InspGadgt

Just curious. We've always distributed the mains evenly but after talking with a couple of people in other areas it seems there would be riots if someone didn't make the A main because the mains weren't packed completely. If you pack the main how do you handle the last main which might only have 1 or 2 cars in it?

GymBeam

iTrader: (4)

for club races if there are 12 people and you only beat 2 other people do you really think you deserve to be in an A? And then theres the issue of who is going to marshall the A final with only 2 people?

but for "bigger" meets that already specified 10 man final in the entry form, then thats what it has to be, even if there are 2 people in the B final.

rough512

iTrader: (12)

One of our local organizers will evenly distribute the two mains. Usually he'll ask whether some of the slower A-mainers would like to step down to B-main. Some are willing to step down as the A-main is usually dominated by a few, and they don't find it fun getting lapped everytime. Then if one of the fast guys end up in the B-Main he can ask to swap place with a slower A-mainer in exchange for snacks for the whole group. I can't recall anybody objecting when this happens

The other organizers however will complete the A-main then give a single final heat to the B-Main and below. If the B-main is less than 3 racers then no final heat. Not fun

FroBoy

iTrader: (7)

It depends on how may entries there are. If there are only 6 entries in a class then it doesn't matter, all in the A.

If there are ten entries or more and there's a big difference in the middle of the pack as far as laps goes, then I'll make the split in that area.

Reason being that 10 cars in the A with three different skill levels can suck for all drivers involved. If somebody on the lower end of that split has a problem with that, tell them to work harder and earn their way into the main.

With larger entries it ends up working out that way anyways, and not packing the mains will make for a long day.

InspGadgt

Well in this most recent race we had 17 drivers in a class with a max of 8 drivers per heat. The software sorted it as 8 in the A, 8 in the B, and 1 in the C. Traditionally here we would have sorted that as 6 in the A, 6 in the B, and 5 in the C. I've been in communication with the software person a lot and he thought it strange anyone would sort like that. So I was curious to see if I was doing something different then what the rest of the world was doing.

FroBoy

iTrader: (7)

If your track is small I could see going with a smaller #, but on a normal size track with that many entries I'd pack the mains.

Jake S

iTrader: (67)

dunno a club level i say split it up semi-evenly...

18 people, 9, 9
15 people 7, 8

because as i see it, your not beating half, you shouldn't be in the a-main (and this coming from me, a frequent b-main racer hah)

cyrrus

iTrader: (5)

I know at our club out here in Victoria BC. we get around 30 to 35 guy's a week.

Well the main are sorted like this

A7
b7
c7
d7
e all which is left if there is more guy's we add an f

We also have two bumps for the top two guy's in each main. this way you get 9 guy's in the top heats.That way also you get a last chance to make it up to the A. (which I did a coupleof weeks ago went from the D to the A. I'm normally a high c to middle b driver. had bad luck and didn't finish a quilifier.

InspGadgt

I've had too much problems with bump ups in the past...drivers never seem to have enough battery packs ready for a bump up.

SWTour

iTrader: (9)

IMHO - "A" Mains should ALWAYS be packed.

If your program were to take 17 cars and break it to 6 -6 -5, where you would normally run a 8 car "A" main, that screws the 2 guys who didn't get to run the "A", at the same time 4 of the 5 guys in the C essentially get screwed too.

If/when I run into a similar situation, I 'overstack' the lower main, and I'd just run a 8 car (if that is the NORM) 'A' Main and a 9 car 'B' (depending on track size of course)

Be CONSISTANT in what ever you do. If you do it this week...do it NEXT week too....and WHAT EVER you are going to do...ANNOUNCE IT early in the day...so guys don't get suprised and PISSED OFF cause they didn't get into the "A" main because they qualified 8th, but the break went to 7th because you had 21 entries instead of 22.

sosidge

Our club has it in the rulebook that finals are 8 cars, even if that means there is only one person in the bottom final.

Bear this in mind - if you are running championship points, but have a different number of cars in the final each week, racers have unequal opportunity to score points.

Example:

Week 1 - 16 people turn up, so it is split into 2x 8-car finals. 8th place qualifier still has the opportunity to get maximum points from the A-final if they come through to win.

Week 2 - 12 people turn up, split into 2x 6-car finals. 8th place qualifier is now 2nd on the grid in the B and has no chance of getting the same number of points. You can argue this is unfair as far as the championship goes.

InspGadgt

Good point about the points series...we are not running one currently but would like to start one soon.

Yes distributing the drivers in this case would screw 2 of the B main guys from making the A...but packing the mains would screw the 1 C main guy just as bad.

Matt Howard

iTrader: (6)

this is an easy one, wherever Stlnlst qualifies is the cutoff for the B main. for example, if he qualifies 3rd, then there's only two people in the A. If he qualifies 12 then there'll be 11 in the A

Joel Lagace

iTrader: (4)

WE split them evenly, The one unfortunate results sometimes is in the a we can have 8 or 7 sometimes 6. So if your racing a points race and turn out is poor one night you could end up wiht a 6,6,6 split and that limits your A-main points oportunity to having to win the B if you where a bottom of the A-main driver and came up short as the BQ. With more people you would make the A in 8th spot and simply have to run the race to guarantee the 8th place points vs a low turn out and starting in the B and having to win that race to get 8th place. Make sence? probably not. LOL that why we try for TQ all the time

Consistancy is key, if your always getting 30+ races you could lock in the A-main for the season and split the rest through lower ranks. Most we ever run is 8 racers unless is crazy packed with entries

Ed237

iTrader: (11)

For the average weekly club race I would prefer to see the numbers in the mains be split evenly. For example I would prefer 8-7 instead 10-5. It's bad enough when you dont make the A main and then you look around and your stuck in the B with only 2 or 3 other cars out there.

And if there are only 3 in the B main you'll need a bunch of volunteer marshalls which is like pulling teeth these days.

On the other hand, money races and/or big events should allways have full mains.