New weekend format ?

#1

Saw this on 44Cup.com

[quote]NASA MidAtlantic is contemplating a change in the normal weekend schedule. Saturdays would be the same, Sunday would drop practice, include a 15 min qualifying and a 40 minute race. And, with this format, the last race on Sunday would start art 3pm (vs 5 pm).
Thoughts?

DD
[/quote]

Anyone in Spec e30 hear about this? Personally, I am for it. More racing less "Driving" is something that I am in favor up. A 40 min race on a regular basis would be a lot of fun.

#2

erupert66 wrote:

[quote]Saw this on 44Cup.com

[quote]NASA MidAtlantic is contemplating a change in the normal weekend schedule. Saturdays would be the same, Sunday would drop practice, include a 15 min qualifying and a 40 minute race. And, with this format, the last race on Sunday would start art 3pm (vs 5 pm).
Thoughts?

DD
[/quote]

Anyone in Spec e30 hear about this? Personally, I am for it. More racing less "Driving" is something that I am in favor up. A 40 min race on a regular basis would be a lot of fun.[/quote] This was discussed last Sat at our annual staff meeting. This possible change was at the request of some of the racing series’ basically Sunday practice will be eliminated and the race lengthened. We discussed a procedure to allow for a short hardship session with an ontrack pass issued by the race director. If this change is completely implemented, the details will be gone over by Chris at the all hands meetings.

#3

Would be awesome. The short "hardship" session would accomodate the only whining that I heard.

Although, there is already an accomodation for this by running a couple laps in a DE session.

#4

erupert66 wrote:

[quote]Saw this on 44Cup.com

[quote]NASA MidAtlantic is contemplating a change in the normal weekend schedule. Saturdays would be the same, Sunday would drop practice, include a 15 min qualifying and a 40 minute race. And, with this format, the last race on Sunday would start art 3pm (vs 5 pm).
Thoughts?

DD
[/quote]

Anyone in Spec e30 hear about this? Personally, I am for it. More racing less "Driving" is something that I am in favor up. A 40 min race on a regular basis would be a lot of fun.[/quote]

I’m against the idea personally, I really enjoy the practices on both days.

#5

jonmca wrote:

[quote]erupert66 wrote:

[quote]Saw this on 44Cup.com

[quote]NASA MidAtlantic is contemplating a change in the normal weekend schedule. Saturdays would be the same, Sunday would drop practice, include a 15 min qualifying and a 40 minute race. And, with this format, the last race on Sunday would start art 3pm (vs 5 pm).
Thoughts?

DD
[/quote]

Anyone in Spec e30 hear about this? Personally, I am for it. More racing less "Driving" is something that I am in favor up. A 40 min race on a regular basis would be a lot of fun.[/quote]

I’m against the idea personally, I really enjoy the practices on both days.[/quote] Ther hardship practice would basically be open to anyone who wants it up to the limit of the number of cars allowed on track. The catch is that drivers will need to go get a track pass from the tower in order to go out. Hardship in HPDE is something we are trying to eliminate.

#6

Sean,

If this new format does take effect, would I be correct in assuming that it would not apply to the first event at VIR since this weekend includes an enduro race?

#7

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]Sean,

If this new format does take effect, would I be correct in assuming that it would not apply to the first event at VIR since this weekend includes an enduro race?[/quote]

From what I understand, we will not be getting either practice or qualifying on sunday because of the enduro.

#8

jonmca wrote:

[quote]
From what I understand, we will not be getting either practice or qualifying on sunday because of the enduro.[/quote]

I hope that is not the case. $269 is a lot of money to just get 15 minutes of track time on Sunday.

#9

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]Sean,

If this new format does take effect, would I be correct in assuming that it would not apply to the first event at VIR since this weekend includes an enduro race?[/quote] The Enduro weekend is always a diferent format. I believe the official schedule will be released this week.

