Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Eh. They used the Dirt Classic formula, so I've seen it quite a few times, but it's not really my style. I mean it's fine, dont get me wrong, but I'll never make a fuss to see it. 'It is what it is' I guess is what I'm trying to say.

I prefer the Nationals format, or to tell you the truth, I really liked the Weikert format at Port. Gotta be fast everytime you're on the track. Invert six for the heats, give em an extra two laps, and in the end, if you're in the top 10 it goes to the draw. I liked a bigger draw of ten instead of six. I'm sure a few teams and drivers would disagree with me, but as a fan, I enjoyed it. Besides if the track is racy you'll be able to make your way to the front, which happened both nights.

Lets face it, there's no perfect format unless you could line everybody up side by side

I like the Chili Bowl format too, with passing points

I was always thinking time trials were around 40 minutes?  But I admit, I've never timed them.  But I was thinking the last time I was at the nationals (Knoxville) it was about 40 minutes, I could be wrong though  but that is a big track and it was between 50-60 cars.  I do remember at Husets back in the early 00s it seemed to go pretty quick but it was only taking around 11 seconds for them to get around there and they seemed to be really efficient in getting the cars out there but the biggest thing that probably sped it up was I believe there was usually only 15-20 cars there back then.

As I was typing my last reply I was thinking about track conditions changing each session of hot laps.  I had a few ideas but I guess I'm getting way down the rabbit hole since this thing is basically a trial now lol.  But My first idea was to have two sets of hot laps where they would be 3 laps each.  The first group of cars that went out for hot laps would be last in the second set and the group that went out last in the first set would go out first in the second set.  Then you could either average all the laps together or average their fastest lap from each set.  This would in theory eliminate the issue of someone having the luck of the draw.

My other idea was to have you only time against the people in your group then compare that to the other groups.  My idea for this was you could average the lap times for everyone in your group or the 5 fastest.  Then you could find the difference between the average time and each car and that would be the number you would compare to everyone else.  So the quick time would be the guy who was faster than the people in his group.  But I have to admit, it's a super confusing system and almost impossible for anyone to follow while it's going on.

Like you said there is no perfect system but there is options for getting rid of time trials.

Time trials can last up to 40mins to over an hour if you include all the other support classes or in some cases, junk that qualify/hot lap as well which I would say is a separate issue. If you include hot laps and qualifying into one then 40mins does sound pretty accurate.

I have been to a few races in multiple series where they had to have the first group of cars come back out onto the track because it was to wet or the times were way below the rest of the groups in hot laps. I can see that being a point of conversation if 1 group gets a chance for a redo, why not the rest especially if the speeds keep going up with each group.

The group qualifying has dissadvantages as well. All Stars do that and I have been to shows where if you look at the driver lineup in 1heat compared to another heat, it can be a little "unfair" so to speak. I don't mean that to put any drivers down but I have seen heat race lineups where I have looked up my favorite driver and said well he got into a good heat or man he drew a short straw on that one. Few occasions also a heat race has had 6-7 drivers qualify in the top 10-12 overall  but have to start 6th or 7th and not transfer. Then you have transfers that were fast but have to start in the back. I wouldn't mind if they did qualifying just like hot laps and made it an average of 3-4 laps. In reality I would actaully like less heat race laps and more feature laps in each A main. Sometimes 30laps i feel is just too short at times.

Time trials are always a highlight.  If they run one car at a time.  You can watch what line they run, Where they enter and exit, hear the engine to get an idea of gearing, if it is staying wound up, how much brake is being used and on and on.  We will lose 3/4 of that during the NOTionals.  

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Race to get in . I don't like needing a calculator to figure out where a driver will start.