I like the idea of a "novice championship" coming from TOTAL points by a Novice in the year as follows:

Start the year as a novice - run NovU, NovO, AmU, AmO (or some of the other oddball classes which we allow novices to petition into).

Finish top 5 twice in Nov U or Nov O (or AmU or AmO) and move up to "provisional expert". That would then allow you to enter "expert classes", and you could still run Amateur (but not Novice any more...) so your opportunity to earn more points is increased by the number of classes you can now run.

Or, depending on your bike, you could just keep racing as a Novice in the oddball classes to accumulate points (STU, MVU, MVO, COLO, LWGP, End, etc...) if IT isn't fast enough to finish top 5 in Nov or Am.

Then Top 10 (or whatever it is...) "Overall Novice" would move up to Expert for the following season regardless of how they attained their Top 10. If you attained the level of "provisional expert", but didn't finish Top 10, you would have the choice of moving up to expert the following season, or staying Novice - but the same rules apply for the next year, so you'd be moved up soon enough anyway.

This would do three things, which I believe are the essence of the discussion here:

1) It would still provide a carrot for Novices to win a championship (either as a provisional expert, or as a fast novice who does well in the oddball classes).

2) It would move uber-fast Novices up earlier so they can learn the tricks of racecraft by racing against Experts sooner.

3) It would thin the Novice Grids by about 25% over the course of the year - which makes a trophy all the more achievable for the remaining riders (their carrot gets closer each weekend).

4) It would increase the Expert Grids by about 50% over the course of the year.

The BEST chance of winning a Novice Championship would be on a 600cc bike or SMALLER as you can ride up into nearly anything - which I believe is the smart thing for Novices to do anyway...

Hmmmm.