Series Scoring Questions

Our summer series is mostly for fun. It's a great Wednesday evening, enjoying the outdoors after work. And we're really excited to make use of Valmont Bike Park. Of course, it works well as tune-ups for major races, and counts for a good workout. Some racers of course take our series very seriously. (There are some prizes in the works for series winners...maybe that has something to do with it.) That being said, we've been debating on how to score the series.

In years past, we've had a couple different methods for scoring, with mixed reviews. This year, we'd love your input first. Here are some of the options we've had and are considering:

1. Totaling every single race. It comes down in part to pure attendance. We of course like attendance; it means more money raised for the CU Cycling Team. People get sick though, or go on vacations, and may miss a race anyway. Should missing a day be reason to loose the overall?
2. Dropping the worst 3 races. This way, you can go on that vacation without feeling too nervous about your positioning in the standings. 13 races is a long series, so maybe drop the worst 5. But then our attendance may drop.
3. Score 50 places deep, so that everyone has points on the line, and you still get fun and aggressive racing for 20th place.
4. Score just 15 deep, and everyone else gets a few points purely for attendance. That way, there is still an incentive to attend, but a top-5 racer who flats and rolls in slowly for last doesn't loose as much to the overall leader as if we were to score 50 deep.

Or some combination of the above? Or other options? As it stands now, we are thinking of dropping 4 races, scoring 15 deep, and giving points for attendance. See the last sheet on last year's results as an example. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.