Having watched this thread for a while, and thought about it, it suddenly occurred to me that the whole concept of jumpiing up in classification is a new idea - or that the whole sportsman or intermediate class(s) is a new thing - that somehow popped up within the last 15 years or so because prior to that there never was such a thing.
Prior to that it was understood and accepted practice that when things shook out over the course of a raceday or weekend that the so-called expert or pro (or just plain talented) drivers would populate the A- and B-mains, some of the lesser talented would make up the C- and D-mains, and so on. And this worked just fine for many many years.
So what happened in racing and society that forced the change in thinking and mentality? Maybe this whole gig in which people were allowed to sign up under "other" classifications came about in our seemingly growing obsession with giving every kid in Little League or soccer getting a trophy of some sort regardless of how good or bad they or their team performed that seemingly grew out of the special olympics and letting each kid know they were a winner.
I don't know, and while my intent is not to knock anyone, and while I can totally rationalize some sort of "Sponsored driver or Pro or Invitational" classification at the largest of events making such a differentation not only seperates the cream of the crop but also makes achieving such a notation all the harder. And now instead of us being happy with the old status quo we've changed the rules somewhere along the line and now there's this big confusion of who should run where.
And my feeling is that we should go back to how things used to be, "A" for the good guys, "B" for the almost good guys, etc., etc., etc., and us getting over the fact that our feelings are hurt by some of us having to run in the Q-main and instead using it as a motivational factor in making us want to improve. Everyone has to start somewhere, some of us will never compete on the highest level, and that's the way it should be.
But winning a so-called championship in the Sportsman or Intermediate Class is tantamount to winning the JV title in football - it counts for nothing. Because unless you know how to measure yourself against the big boys, any other sort of competetive comparison is pointless and utterly useless.