"WIZARD" Deems Darrell Lanigan Top Performing Speedweeks Driver!
"WIZARD" Deems Darrell Lanigan Top Performing Speedweeks Driver!
(February 24, 2014) The Wizard has determined that Darrell Lanigan was the top performing Dirt Late Model driver during Speedweeks. Although Lanigan only raced 7 races, he earned a rating of 109.37. He is followed in the rankings by Scott Bloomquist, Steve Francis and Brandon Sheppard as the only drivers with ratings exceeding 100. The Speedweeks races were full of surprise winners and disappointing performances. However, for the most part the names at the top of the rankings are very familiar to fans. If your favorite driver is missing from the rankings be aware that the Wizard only considered drivers who participated in 4 or more races.
A total of 94 drivers participated in one or more races with 74 making the 4 race minimum cut for being included in the Wizard’s ranking. One driver, Chris Madden, won a race but did not race the minimum of 4 races. Chris would have ranked 11th had he been included. Also, Dale McDowell slightly outranked Lanigan but is not included because he only raced three races.
The Wizard recommends that fans take some time to review the ranking table. Its full of interesting information such as the fact that the four drivers ranked over 100 collectively finished in the top ten 43 of 45 times. Three drivers that won a race did not finish in the top 25. Six regular Lucas and WOO drivers did not place in the top 25. Billy Moyer was the only driver to win 2 races. The top 25 drivers only DNS’d 10 times out of a collective 240 race attempts. However, they did enjoy the benefit of 11 provisional starts for which the Wizard penalized them considerably.
As the season develops the Wizard will provide many additional tidbits of interesting information. An example is that Scott Bloomquist was the only driver to beat or tie every other driver in head to head competition. Earl Pearson tied Scott 2 to 2 in the four races in which they participated directly against one another.
The Wizard validates the software behind these rankings in various ways. One such way is to review how certain groupings of drivers performed in head-to-head matchings against other groupings. Some examples are that the Wizard's top 10 beat the Wizard's second 10 head-to-head 542-141 and they beat the top 25 (which includes the top 10 drivers against each other) 959-502. The Wizard's second 10 beat the top 25 743-523. The third 10 (i.e. drivers ranked 21-30) were 413-1053 versus the top 25. Perhaps this is too much to reflect on, but suffice it to say that the higher ranked drivers are beating the drivers ranked beneath them at a high rate when they compete in the same races.
The Wizard also ranks and categorizes races. Some fans might notice, for example, that the North Florida race is not included in the qualified races. This is because the Wizard says the race did not have enough high ranked drivers to warrant its inclusion. If your favorite driver did not rank where you expected him to don't be dismayed. It is very early in the racing season. Very early.
View 2014 "WIZARD" Rankings After Speedweeks: http://www.johnblankenship23.com/wizard_rankings_3.html
