Any new ideas for racing this year?

[Andy Bettencourt]

I was wondering if anyone had any cool ideas for racing this year. I hope to get to a NERRC Club Racing meeting in the coming months and I figured if we had any cool ideas I could Champion them when I go.

Anything? I have heard a couple ideas so far:

- Use a qualifying race instead of pure qualifying at an event
- Try a standing start an an event

Anything else anyone has on their mind?

AB

 

[JohnRW]

Originally posted by Andy Bettencourt@Dec 19 2005, 04:11 PM

- Use a qualifying race instead of pure qualifying at an event
- Try a standing start an an event

AFAIC - "More Racing, Less Practice & Qualifying".

It depends on track and run groups (think 'schedule'), but we've had good success with:

Sat am single combined practice/qualifying session - ~ 20-25 min
Sat. pm 'qualifying race', usually 60-80% of a Sunday 'feature race' length
Sunday am short warm ups (open wheel/closed wheel)
Sunday am-pm 'feature race', usually close to at Nat'l length

As far as certain Regional championship series are concerned (NYSRRC, etc.), this is a double points weekend - both the qualifying race and the feature race pay full series points. Basically, it's doing a double without paying the extra sanction fee.

Downside ? Well, if you're trying to jam races in to keep a license, this would only be considered a single. Some people ask "How can you have a combined practice/qualifying on Sat am ? What about noobs and track virgins ?" Well - 95+% of racers have been there before. Tough luck...better be a fast learner.

I"ve never done a standing start (other than in ice racing), but I have the usual whiny concerns - 'What about my clutch/driveline/etc. etc. etc.'.

 

[stevel]

Originally posted by Andy Bettencourt@Dec 19 2005, 08:11 PM
I was wondering if anyone had any cool ideas for racing this year.  I hope to get to a NERRC Club Racing meeting in the coming months and I figured if we had any cool ideas I could Champion them when I go.

Anything?  I have heard a couple ideas so far:

- Use a qualifying race instead of pure qualifying at an event
- Try a standing start an an event

Anything else anyone has on their mind?

AB

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Don't know if this is the right place to talk about it.

A restricted regional weekend, and making it a triple event. Qual and race on saturday, your finishing position on sat determines your qual position for sunday am race, and your finishing position in sunday am race determines qual position for sunday pm race. Just something I thought would be neat. I think doing a standing start would be awesome. I know NASA does it with there honda-challenge series in the south and both the drivers and spectators love it. Maybe just do it for a run group or 2 that really wants it?

What's going on with the memorial day event at NHIS? I hear we have the track for Monday and plans are up in the air for that day. What is being decided? I say we do an HPDE event, NER SCCA did ONE about 3 years ago at LRP and it was a big hit. After that they did a 1 or 2 hour (can't remember), mixed group sprint/mini enduro race. If I remember correctly the HPDE was from 8am to 2pm, it was $150 (a bargain but not a full day) and the drivers that instructed for the HPDE got free entrance to the 1 or 2 hour race. It was all closed wheel cars. That would be a fun thing to do. I don't think we've done anything like that up here since. I think it would be a great way to attract the younger crowd that SCCA always seems to be talking about needing more of as far as membership. All the HPDE participants would be there, encourage them to stay, talk to the drivers about getting involved (as drivers, workers, whatever) and to stay and watch the race. It's just a great way to open up the HPDE crowd to a real race. I don't think that gap is bridged quite a bit up here. At least from SCCA's position. If it's done it's by individuals that happen to be SCCA drivers instructing at other org's HPDE events and promoting it themselves.

I also think on a double regional weekend we make it a corner workers weekend. Every driver/entrant has to bring a gift worth up to $25 (or put $25 cash into the worker fund mandatory) and then all the gifts are raffled off at the end of the weekend to the workers. I just think it would be something more drivers could do to recognize the workers of the event.

I've got a few more, I'll have to remember them.

steve

 

[benspeed]

Hire some umbrella girls from Scores to work grid.

