[BTCC] The officially unofficial RWD vs FWD Class-based comparison

[crmalcolm]

As expected, we have the ever-lasting RWD vs FWD debate in BTCC with many arguments on both sides of whether RWD has an inherent advantage over FWD.

This thread is not intended to be a repeat of that debate - that can be continued elsewhere.

What I began to wonder though was - if we take the assumption that RWD and FWD cars will always be inherently different and there is no realistic way to 'equalise' them to race against each other, how can the presence of both types continue in BTCC with a fair way to compare them in the race for the championship?

What came to mind was a form of 'class-based scoring'. Accepting that RWD and FWD cars will compete amongst their own class, but also score points in the overall championship title, then the challenge is faced of there being only 6 RWD cars competing this year. If the points were allocated within class, the last RWD car would still get a '6th place' finish. In an attempt to answer this, I have attempted to score the races to date so far in the following manner:

All FWD cars are eligible for points in the FWD class. These are awarded in the same way as currently allocated, with 20 pts for the class winner down to 1 points for the 15th place in class. Bonus points for Qualifying 1st, and for Fastest Lap in class. I haven't included leading a lap at this time.
All RWD cars are eligible for points in the RWD class. These have been awarded pro-rate based on the amount of cars competing. This means that the class winner still gets 20 pts, but the pro-rata reduction means that the 4th place RWD car gets 1 pt - with no points for 5th and 6th in class. Again, Qualifying and Fastest Lap points have been awarded within class.

So how does that leave the table looking:

Driver	Points	Class
Turkington	170	RWD
Butcher	162	FWD
Ingram	154	FWD
Cammish	151	FWD
Sutton	148	RWD
Chilton	132	FWD
Morgan	121	FWD
Oliphant	116	RWD
Smiley	103	FWD
Proctor	100	FWD
Hill	98	FWD
Neal	86	FWD
Jackson	84	FWD
Crees	63	FWD
Thompson	56	FWD
Cook	56	FWD
Osborne	48	FWD
Gornall	45	FWD
Goff	33	FWD
Neate	30	FWD
Butel	23	FWD
Moffat	22	RWD
Jelley	15	RWD
Brown	13	FWD
Hamilton	12	FWD
Bushell	10	FWD
Boardley	1	RWD

As you can see - under this system Turkington is still the cream that rises to the top - but the points are a lot closer behind. The lesser RWD drivers seem to be punished a bit more, but the competition seems a lot closer.

What are people's opinions? Would they prefer to see a class-based system adopted in the BTCC? Does this method of scoring seem too skewed?