How many days should a big race be?
 

What is you cut off on how many day you will take off for a big race? Some of the bigger race are stretching to week long events, which I think is ridiculous. Also add a day for travel to the races if you are coming from out of town. I would think even the manufacture are being stretched to send drivers for longer periods of time. I think part of a big race is getting you car to work in a short period of time and laying it down.

2008 INTERNATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS "IIC" LAS VEGAS 7 days

2008 Snowbirds Nationals 6 days

2008 ROAR Paved On Road Electric Nationals 5 days

2008 Cleveland US Indoor Champs 5 days

2008 Reedy Race On Road 4 days

Well i think that longer ones are a true test of skill!!

It is one thing getting your car/s to work for two or three days and another for six or seven days

Practice open till late on Thursday, quals on Friday and Saturday, mains on Sunday.

I'd go to every major on road race this year. With commitments with work and school, most of the big races are impossible to get too.

Beav

The other thing to consider is the volume of people that attend these races. You have to have enough time for everyone to get their practice, then qualifying, then run your mains. I don't see how you can run that many people through in three days, it just is not enough time unless you are going to seriously limit entries, then it becomes a lottery for every major race.

A 7 day race is a joke. As long as the practice is the same for everyone it's fine. 1-2 days of practice, 1-2 days of quals, and 1 day of mains is more than enough.

Maybe if some of these "big" races weren't so long and expensive people would actually have some cash left to club race with. At $60 - $80 a night those extra few days can go a really long way at the local track. Unless it's already closed.

IMO 3-4 days tops for us mere mortals. Can't really afford to take a week plus off for an RC race. 3-4 days probably still ends up more like 4-5 days if you tack on a day for travel at each end.

Notice that those are all ON ROAD races....... Off road races arent that long with the exception of the Worlds.

Cactus Classic 3 days

ROAR Off Road Electric Nats 3 days

Off Road Shootout 3 Days

Reedy Off Road Truck Race 3 Days

Add 1 day for a practice day.

The Cactus Classic had over 350 entries. Arent On Road races limited to around the same amount?

Now I know why some On road racers I know limit themselves to one big race a year......6 days? :eek:

Yeah what he said. Or maybe 4 days max.

6 days, thats a lot of time to take off from work and a lot of $$$$
Talk about burning people out....lol
I pretty much just save my $$ for racing locally on a weekly basis... The only large electric race I would consider is REEDY since they limit the entries or maybe if the nats were held in California.....

ROAR Nationals are three day events. Add 1 day for controlled practice.

The Cactus Classic is a three day event. This year we had 373 entrys and we had 80 races Friday and Saturday and 54 on Sunday. Long days but it was done in three days. :)

The days of the big week-end 2 day racing are changing.

Expect big one day club event`s connected to some kind a race series`s, with no big hotel bills , time off work, ect...

I have 2 answers. My preference would be 3 days. The real answer is however long gets all the entries filled for the event.

JBRL electric off road series races here in So Cal. We get 180 to 250 entries per race ( 8 race series), and its a 1 day event.

Cash payput at the end of the series for top ten that attend at least 5 of the races, and trophies or plaques for top three A main finishers at each individual race.

Umm....I thought you ran the same number of heats/mains for 2 day races as for 7 day races.

So the idea of having a race spaning 7days is quite risky for the drivers since track conditions can change. Plus it is really expensive to take tiem off work then pay out for motels and food.

One way to shorten the time would be exclude the stock classes from the event. Last time I checked, When the Indy500 ran, they didn't run karts during the intermission.

This is true.

The promoters could limit entries but then they are limiting their profits. The most interesting race of the group is the Reedy Race. It is run in four days which is reasonable. And it could probably be run in three. Not only is it a short race, it is one of the most well attended races.

With 160 open and 40 invitational, entries are limited to 200. But this is 200 individuals limited to racing one class. Open this up to 2-3 entries per driver like most of the other big races, and you will end up with 400+ entries and a race that can't be run in 4 days.