I think the only time you will get "a fair and just" starting spot is at a national event. Most events that are geared towards drawing in cars from other regions will have a format to support strangers. Most big money or national events will have time trials or qualifying sessions to establish a "pecking order." They use those to set the heat or qualifying race lineups and then its up to the driver to earn their starting spot in the feature or mains.
As far as visting other areas, your always at the mercy of the local system. The reason? Most local clubs allow the tracks to dictate the event. The local clubs already have to talk the tracks into becoming INEX sanctioned ($$$) and talk them into hosting the events (adding to schedule & insurance risk). Legends cars are a support division at most places, so the tracks are "doing us a favor" by allowing the local clubs to run there. So unless the club can talk the track into a special format, your stuck with the track's choice.
Between our 2 local clubs here in PA (dirt), Central PA Legends allow the tracks to use its format and Keystone Legends does its own points handicapping to set the fields. Both systems have pros & cons, but that is what the clubs have negotiated with the tracks.
Central PA Legends uses the track format which in most cases uses the dreaded (or not) pill draw. The starting order for heat races are set by nothing more than your luck (or lack there of = me) of pulling a number from a hat. From there, its up to the driver to qualify and the track system for inverts & such. There is a 3 race rule for rookies to start in the back of heat races (rookies to legend cars).
Keystone Legends uses a points system based on your last 3 series race finishes. The worse you finish, the farther forward you start in the heat race. If you miss a race, you recieve max points, which starts you closer to the rear. This rewards drivers for attending all the races. After the heat races, the top 12 qualifiers (from the heat races) are set by the points system. It starts "slow cars" up front, but only if they are fast enough to finish well in their heat race. Keystone has a rookie rule also, but i'm not sure of the criteria.
As far as going elsewhere and being penalized to the rear.... I can think of some possible reasons. Throughout the years I have seen multiple scenarios for penalizing strangers & my examples are not just in legend cars:
1. Local clubs do not want "ringers" to come in only for one race and disrupt points battles. I've seen this in support series to
prevent "more skilled" drivers from stealing wins and possibly "team racing" (wrecking other drivers to affect points). This goes
along the lines of drivers only being allowed to run in one class of car on any given night.
2. Strangers are not members of the local club. Clubs use membership dues to support race payouts, points payouts, sanctioning
etc... To encourage locals to pay for membership, they penalize non-members to the rear. Out of area visitors fall into the same
non-member trap and get sent to the rear.
3. Scott's favorite: " They don't know how you race." With being an outsider, they don't know who you are. You could have never
driven anything before and show up saying "I'm a national champion." Most times you be on the rear for the qualifier. If you are
as good as you claim, you should earn your way forward for the main.
Do I think any of theses systems are fair? NO..... and yes..
Its unfair in the "National Points" sense of things (so is SP, Pro, Masters, YL racing as a group, but seperate points) but it is nice to see a track/ local club reward the drivers & cars that support them weekly.
I don't believe that "nation-wide" system can be established. Let's face it, legend cars are not a series that have tracks jumping to host our events. Series like NASCAR, USAC, World of Outlaws etc. can dictate to the tracks what race format needs to be followed. For legends, unless its a INEX event, the format is gonna be up to the track (or hosting club). It sucks, but that is just the way it is...
