Just asking in neutral manner: You DNF early and you still get a lot of points based on your position in results - why is it so? I would think that to earn your points you would first need to finish your race. Pretty important in endurance, me thinks.

There are only 1 or 2 sanctioning bodies that I know of that have that requirement (finish to score points). We just are not one of them.

Well, crossing the finish line IMHO should be the only way to score points - despite of you guys not being those other guys.

As it's been at least 6 months since I asked (and it does tie into the original poster's question):

When are you finally going to make DNF's a rank penalty?

I don't think DNFs should matter regarding series points but a simple fix would be to require a certain percentage of laps compared to the winner. 75% and 90% are the usual ones.

What TC said, same question here?

Rank penalties for DNFs might be a bit harsh given the nature of online racing. I have only 2 DNFs myself and each of them I was running in a good position when I just had a disconnect. The low finishing position is a penalty enough. Further penalty would be ridiculous, I think.

Edit: or just disregard DNFs which resulted from disconnects.

I wonder if it's possible to automatically tell if a DNF was from ESC or disco?

I have seen posted here that a disco is really the equivalent of a mechanical failure. I have suffered myself with a bit from them, I think I have approx 10 DNFs (off the top of my head) from disconnects or game freezes and it is awful. In one case (Race07, surprise surprise) it wasn't quite a disco but lag got so bad on the server I actually froze and then found myself in the barriers. So many races where I was in a good position and then "bye-bye". I think what has always made it more aggravating for me is the heavy penalty on the ranking. Lately I have also become more sensitive to points lost in the race, but I have always had an obsession with rank-- so much so that I stopped looking at that part of my driver page altogether.
So for me, DNF is torture enough as it is, but I agree with Tim that if you are, say, the penultimate car to crash and only one car finishes, you should be awarded points for second place-- it is really the most common system and I don't see why R2P should futher penalize the poor schmuck (me) who besides taking it you know where with a DNF also loses points! :) I have yet to study the exact dynamics of how a DNF penalizes your rank, but it is extremely harsh. To give you an example last weekend I raced two events, and one I finished in the points and one I DNFed because schmucks like high kerbs that you get stranded on. I am not exactly sure how the algorhythm worked, but I found my rank (okay I peeked) suffered more from the DNF than from a point-scoring position in the F1 race. My schmuckonian theory is that the only DNF that should heavily penalize a driver is an accident, not a computer glitch. However, I rest my case without having really understood what that was to begin with....

FZ, your finishing position after a DNF gets you the series points for that position, and the rank points for that position. If 3 people DNF'd before you, you get the points for fourth from last. Finn is of the position that you should complete a certain amount of any race to obtain the reward of any points. I am of the position that clean, smart, consistant drivers should be rewarded.

Justin, this goes back much further than me joining here, but I do actually know that Tim wants to reinstate the rank penalty. Don't know why it hasn't come back yet tho :-)
Much like the punt rule, it's both a deterrent and a reward. There is always a small lot of drivers anywhere who are overly-aggressive and always seemingly finding themselves involved in accidents. Knowing that continuing down that path *could* really hit them where it hurts, in points of some fashion, may be the tiny little voice that says "hey maybe I shouldn't try to fly up the inside and stick it in there, take that guy out, spin myself, and take 4 more people out."
Maybe it keeps someone from saying "screw this, I got myself in over my head or am under-prepared, I'll just escape out."
Maybe it will help cause people to say "I don't think I should do that, I should keep it clean, take the opportunities as they come, and be a consistant finisher."

Yes computer lockups and network disconnects happen and they suck, but there is a much bigger picture here. Sh!t happens and we absorb it. If it happens a lot, then you've got bigger problems to worry about. When you see a driver with a 40% DNF rate, that's not a fluke, and we should be rewarded and they should be penalized accordingly.