by Bryan Autullo – FAST Public Relations
MAUMEE, OH (2-7-10)
With the racing season about to kick off soon in Northern OH, the Kistler Racing Products Fremont / Attica Sprint Title (FAST) Series has been hard at work making changes, adjustments, and improvements to the rules for 2010. With the first year in the books, there were a few gray areas that needed to be addressed and some minor changes were needed to improve on the success of the inaugural season. “There were a few issues we had to overcome in 2009 with the way our driver and owner points were set up and we’ve decided to change things up this year,” said series co-founder Scott Porter. “We try to be fair and unbiased in our decisions and we have spent a lot of time during the off-season discussing how to eliminate the problems we had our first season.” The result is the elimination of owner points. Only driver points will be kept in 2010 for the 22 FAST Series events.
“We sat down and went through several possible scenarios and situations and based our decision on what we felt is the best for FAST,” said series co-founder Chris Kettman. “There may be a few teams who won’t agree with our decisions on the changes we’ve made for this season, but in the long run we feel it is our responsibility to make things fair across the board and protect the integrity of our series.” For the most part, things will remain the same as they were in 2009, but minor adjustments to rules, points, and procedures will help to improve the series as a whole. One other notable change is the increase of “show up points” from 25 to 50 points and the elimination of “non-transfer” points in the heat races. “I don’t think we’ve made any drastic changes. Our goal is to improve on something that was already pretty darn good,” added Porter.
2010 Kistler Racing Products Fremont/Attica Sprint Title Rules
1. There is no membership fee required to be eligible for F.A.S.T. Championship Series points. All Drivers who compete in any scheduled F.A.S.T. event will receive season championship points and be eligible for the point fund money.
2. Drivers who are eligible to receive point fund money at the end of the season must have a W-9 IRS tax form filled out and submitted to F.A.S.T. by the end of the season in order to receive any cash/prizes at the banquet. F.A.S.T. will provide W-9 forms from the IRS. Driver will be responsible for claiming point fund money as income as F.A.S.T. will file a 1099 with the IRS for each check written. If a Driver chooses to select another entity as the “payee” for their point fund check, that entity must fill out the W-9 form. Division of point fund money between Driver, Owner, or any other party will not be the responsibility of the F.A.S.T. series. One check will be written in the amount designated for the Driver’s finishing position in season points.
3. Points will be awarded to the Driver only. No Owner points will be kept. If a Driver changes rides for any reason during the season, the Driver maintains all points acquired up to that point. Driver and Owner shall have their own agreement of how F.A.S.T. point fund money and prizes will be divided. It will not be the responsibility of F.A.S.T. to determine the team structure and payment split. Point Fund money will be paid to the entity listed on the W-9 IRS tax form. (See rule #2 above)
4. Drivers must finish the event in the car that they started the night in. (This does not apply to using a back up car.) No “ride jumping” to another team’s car, or even a team car, will be allowed. No exceptions will be made. Driver will receive F.A.S.T. points for the event up until the time that another car (excluding the Driver’s own back up car) is used to finish the event.
5. Complaints arising regarding the award of championship points or any other perceived rule discrepancy must be submitted in writing to F.A.S.T. within 10 days of the infraction. The FAST staff will review all written complaints in a fair and objective manner. We reserve the right to investigate any and all complaints as we deem necessary. The F.A.S.T. staff will make a decision and all parties involved will then be notified of the decision. All decisions will be considered final.
6. Teams MUST display (2) F.A.S.T. Series decals – one on each outward facing sideboard of the top wing – during F.A.S.T. events in order to receive points, cash, and prizes. Logo placement on the inside faces of the wing sideboards or other areas of the car not visible to photographers will not be considered acceptable.
7. Contingency award program decals will be distributed to each team for placement on the car. Teams must display decals to be eligible for the contingency award program. Any team wishing not to participate may notify the FAST series when decals are handed out.
8. Points will be tabulated based on the official race results provided by the track scorers. Disputes with event finishing order should be addressed to the track officials and not to the F.A.S.T. staff.
9. Fifty (50) show up points will be awarded to all drivers who compete in any F.A.S.T. event once motors have been fired at the direction of a track official. No show up points will be awarded for rainouts or any other cancellation if motors have not been fired.
10. There will be NO double points for any F.A.S.T. events during double points nights at either track. Track championship points and F.A.S.T. points are to remain separate.
11. F.A.S.T. Rookie of the Year award winner shall be determined by the highest finishing driver who accumulates the most F.A.S.T. points during their first full year in a 410 sprint car while competing for the F.A.S.T. point title. Rookie eligibility will be determined by the rules of the two tracks.
12. All Top10 Drivers are required to attend the F.A.S.T. Championship awards banquet at the end of the season in order to receive cash awards and contingency prizes. Please make plans in advance to attend. Special consideration will be given to those Drivers providing notification to F.A.S.T. well in advance if there is a valid reason why they cannot attend the banquet. Drivers who do not attend the banquet and have not notified the F.A.S.T. series of any scheduling conflicts will forfeit their money and prizes to the following year’s F.A.S.T. point fund.
13. Situations may arise that are not precisely covered in these Rules. F.A.S.T. staff will make all interpretations of the rules included herein and those judgments will be final.
2010 F.A.S.T. Championship Series Points System
Show Up Points: 50 pts
A-Main:
1. 100 pts
2. 95 pts
3. 90 pts
4. 86 pts
5. 82 pts
6. 79 pts
7. 76 pts
8. 73 pts
9. 70 pts
10. 68 pts
11. 66 pts
12. 64 pts
13. 62 pts
14. 60 pts
15. 58 pts
16. 56 pts
17. 55 pts
18. 54 pts
19. 53 pts
20. 52 pts
(21. 51 pts)
(22. 50 pts)
B-Main:
1. Transfer
2. Transfer
3. Transfer
4. Transfer
5. 40 pts
6. 39 pts
7. 38 pts
8. 37 pts
9. 36 pts
10. 35 pts
11. 34 pts
12. 33 pts
13. 32 pts
14. 31 pts
15. 30 pts
16. 29 pts
17. 28 pts
18. 27 pts
19. 26 pts
20. 25 pts
BONUS POINTS:
Sweep Back-to-Back (Fri/Sat) Weekend = 5 pts
Hard Charger Award (per event) = 2 pts
SEASON TIE BREAKER:
Tie-breakers will be determined by
1. Number of FAST Wins
2. Number of FAST Top 5’s
3. Number of FAST Top 10’s
4. Average A-Main finish In FAST events
Visit www.fastondirt.com for more information on news and events for the 2010 season.