Fastrac rule proposal

[brian]

The latest Fastrac has a proposal to allow the combination of practice sessions during double weekends to 40 minutes or more. The idea is to allow regions to meet the GCR minimum track time reguirements and get more groups on track over the weekend. Not only does this eliminate another chance to sort your car or improve your skills, many vees don't carry enough fuel to complete that long a session.

The double national in Seattle has a double long practice scheduled and has been challenged.

If you have an opinion on this subject please write the CRB.

[Dave Gomberg]

Brian:

You are misinterpreting the proposed change. It simply allows the organizers to offer slightly less total time for practice and qualifying in order to squeeze the day a bit. It in no way implies that all of that time must be in a single session.

Dave

[brian]

Guess I'm reading it wrong but it does say that the sessions can be combined. In Seattle this year the double includes a 40 minute practice which is totally useless to vees.

[Dave Gomberg]

Guess I'm reading it wrong but it does say that the sessions can be combined. In Seattle this year the double includes a 40 minute practice which is totally useless to vees.

Maybe we could have worded it better, but the intent of the "combining" was to allow a practice session to count toward both races. That could be true for qualifying also. But it does not in any way mandate long sessions.

Dave

[fvracer]

Most Vees can run 40 minutes on 5 gal of fuel, or pretty close to it anyway. The runoffs at Mid-Ohio were 20 laps about 1:40, well for me it was about 1:43, and that works out to around 35 minutes. Throw in the pace lap and cool down lap and you are right at 40 minutes. I always started with about 4.5 gallons and had fuel left at the end of the race.

Doug

[DanRemmers]

Can you refuel during a practice session?

[Mad Dog Racing]

Guess I'll have to crank out a letter. I don't tend to use all of the practice/qualifying time at a track I'm familiar with, but I like to have it available when needed. Sounds like the intent was to reduce the national time from 45 minutes total P/Q time to 40 minutes total P/Q time. That's not a problem I guess, two 20-minute sessions instead of one 20 and one 25. Where it cuts is how you interpret "combine". Forty minutes combined P/Q time for one national is OK. Combining P/Q time for two nationals into "combined" sessions, no. I sure hope that isn't what was intended.

We had a N/N race early in the season where the first practice was cancelled by snow. So the afternoon practice was "combined" for the two races. In other words, we lost 20 minutes of track time. That was a special case, not the schedule listed in the entry. Long sessions are OK for test days if you have help in the hot pits, but a lot of the vee guys don't. I would hate to see a single long session plus the race become the norm. I know, it is now, the qualifying for the race is usually only one session, but there is usually a separate practice for a national. The problem is the down time between sessions, two 20-minute sessions take almost an hour of track time, one 40-minute session "saves" ten minutes of track time and meets the GCR.

In answer to the question, no you can not refuel in the hot pits. And if you return to the paddock, your session is over. If you come back out, the first times are void. So if you go out with a light fuel load to qualify quick, you are done in 10-15 minutes, but if you go out with a full tank, the first half of the session is slow. Unless something else happens, the fast lap in a national is almost always late in the race when the cars are 15 pounds lighter. Nobody wants to qualify on a full tank.

[brian]

Either way it's done with entry fees rising and doubles becoming more common, I do not like loosing any time during the weekend. My car does not have room for 5 gallons of fuel and barely makes the long races, I guess that's a personal problem.