I think co-Bernies is a fine idea. This really is something that is awesome if we can all get together and push it out the door. I myself cannot run it alone, but I can certainly run it with a few others.
EDIT: Here are some racing series that I think everyone needs to look at. All I want you to notice is the details on the OP and other posts, take some inspiration.
Masi's WRC Championship
This is a beautiful and intuitive set up without being overwhelming. The fact that you need to disable auto-resize is about the only negative I can think of. We should strive to make all series OP's "resize" friendly while still looking good. Turning off resize can lead to problems while viewing other threads...
Cappucino Cup
... like this. This is a great and well run series that has the hammer down on professionalism. Good banners and lots of eyecandy while still being informative (Although I will admit that there does need to be a limit on eye candy... it can get distracting and a little overwhelming after awhile.) The one problem is that with auto re-size off... well... there's some huge ass images there. The tribute to Dan Wheldon is awesome but DAMN that's a big picture.
gippone's LMP Championship
This is by far one of the better setups of the three. It's beautiful without seeming overdone and on top of that there's full-race replays (!) which is outstanding.
The biggest reason we need to get ORB off the ground is because I see all of these acronyms in front of racing series and I have no idea what any of them mean! What do they do? The best of them exist only to keep the drivers pooled close so that they can advertise other series of theirs.... but after that there's really not much these organizations do!
Flyin' Miata Super Cup
Turbo's series is already quite successful (Season 3! Way to go man!) and his OP shows what simplicity can do. While I think a few more pictures might help new entrants get a feel for what's shakin', the text is ultimately very well laid out and has clean and simple banners highlight everything.
and now on to some ranting, just so you guys know what I'm about.
What I cannot stand (opinion time):
1. Please, I know that having real life racing-associated brands can look cool and gives your series an air of reality... but it ultimately serves no purpose other than to give that company completely free advertising. The stemming of the frustration comes from a point that I made earlier in that there are plenty of brands associated with gtplanet that are active in the Tuning and Photo forums as well as other places online, yet none of the owners of these brands are approached about involvement in racing series here on gtplanet, instead getting ignored for things like "YOKOHAMA" and "MOBIL 1". If they're paying to advertise on these series then we need to figure out how to make friends with the guys running those series.
2. One-make series. I, of course, agree that these are competitive and no doubt fun series to participate in, but the amount of them shows that there's a lot of effort being focused away from what could be very exciting multi-car/class battles. Most importantly, it's these kind of series that would make the most sense with getting in league with the various tuners in GT5. Imagine asking 12 tuners to make a tune/setup to your general specifications (obviously you can't restrict
everything or the point would be moot) and then testing the tunes against each other. You'd then pick the four that are closest in time (these are not necessarily the fastest) and then instruct participants to pick one of the four tunes that they'll be using in the coming season.
3. Confusing Class layouts. I hate looking at "Eligible" car lists and scratching my head.
"Sir, why do you have a Ferrari 458 street car and a Ford GT LM Spec II race car in the same class? That isn't even limited by performance points and therefor swaying in the aerodynamically superior Ford's favor?" Ohh! It's because the 458 and Ford GT race against each other on the track in real life (...?) and since the Ferrari 458 doesn't have a RM you figured that throwing the street car in there would be an acceptable substitute (...?).
4. Confusing Car regulations. "I understand you've done a lot of work to make sure these cars are competitive, but you're telling me I have to do
everything to my car that you've laid out for me?" I guess these series are great for people who cannot tune cars on their own (I try but I fail), but with the proven-competitive PP system so readily available, why not just use that? Bottom line, looking at all of those car stats is overwhelming.
5. What I consider to be partial grids. Sometimes this can half make sense, other times I just cannot comprehend why some cars are disallowed. The LMP series that I linked to above is an example of this. Ignoring the fact that a lot of good Prototypes are apparently not on the list of approved rides, there's one that seems to be removed on paint scheme alone! Why is the Playstation ORECA Audi R8 allowed... yet the factory Audi R8 isn't?
6. Real life pictures. This is basically a slap in the face to all of the wonderful GT photographers out there. Why you cannot ask them to take some pics and then give them some serious kudos in your series OP is beyond me.
7. Long Races. This is one I have mixed feelings about, I hope you understand. Obviously long races are a challenge in themselves and worthy of all drivers attention in a series, also worthy of being included IN online series, but what happens if you start the field with 16 drivers and end with... 6? Not only has your prize gone down but say some of those drivers had connection issues 75% of the way through the race? They've just wasted a good chunk of time and gotten nothing from it but disappointment.
8. Long Schedules. There's a lot of awesome tracks in GT, I get it. Long schedules are also pretty awesome I'll admit, but we're not professional racing drivers and sometimes it's hard for most people to commit to racing a series over and over again on a set time reliably. And I would hate to have to forfeit my championship standings with 4 races to go after I've done 8 because my work schedule changed.
I would go on but then I'd get into nit-picky things that even
I consider to be irrational (Racing series
grids based on real racing series, RM's painted in audacious colors), so I won't bore you on top of making me look like a dictatorial fool.