Poll for Changing Week 8 to a Heat Race format

[mclachlanol]

Hey guys,

This poll is for changing the race for week 8 at USA Speedway to a heat racing format. The proposed heat racing format would be:

3 hour practice as normal,
4 lap solo qualifying,
3 x 10-15 lap heat races seeded by qualifying times, top four drivers in each heat advance to the final race,
1 x 15-20 lap consolidation race, top four drivers advance to the finals,
30-40 lap final race.

All standard rules apply but no yellow flags for any of the races.
Number of laps will be determined based on time allowed and actual lap time.

Championship points will be awarded as follows:
1st-16th place will be the race results for the final race.
17th-last will be the race results for the consolidation race, minus the four drivers who qualified for the final, so 5th in the consolidation race would be P17, 6th in the consolidation race would be P18...


Why are we proposing this? We are trying to see if this will work before closing the door on oval races all together. We never tried this before so we haven't worked out all the kinks yet. It may work, or it may flop, but it probably can't be any worse than driving behind a pace car for a bunch of laps which unfortunately has happened quite a lot. We also need to make sure the broadcast can handle and prepare for the new format so we need to do this poll by Friday.

If you guys any questions please let us know.

If you want to read more about how heat racing works here is the iracing link:
https://ir-core-sites.iracing.com/members/pdfs/2017-iracing-heat-racing-doc.pdf

 

[mclachlanol]

Poll is open until Friday @Indy Pro 2000 Series 2021/S1

 

[ahunter27t]

i know i dont race with you guys for this league, but i do race on wednesday nights. We have used this format for our dirt night at Eldora and it works well for us and i think could help you guys. Good luck all.

 

[FriskyCanuck]

Poll is open until Friday @Indy Pro 2000 Series 2021/S1

I hope you won't use this track as the sole barometer for testing out alternative ideas. USA Speedway is as tough to pass on as Lucas Oil was two seasons ago.

Are you still open to accepting and testing alternative ideas on the subject of oval racing?

Like normal format but no cautions except having a live steward throw "competition cautions" for every quarter of the race?

In my opinion, you should keep ovals for 2021 S2 and use those three oval races as the test bed for alternative formats because I don't like the idea hinging the decision to remove ovals or not on only one test case race.

 

[TRG]

How is a competition caution going to change anything? I don't see it doing much other than making it a planned pit... with a restart that will likely breed more incidents.

I'll be totally honest with you... we're likely only another 2 seasons in this car anyway. PRL Thursdays has (almost) always been an open wheel road series. In the past when we ran the original Pro Mazda, ovals were great because they were generally bigger speedway type tracks. Produced great racing.

Remember, PRL is all about great racing with a fun and competitive community. The current format is not providing that, so we will try what we can. Based on our experiences over the past 2-3 seasons, short track ovals don't produce what we're after. Open to try new things? Sure - as long as they fit our format and appeal to 80% of the drivers in the series. If we start targeting the 20% that aren't happy, we'll end up with half-full grids and the series will die a slow and painful death.

There were times in PRL Thursday's history where we had 5-car grids. We've come a long way from that, and I'm not going to allow us to go back to those days. Long story short, if these new formats work and are fun, good on the broadcast, and produce good racing... great. If not, we will reevaluate with one of the solutions being canning ovals altogether.

 

[Gunner]

There were times in PRL Thursday's history where we had 5-car grids.

*cough* indycar as per Pauls request *cough*

huh? someone say something?

 

[TRG]

Yeah, that was a shitshow paulwildridge

 

[FriskyCanuck]

How is a competition caution going to change anything? I don't see it doing much other than making it a planned pit... with a restart that will likely breed more incidents.

In a race with otherwise no cautions at all, it'll allow drivers who had to slow to avoid a crash a chance to be back in the mix. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

 

[paulwildridge]

So you are saying there is a chance for indycar???

 

[FriskyCanuck]

When was the last time you ran IndyCar for the Thursday night league? The recent changes with tire modeling, tire compounds and new damage model have brought new life into the official series. I doubt you'd get only get 5 entries if you were to run that car these days. Plus, you'll get much greater variety in ovals.

 

[Threefiver]

I was driving the IndyCar at Watkins last night....phenomenal car these days! I also greatly enjoy the Dallara F3. I've been struggling with "fun" this season...I had a dismal start and some bad luck as well as my dad being sick in the hospital for several weeks and ultimately dying a few weeks ago. I was talking to my teammate last night about things after the race and whether I'm maybe "tired" of driving this car at the moment or if it is just everything else going on in my life.

I like this league and community and I am glad I found it....mostly respectful racing, extremely frustrating/humbling competition. I don't particularly care for open wheel oval racing but I'm happy to do it if it is a part of this league and community and willing to help throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks.

 

[paulwildridge]

So sorry for your loss Dave!

 

[crich88848]

Yea man.. sorry for your loss. I've lost both of my parents at a young age so I know how you feel. Time is the only thing that eases the pain.Stay strong man!

 

[thesavvyninja]

ooof, I missed the poll. DOH! I would support the heat format