Runoffs qualifying
Posted: August 18th, 2012, 9:36 am
I would like to open a discussion about qualifying groupings for this years Runoffs. I'm not complaining and have nothing against any other open wheel cars. I'm sure there was much thought behind the decisions as they were made but I'm curious about the reasoning for the qualifying groupings and wonder if there might be a better solution.
Below are the range of qualifying times (final grids) and car counts for all the open wheel classes from last year and the entry counts to date for this years Runoffs. The groupings from last year are shown as pairs below.
FV and F500 had 61 cars on track for qualifying. Road America is a large track but 61 cars, with a potential time difference of ~60 seconds from fast to slow cars from each class, and almost 20 seconds for the fastest of each class, things get busy very quickly. Especially when it takes over a minute just to get us all out from the grid.
Last year, as far as I know, there were no major issues other than the normal anxiety FV, and F500 deal with all year. This may be the reason this grouping is chosen because we are used to dealing with each other. But it seems to me, FV may have a little bargaining power considering we are the second largest entry for the runoffs and the largest open wheel group again this year also.
The laptime difference of FV/F500 top qualifiers is the largest of all the groupings. 18 seconds! The next largest is 10 seconds FC/FF.
Would F500 be a better match with another class pair? Maybe FE/FM (10 second difference for top qualifiers) Since FV has a pretty good field, could we request our own qualy sessions?
If there is another solution maybe we can work on it for next year.
Just curious on other peoples thoughts.
Andy P.
#75 Purple Citation
NER
Last Year
Class-entries-lap range
FA 15 cars 2:01-2:08
FB 10 cars 2:06-2:16
FC 15 cars 2:10-2:17
FF 22 cars 2:20-2:30
FV 34 cars 2:41-2:57
F500 27 cars 2:23-2:48
FE 16 cars 2:13-2:20
FM 13 Cars 2:15-2:20
Entries so far this year and their proposed groupings.
FA- 11
FB/F1000- 10
FC- 11
FF- 18
FV- 34
F500- 17
FE- 12
FM- 11
S2000- 7
Below are the range of qualifying times (final grids) and car counts for all the open wheel classes from last year and the entry counts to date for this years Runoffs. The groupings from last year are shown as pairs below.
FV and F500 had 61 cars on track for qualifying. Road America is a large track but 61 cars, with a potential time difference of ~60 seconds from fast to slow cars from each class, and almost 20 seconds for the fastest of each class, things get busy very quickly. Especially when it takes over a minute just to get us all out from the grid.
Last year, as far as I know, there were no major issues other than the normal anxiety FV, and F500 deal with all year. This may be the reason this grouping is chosen because we are used to dealing with each other. But it seems to me, FV may have a little bargaining power considering we are the second largest entry for the runoffs and the largest open wheel group again this year also.
The laptime difference of FV/F500 top qualifiers is the largest of all the groupings. 18 seconds! The next largest is 10 seconds FC/FF.
Would F500 be a better match with another class pair? Maybe FE/FM (10 second difference for top qualifiers) Since FV has a pretty good field, could we request our own qualy sessions?
If there is another solution maybe we can work on it for next year.
Just curious on other peoples thoughts.
Andy P.
#75 Purple Citation
NER
Last Year
Class-entries-lap range
FA 15 cars 2:01-2:08
FB 10 cars 2:06-2:16
FC 15 cars 2:10-2:17
FF 22 cars 2:20-2:30
FV 34 cars 2:41-2:57
F500 27 cars 2:23-2:48
FE 16 cars 2:13-2:20
FM 13 Cars 2:15-2:20
Entries so far this year and their proposed groupings.
FA- 11
FB/F1000- 10
FC- 11
FF- 18
FV- 34
F500- 17
FE- 12
FM- 11
S2000- 7