Guys, just have a look at PURE | JGTS.. It's like you starting up a season with ballast for the first time.
The only thing the ballast at these levels will do is to make the really fast drivers fight a tad more. They will still be faster. It's not a case where a fast driver ends up in D2 just because he have to quali with 60 kg ballast..
Ok, 200 kg is perhaps a bit much. We set the limit to 120 kg, and it's working just fine.
Ballast does'nt have near as big impact as some of you want to put forth.
What does have impact is the concistancy (skill) of the drivers.
Spot-On.
Skill should not be penalized in any form of sport. In Motorsport, ballast penalties are used to equalize the performance of the cars, not the drivers. So if the cars are all equal, there shouldn't be any ballast penalties. I believe everyone agrees with this.
Now, in our case, i can see some form of subtle ballast penalties to be given in order to make the racing and championship standings more interesting but NOT with the extreme system that is proposed. My views are:
-If victory is to be penalized so heavily, then it should be rewarded accordingly. The current points system does not do that.
I do agree, as I said, in my case, you can potentially be better off not placing in the top three with the current ballast system of 20/40/60. Absolutely, because when you have ballast it becomes a 40KG swing between 4rd and 4th, hence my idea for 15/30/45/60, which it still a little extreme.
-When a driver misses a race, ballast should be removed, not remain intact. Even with dropping the worst results, missing a race still hurts your overall chances.
I agree, the current listed amount is only 1 dropped round, there's nothing to gain from intentionally skipping a race, only to be lost.
-Weight ballast is not affecting only pace, but tirewear too, and with the current(2.02) extreme tirewear system we have, the disadvantage of 100 kg, let alone 200kg is insane. I would rather drive a hovercraft.
Of course, hovercrafts have awesome tread life.
But actually, I don't mind it at 90KG, I don't know what it's like higher, but it makes me think more for whatever reason. I also like how the car behaves around 1150KG best. I think if they all weighed 1200KG and I got used to that, I'd like that best even.
With the mods in Pure, they're a bit twitchy for me at stock weight.
-Qualifying should be done without ballast. Enforcing ballast can put the driver out of contention of the extra 3,2,1 points, which, with the current points system, are of great importance.
Yes, qualifying was confirmed with ballast before the season, I'm not sure who or why they brought that up. It was discussed pretty thoroughly in the pre-season thread and highly agreed ballast was needed for quali.
- Ballast enforced on the Finals is completely absurd. At that stage, all the drivers are winners or runner-ups of their division, and they should have no problem keeping the races interesting, if that's the case.
I agree, I seem to have missed when or that it was decided.
PS. On PURE JGTS, we are using a similar points/ballast system. I never raised any points there as i had neglected to check the system until after the first race of the season, and therefore it would be just rude to comment on a system that was already applied in Round 1.
It has proven pretty effective there too. I think 200 was decided to give the most possible drivers a chance into the finals, basically demanding the fastest have to lose a couple races.
I think with the prizes it'll make for some intense races throughout the season, certainly.
I favor a 150KG limit myself. Also something more like 10, 20, 30, 40 for GT300 and 10, 30, 50 for GT500.
Good discussion.
If using total score for the event, will "qual" and "fastest lap" points also be included?
If using total score, it also needs to be stated what happens if two drivers end up on the same score for the event.
Lastly, also state if ballast will be reduced given a lower placing in the results.
Looking forward to see the final ballast rule.
I think it absolutely has to. It's proven pretty common, we even had Litchi pull off a 4-5 finish in a combo, getting the third most points in the process.
Done any other way it makes getting pole and fastest lap, then finishing just out of ballast range a perfect strategy.
, espically in Pure which has some pretty good drivers 
)
.
with John, Mole, Nep and Cicua)
. Though it was the only race I won which I was very happy with 
.
