[Simon Meisinger]

popularity contest

I though of that as a problem at first as well, but when you think about it this voting should be a popularity contest. Because in sim racing people who can't behave on the track are automatically unpopular. No matter how many nice things they post in the forums.

champions races

That's a really great idea. Only people who finished in the top five of a series (or top 10 maybe).

People who take their time to participate in every race of a series are usually also those who put a lot of effort into sim racing which automatically makes them capable of racing properly.

Pretty much what I was going for but without the voting mechanism (that people might not use and takes time to implement).