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

yep

After reading all these various points of view, my conclusion is pretty simple: just split time trials into 2 groups like WOO started this year

I'm using generalizations here. With two qualifying nights, on average, only 8 from each night should lock into Saturday's A and 12 total from each Qualifying night. If the 16 I picked are considered the "cream" from Thursday, only 8 should have locked into the 16 for Saturday's A, and 12 total. I did miss, but not too far off. 7 did lock into Saturday's 16. 1 made it through Friday night. 2 came from Saturday's B. So, 10 of the 16 filled the "possible" 12 spots. I think I would still consider that, the "cream" pretty much rising to the top. 

Im not saying it's a perfect format. Maybe it could be tweaked, but I'd hate to see it totally revamped. The current format, in my opinion, makes Wednesday and Thursday the best two nights of the year. Every time the cars hit the track, it's balls to the wall. 

I agree. Is it perfect? No but it's better than the discrepency we have now with the track slowing down so much.  You could also break it down farther and have cars timing only against the other cars in their heat. I've seen that format before and think it's the best as far as fairness. Another option would be do like the ASCS and have 2 sets of heats with the line-ups inverted.

A

BINGO .   Time trials with big wings, big tires, heavy cars and restricted cookie cutter engines are painful.  Might as well take the wings off if were gonna go down the straightaway the same speed they did 25 years ago.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

You'd have to run 6 heats then with 8 cars per heat under that format. One of the reasons they changed from 10 invert to 8 was that really slow cars up front were causing big crashes. You'd also run the risk of one flight being loaded with good cars that has happened when the WoO has run this format.

Watching time trials live and on race monitor , it blew me away how many guys hammered the cushion, when in reality, it was burned up.  I distinctly remember 3 cars each night that tried the bottom, and ran respectable times, well shy of the status quo on the cushion.

X2 rizzo... couldn't believe that EVERY car ran the same line up top. When everybody's got the same good stuff ( engine / chassis) how in the heck you gonna outtime anybody running the same line ? Thought a few guys would try 1 lap up top and lap 2 on the bottom at least..

I use to not like giving so much points for time trials too, but now with a extra race Friday to get in the A Main I say keep the tradition of time trial points the way they have been for years if a driver cant make it into the A Main with 2 trys on friday then on Saturday then they were not good enough to make the A Main 

So,  when all the "good cars" draw #'s in the same 1/2 of the field (like they draw in spots 26-50) and half of them don't make the prelim main and have to run on Friday people can bit$h and moan about that too??

There is no good way to "split the field" to make 2 groups of time trialers on a prelim night IMO.

What do you do if you have everyone that is considered a good car except one is in group A and that one good car is in group B??  Does that make it better? 

The way it was those cars that time trialed well had good cars lining up in front of them in the heats and did any of them transfer?  (I know for fact that Lance Moss and Bob Weuve sure didn't, heck even Brian Brown couldn't (he ran the B his prelim night) and he was considered by many to be the main threat to Schatz (not sure why, he's had a horrible year this year).

Seems to me that the cars expected to be up front on Saturday Night were (bad time trial or not) and those that were lucky enough to time trial good but aren't what we fans consider a "good car" didn't go anywhere in their heats (some even went backwards and ran the prelim C main and were out-pointed by the cars that time trialed worse).

Thanks for the comments and opinions,  but I don't see how lowering the points for qualifying would encourage sandbagging if your A Main starting positions were still determined by your time...the faster guys in qualifying are rewarded for their efforts by a better main event starting spot  do they really need double the heat race points when their TT was helped by the luck of the draw and/or fading track conditions.......it would, however give the guy whow drew a lesser track condition a chance to get some of their points back by finishing towards the front of the heat and even out the first two parts of the qualifying procedure.............but, as everyone says, it's still a great show.

No changes needed. All these format changes throughout the racing world is getting too confusing and it actually doesn't change anything.

Not always.