How are points awarded?
Points are awarded to drivers for each round through which they advance. This is primarily by winning a round, but may also result from being a fast loser or a replacement for a broken competitor.
The reason for awarding points based on rounds is due to the variety of bracket structures used by promoters and due to the inconsistency with which results are reported. It is not always possible to obtain heat-by-heat results. Sometimes, we are only able to determine the finishing order. Our goal is reward drivers for their racing performances, so we strive to include as many events as possible. Drivers are not to be blamed for unorthodox brackets or sparse reporting. Determining round advancement is a minimum criteria that is achievable for the majority of racing events and so it offers us the best way to accurately measure performance while also including a maximum number of events.
Each round is worth a base value of 100 points. This base value is adjusted for the number of vehicles in competition and adjusted for the ranking of the drivers in competition to determine the Points Per Round (PPR). This way, events without fast losers and bye runs are worth more points, and events with higher-ranked drivers are worth more points.
Drivers who do not advance past the first round (whether due to elimination or breakage) are awarded 0 points. Drivers who do not advance past the second round are awarded PPR x 1 points. Drivers who do not advance past the third round are awarded PPR x 2 points, and so on.
For example, here is how points would have been awarded for the 1987 USHRA event in Buffalo, NY:
Winner : Kramer = 300 points
RunnerUp : Dabney = 200 points
Semis : Marquart = 100 points
Semis : Shafer = 100 points
First : Wilson = 0 points
First : Maples = 0 points
First : Bauer = 0 points
First : Reis = 0 points
Drivers who compete in racing and do not advance past the first round receive 0 points and 1 race added to their totals. Drivers who do not compete in racing at all (such as due to breakage) receive 0 points and 0 races added to their totals.
What is BrAAd?
The Bracket Advancement Adjustment (BrAAd) is used to adjust the PPR based on the difficulty of advancing through each round due to the likelihood of fast-losers and bye-runs as determined by field size. The purpose is to minimize the variance caused by drivers occasionally advancing through rounds without winning (a common practice necessitated by the nature of the sport).
The BrAAd is calculated by averaging a driver’s chance of advancing through each round excluding the final. In a full bracket (usually 4, 8, or 16 trucks), there are no bye-runs or fast-losers, and so a driver’s chance of advancing each round is 50%. The progression of remaining vehicles goes 16 – 8 – 4 – 2, dividing in half each time. For a field of 5 trucks, however, the progression of remaining vehicles is 5 – 4 – 2. The chance of advancing past the first round is 80% and then 50% for the semi-finals for an average of 65%. For a field of 14 trucks, the progression is 14 – 8 – 4 – 2 or 57% - 50% - 50% for an average of 52%. To determine the BrAAd, this average is subtracted from 150%. So 150 – 50 = 100% for an 8-truck field, and 150 – 65 = 85% for a 5-truck field, and finally 150 – 52 = 98% for a 14-truck field.
The base round score of 100-points is multiplied by the BrAAd to determine the PPR for that field size. From the examples above, a 5-truck field will award 85-points-per-round; an 8-truck field will award 100-points-per-round; a 14-truck field will award 98-points-per-round.
The reason we do not adjust for fast-losers and bye-runs directly is because not every event is reported with that much detail. Sometimes we only receive the final standings with no indication of how a truck advanced. (As the old saying goes: “The Pay Window doesn’t ask how you got there, they just ask where you finished.”) To ensure that the maximum number of events are eligible for inclusion, the BrAAd adjustment was developed using standard theoretical brackets. It allows us to adjust for these factors without requiring detailed reports.
What is CCA?
The Competition Caliber Adjustment (CCA) will be implemented for the 2020 season. It requires a baseline ranking which is being determined by the 2019 results. For 2019, all events will have a CCA = 1.000.
The CCA is used to adjust the PPR based on the rankings of the competitors at the events. As a result, events with higher-ranked drivers are worth more points than events with lower-ranked drivers. Drivers are assigned a CCA Rating based on their final world rankings from the previous year. The drivers ranked 1-through-5 are rated as 1.500. Drivers 6-through-10 are rated as 1.450. Drivers 11-through-15 are rated as 1.400. This progression continues down to Drivers 96-to-100 who are rated as 0.550. All other drivers are rated as 0.500. The CCA for an event is the average of the Ratings for all the drivers entered to compete.
Drivers who were not ranked in the previous year (usually rookies) will be rated as 0.500. In rare circumstances where a veteran driver returns to competition after a year off, MTROC officials will deliberate on the appropriateness of the rating for that driver. If the driver in question is accomplished and only recently removed from the seat, officials may elect to award a rating of 1.000 in order to better approximate the difficulty of competing against this driver.