I was browsing some of the older topics, trying to jog my memory on things like why Pika A got a 2:27 in '10, why Fringe and Pika had re-rolls in '09 (watching Fringe men's finals heats from '04 and '09 always hurts) and I stumbled on this old post:
Its a pretty cool concept, kind of like "parc ferme" from Formula 1.lemuroid wrote:My idea for improving design: hold it friday afternoon, after prelims. The judges would all be invited to watch the prelims. This, more than anything else would improve the odds of having a rational outcome of the contest
Just roll them into the Gym when they come off the drop line.
If you include freeroll times with a weighted scoring penalty for every second behind the leader ... then on-course performance can have some sort of balanced affect on the design score. This could replace the old "must finish in top-third" requirement and the judges get to evaluate the buggy in "race condition".