I think you miss one important aspect when setting up the whole structure and system like this. I know, that you guys want the players to stick to the series, and it's a good intention, but sim racing is for most of all a hobby. I for example don't know if I will have time to join a race in four weeks time that is running on a paid track. Not a big problem for me, but for people who are new to the sim and don't own all the content this will be more difficult. Your system only works good for people, who own all the content, wich defies the target of making money with the CS at the same time. I think noone is arguing that it costs money and effort and that there should be some return.
But here comes the twist: while setting up a series like this you force people to buy content, while they don't know if they will be able to use it. Another scenario is that player XYZ is able to join race 1 on the paid track of the Indy open wheel challenge, but he doesn't know if he will make it for race 2 of the two paid tracks. So instead of making his desicion easier you force him to buy two tracks. This wasn't a problem if we were talking about a product where tracks are very cheap. I got to tell you that's sadly not the case. I know, quality costs money and all the jazz, but with this system you are in danger of not selling anything at all instead of atleast one of the two tracks. And as Kunos is showing it perfectly, you will make more money by selling alot of cheap small content pieces instead of selling expensive big packs. People will allways prefer the first option. That's psychological law.
So here are my solutions: as the CS is relatively "new" you can still experiment a bit with it. You will most likely not be able to change the schedule for Season 1, wich is fair. But for Season 2 it might be worth to think about splitting the series into vmods for the free tracks and to treat the races on paid tracks as single events, but still part of the series and check how participation is going. The other option is propably easier and more attractive in the long run and it's something that works 100% in my daily job. And that's volume discount on track items. If you sell two tracks for the price of one, it'll clearly be a nobrainer and you will tie users on the product for future competitions.
Anyway, my two cents. I think we all want the CS to be a success but changing nothing about the status quo might make things alot more dfficult in terms of growing the system. And that's where the money is.