Race winners must drink a celebratory fifth of scotch on Saturday so they cannot be as fast on Sunday. :119:


On the Real Side
Change up trophies - plaques get boring

Photos of race podium finishers - have Roz or somebody take some shots for the NESCCA site.

I like the idea of a standing start - can I buy insurance for that part of the race?

I love the idea of using qualifying at LRP on a Friday for a race instead - draw your position and give a bunch of folks a chance to finish on the podium and make the faster cars work to the front. That would make for some exciting racing.

A NE Region/Mid Atlantic/SE Region championship race would be very fun. Someplace central like Summit.

Award the Rogain hair raising momement of the race for the most bonehead move.

 

[Greg Amy]

Originally posted by JohnRW@Dec 19 2005, 03:03 PM
AFAIC - "More Racing, Less Practice & Qualifying".

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Amen, Brother John! Make every session count. - GA

 

[gran racing]

Use a qualifying race instead of pure qualifying at an event.

Yup! I also like the idea that has been mentioned before of picking the qualifying starting position out of a hat. Instead of the 15 min. qual. at LRP, have that as a "100 yrd dash" race. Maybe there is a way to deterimine who the front runners are and invert the typical qual. starting positions? Or maybe that would cause too many incidents.

 

[Racerlinn]

Originally posted by stevel@Dec 19 2005, 03:20 PM
A restricted regional weekend, and making it a triple event.  Qual and race on saturday, your finishing position on sat determines your qual position for sunday am race, and your finishing position in sunday am race determines qual position for sunday pm race. 

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Something very similar at the Oct. NASA event at Putnam Park. Combined practice / qual session each morning followed by two races, the grid of the first race set by qualifying and the grid of the second race set by the results of the first race. We got 4 races in a single weekend (aren't the first few laps of a race usually the most fun? ). Not sure how this would fit the SCCA standards/restrictions/sanctions.

 

[pfcs]

Consider what Limerock would be like to drive backwards. Am I missing somehing?
The downhill might be a problem (shades of Atlanta pre-castration). I'd like to try it.

 

[Andy Bettencourt]

Originally posted by pfcs@Dec 19 2005, 08:54 PM
Consider what Limerock would be like to drive backwards. Am I missing somehing?
The downhill might be a problem (shades of Atlanta pre-castration). I'd like to try it.

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I think that track is not safe to run backwards. You would have to brake coming iat the uphill (which would now be the downhill) in order to not launch yourself off the track.

AB

 

[pfcs]

just try to drive into the grass (at old Atlanta-try to hit the bridge abutment) and you'd probably end up in the middle of the track heading to the apex!
What might be a problem is runoff at the bottom of hill/outside of turn.

 

[lateapex911]

Ben I was right with you until you said, "On the real side"....I liked BOTH ideas! I win so seldom I would happily risk the Scotch!


OK, standing start? Lets do it...but at NHIS where there is plenty of swerve around room.

Lime Rock backwards? I has been done before, but with the tire barriers in theri current positions, it would be foolhardy to run it backwards.

I like the idea of more races.

I REALLY like the idea of inverted/random starts. Here's my idea. Top 20% of the class gets their number tossed in a hat. Either the pole sitter or an official pulls a "draw number" form a seperate hat... It would be a number between 1-6 for a 25 car field. What ever number is pulled is the number of cars subject to revised positions. (This way, nobody knows how many cars will get "revised...so nobody sandbags.) From there on it's just a case of pulling the position numbers. So, if ITS has 25 cars, Nick (lets say, LOL) pulls the first number for himself. The numbers are 1-6, he gets his, then works his way down, how far depends on the first "draw number".

It sounds more confusing that it would be...it would be pretty interesting!

 

[Ed Funk]

LRP backwards, sounds like fun! Use the IMSA chicane to slow cars so they could make the downhill (?uphill?). But Steph, who worked for the track for lots of years (maitenance to management) tells me the guard rails would have to be changed. If they are not overlapped the correct direction loosr ends become spears when hit and popped loose. That could hurt ! So even if the track was willing to relocate all the tire walls, ha!, they'd be very unl
ikely to rebolt all the guard rails .

