 1
Driver A 1:05.134 Rank 1
Driver B 1:05.215 Rank 2
Driver C 1:06.004 Rank 3
Driver D 1:06.112 Rank 4
Driver E 1:06.210 Rank 5
Race 2
Driver B 1:45.540 Rank 1
Driver A 1:45.573 Rank 2
Driver D 1:46.210 Rank 3
Driver C 1:46.321 Rank 4
Driver E 1:46.549 Rank 5
Race 3
Driver D 1:39.303 Rank 1
Driver A 1:39.324 Rank 2
Driver B 1:39.540 Rank 3
Driver E 1:40.125 Rank 4
Driver C 1:40.321 Rank 5
Driver A - Ranks 1, 2, 2 - Average Rank - 1.67 - First
Driver B - Ranks 2, 1, 3 - Average Rank - 2.00 - Second
Driver D - Ranks 4, 3, 1 - Average Rank - 2.67 - Third
Driver C - Ranks 3, 4, 5 - Average Rank - 4.00 - Fourth
Driver E - Ranks 5, 5, 4 - Average Rank - 4.67 - Fifth
Each of the other categories are calculated much the same way, Total Time Rank uses your best total time for a Car/Track Combination, Adjusted Points Rank uses your adjusted points for each race of each Car/Track Combination and calculates your position in S.N.A.I.L. for that category as the Fast Lap Rank Does. For the Average Adjusted Points Rank your ranking is done based on the average number of adjusted points you receive for the month. In other words the calculation averages the adjusted points you get during the month and then ranks you in relation to all the other S.N.A.I.L.s with points that month.
The last category, Rank Summed, adds your four Ranks, Fast Lap, Total Time, Adjusted Points and Average Adjusted Points. It then ranks you in relation to all other S.N.A.I.L.s. There is however a slight twist to the Rank Summed category, we can and do apply a weighting to each category. We do this to give extra emphasis to what we feel are the more important categories. The current weightings are Fast Lap - 1, Total Time - 1, Adjusted Points - .5 and Average Adjusted Points - .5. So at this point in time we feel Adjusted Points and Average Adjusted Points are worth half of what the Fast Lap and Total Time Rankings are.
I've added brief comment to some of the sections in the spreadsheet to help convey what each of the categories is trying to show. If you see a cell in the spreadsheet that has a small black rectangle in the upper right corner, I've left a comment there. Hover your cursor over it and it should show up. Hopefully that helps out some
Again, thanks kcheeb. There is no way I could have explained it as well as you have!
There is no better time than the present to give the SNAIL Results document a good going over as we are getting into the thick of the GranStand Challenge and this Sunday will be the last race in the April season! Do you know what place you are in? How about how many points you have or how many will you need to clinch the champoinship? All the data you need for setting up your race strategy for this weekend is just one click away!!
Race Clean, Race Hard, Race S.N.A.I.L.
