Alternative qualifying format
 

I've got the f1 on at the moment and it got me thinking about how we qualify vs other forms of motor racing. F1 it's all about the quickest lap rather than the quickest time over 5 minutes.

Has it ever been tried in rc before where qualifying is done on your quickest lap? The way I would see it working is everyone still has a 5 minute heat, but the purpose being to set the quickest lap.

In doing this it wouldn't matter about back markers, you could have a slow lap to generate some space, you could pull your car in during your heat to make a quick a setup change etc

Any thoughts?

I think it has been done before but ive never raced with that format. Wouldn't mind giving it a go though.

A local touring car club near me, has run 30 min qualiy heats, where your best 3 laps on the trot count.

I think it would actually benefit the people in the lower heats who possibly shouldn't be there. I can get a cracking few laps in, but its nearly impossible to get a full clean run in if your placed lower than you should be.

Didn't they do that at the euro's last year ( fastest couple of lap's ) or was that just in practice and to put you in qualy order :confused:

It's common in practice at big events - 3 fastest consecutive laps I belive.

I dont think this would be very satisfactory, it would take alot of the skill away from trying to do a " clean 5 minute run.."
Plus Ben Riley would TQ every meeting :p

Plus you would need someone to watch every car, otherwise you could have someone have an accident, cut a corner and still post a quick individual lap.

But they could also do that on a 5 min run. No different really.

I personally like the idea of fastest 3 consecutive laps.

1 corner cut is doubtful to get someone TQ over 5 and half mins. If it was a single lap qualify then it could.

In F1, the drivers have already proven that they can drive consistently for 1-2hrs (otherwise they wouldn't be at the pinnacle of motorsport), so fastest lap works for them. In our racing, pretty much anyone of any skill level can race in pretty much any meeting and there is often a large difference of ability and equipment being used at a race meeting. So our qualifying measures and rewards consistency and speed.

Fastest x laps would reward the banzai bandits who are quick for a handful of laps but would not be over the course final/main and (potentially) penalize the steadier but more consistent (less crashy) drivers.

A very valid point there. Well said.

It has been done before, and it's quite entertaining. One thing to remember, the F1 guys have had over two hours on the track to find a set-up before they do qualifying.

To make it work for us, we would have to do that too, so that everyone gets the same chance to set their cars up. The main reason it hasn't caught on is that to make three fast laps, you should really have a qually car, powered and geared to within an inch of breaking, to make the best time. Then you swap to your finals car for the racing.

Yes, we could stipulate one car, and yes, we could make the race a minimum length to prevent the qually specials, but then what's the difference between that and the current system? We copied full-size Rallycross qualifying format, and that's worked well for them, and us!

If someone organises an event on this basis let us know - it would be cool to watch.

what would you do with a degrading track where we currently have round by round? would it be the fastest 3 laps for just that round? Sometimes the track can degrade from the first heat to the last, let alone different rounds!

The only time i think it should be used, is to set the starting order of a heat, or even to set heats for the whole meeting - That way the top heat would almost be the A-Final come the end of the day, so you'd get some good close racing as these guys have been racing eachother all day.....

If you were to put Practise on but in a rough heat order sorted through Gradings, then choose the guy who was fastest over 3 laps to go in Heat 12 at number 1, then so on and so on. That would work pretty well i reckon??