Ed

 

[dazzlesa]

more racing/qualifying races

 

[Andy Bettencourt]

So I was thinking about asking the NER RRB to try this at the Pig Roast in 2006:

Sat AM: Practice/Qualify
Sat PM: Race 1
Sun AM: Race 2 (with starting positions determined by Sat PM finishing position)
Sun PM: Race 3 (with starting positions determined by Sun AM finishing position)

Now here is the issue I had: Typically, we run the Chicane/Chicane on Sunday - so is it fair to have grid spots determined by finishing positions from a different track configuration? I could go either way but there are people who may feel different. Or maybe we just run the NC/SO config we always do for the whole weekend...

Thoughts?

Dick: on the operational side - can we 'hide' or 'conserve' sanction numbers to save costs or should we just make it a triple?

AB

 

[7racing]

Assuming an 8 race group single regional weekend...

Qual/Race groups 1-4 on Saturday
Qual/Race groups 5-8 on Sunday

Less cars at the track on either day (ala NASA), probably can get longer qualifying and longer races (maybe a short qualifying session in AM, Qual Race in the AM and a longer afternoon race?)

Or something along those lines. It's a singe regional anyway, this just makes it a one day and you might gain a lot of extra track time from it. Not sure if entrants would shy away from that type of thing, though.

Also *MIGHT* get the added bonus of some crew/drivers helping out with Grid/Timing/F&C/Registration/Tech on their "off" day.

Looking at the NERRC schedule, this could probably only work at NHIS. And NHIS is all double weekend (except August which is Enduro and Regional). So, this might not fit into any conceivable event weekend up here. Maybe elsewhere, though.

Jeremy

 

[gran racing]

It could be fun to race the full oval at NHIS. I know, I should just go do a roundy-round event. <_<

 

[Racerlinn]

Indy Region ran the IRP oval back in the mid-90's (96 I believe).
I think it would be a hoot, especially considering the size.
Don't think I would want to do a full 1 mile track.
The wall looks mighty high when you run down to T1 at Gateway.

 

[dickita15]

Originally posted by Andy Bettencourt@Dec 20 2005, 12:19 PM
Dick: on the operational side - can we 'hide' or 'conserve' sanction numbers to save costs or should we just make it a triple?
AB

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The sanction fee is not really a big deal. On a big race weekend it is only a couple of bucks a car. The insurance where the money is covers a three day period regardless of the number of sanctions. the only down side to running the weekend under one sanction that I can think of is for the drivers trying to get signed off and maybe the way points are counted though i am not 100 percent sure on the later.

 

[dickita15]

Originally posted by gran racing@Dec 20 2005, 01:53 PM
It could be fun to race the full oval at NHIS.  I know, I should just go do a roundy-round event.  <_<

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When Nhis first opened a lot of driver liked the idea. They had a drivers meeting and at the begining of the meeting they took a straw poll of the drivers and the vote was like 28 to 2 in favor. They then spent 45 minutes talking about what was involved in running such a race. Then they took another vote and it was like 28 to 2 opposed.

 

[dickita15]

Originally posted by Andy Bettencourt@Dec 20 2005, 12:19 PM
Sat AM:  Practice/Qualify
Sat PM:  Race 1
Sun AM: Race 2 (with starting positions determined by Sat PM finishing position)
Sun PM: Race 3 (with starting positions determined by Sun AM finishing position)

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This is similar to the thoughts that are floating around for the new memorial day event. You actually have two choices in setting up the grid for race two and three. Finishing position from previous race or fastest time from previous race. withthe second one the guy who crashes or get a flat in one race can still start well in the next race.

when considering new and experimental formats for a race weekend it is easier sell on a weak event. if a race is already drawing over say 200 cars at a track like nhis it is a much larger risk to mess with the format.