I mentioned your post to a bunch of others yesterday at the track and no one has ever heard of a Points series with 1st and 2nd round buy-backs.
As for my track, we've got many of the top racers in the Northeast competing. Most of our guys race 2-3 times per week, usually at several different tracks. I'm one of the few top points guys in any class that only races during RP's points races and rarely anywhere else during the regular season (due to my other commitments and work schedule). Gaining any ground in any class is a very hard feat.
Myself, I maintained sole possession of 2n dplace in the points but fell 1 more point behind the points leader Brian who is now an impressive 10 points ahead of me. Last year he and I both were swapping the lead and 5-10 points ahead of everyone until the final race when some others caught up but we still finished on top. Brian in 1st and me in 3rd (Joe Amodea caught us on the last day and passed me but tied Brian and lost to him on a tie breaker). The 3 of us all finished within 1 point of each other.
This year, Joe's #1 in the Saturday night Real Street class but not faring as well in our Street ET. Brian's back in 1st. And I am holding my own in 2nd but lately falling 1 round shy of Brian each week.
Yesterday it was a 3rd round break-out that did me in. Was racing Jason Teal who I've raced only twice before against. The final race of '02 I beat him (and everyone else, including Brian) to keep him from finishing in one fo the top 4 money spots in the points. Last year he returned the favor on the last day of points by beating me and keeping me 1 point behind Brian, effectively ending my run at the Points title. Yesterday we got paired up on the ladder and I had him by .01 RT off the line. His car has a high mph charge at the end and I got the handicapped start so when he charged up at me at the end I didn't decide that I should hit the brakes until it was too late. I tapped the brakes but not soon enough and broke out.
Luckily Brian's new car broke in the next round so he only gained 1 point on me and most of the guys immediately behind me all went out in my round or earlier.