#10

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]jonmca wrote:

[quote]
From what I understand, we will not be getting either practice or qualifying on sunday because of the enduro.[/quote]

I hope that is not the case. $269 is a lot of money to just get 15 minutes of track time on Sunday.[/quote] Sprints are 25 minutes but point taken

#11

Ugg don’t fix what ain’t broke.

[/grumbling]

#12

nasaregistrar wrote:

[quote]screwynewy wrote:

[quote]jonmca wrote:

[quote]
From what I understand, we will not be getting either practice or qualifying on sunday because of the enduro.[/quote]

I hope that is not the case. $269 is a lot of money to just get 15 minutes of track time on Sunday.[/quote] Sprints are 25 minutes but point taken[/quote]

I definitely do think that it is unfair to charge racers full price for a sprint weekend when we miss out on more than half of our track time on one of the days.

Jon

#13

jonmca wrote:

[quote]I definitely do think that it is unfair to charge racers full price for a sprint weekend when we miss out on more than half of our track time on one of the days.

Jon[/quote]
Amen.

#14

(accidental duplicate)

#15

jonmca wrote:

[quote]nasaregistrar wrote:

[quote]screwynewy wrote:

[quote]jonmca wrote:

[quote]
From what I understand, we will not be getting either practice or qualifying on sunday because of the enduro.[/quote]

I hope that is not the case. $269 is a lot of money to just get 15 minutes of track time on Sunday.[/quote] Sprints are 25 minutes but point taken[/quote]

I definitely do think that it is unfair to charge racers full price for a sprint weekend when we miss out on more than half of our track time on one of the days.

Jon[/quote] Jon,
the schedule is not finalized so everything is speculation. Don’t get all upset until you see the official schedule. Remember we added a sprint race for this event where there never has been one before and VIR raised the rental rate for the track 90%

#16

nasaregistrar wrote:
[/quote] Jon,
the schedule is not finalized so everything is speculation. Don’t get all upset until you see the official schedule. Remember we added a sprint race for this event where there never has been one before and VIR raised the rental rate for the track 90%[/quote]

Sean,

All I said was that I think it is unfair, that is not "getting all upset." I would just hope that if the schedule is finalized, racers should be either compensated for the reduction in time or atleast should have been informed ahead of time that they will not be receiving the usual track time despite the price increase for the sprints. Currently there is no reason to believe that if I pay for the sprints that I would not receive for the generally accepted weekend schedule. I understand that VIR raised the rate a material amount.
I think you know that I am not out for NASA blood, but rather think that we should all be on the same page as we move forward.

Jon

#17

jonmca wrote:

[quote][b]

I’m against the idea personally, I really enjoy the practices on both days.[/quote]

Doesn’t "racing" count as practice? I’d rather use the time on the track to race vs. drive around. What I heard as one of the reasons is that when you have a 25 min race (w/ about 20 min of green flag) and you have one caution that causes a restart, you’ve basically killed the race. I know that I’ve had a couple weekends like this where the "race" was about 3 green laps. W/ a 40 min format, you can absorb a bit of trouble and still have a pretty good race. Coming out of PCA and really enjoying the 90 min. enduro’s, I favor the longer races. More time for racing and reeling in competitors.

#18

mrussell wrote:

[quote]jonmca wrote:

[quote]I definitely do think that it is unfair to charge racers full price for a sprint weekend when we miss out on more than half of our track time on one of the days.

Jon[/quote]
Amen.[/quote]

Is this somehow different than previous year’s VIR events? I didn’t think that the format changed, just the price went up. BTW - $269 for a 2 race w/e is still a steal. Try to get that type of track/race time from SCCA or PCA (BMWCCA?? - don’t know anything about their format) for the same $$. A PCA w/e with a sprint race as well as a 90 min enduro is about $500 in entry fees. A regular sprint weekend is usually about $375 and you get some $10 t-shirt or gimmick.

#19

Sean - correct me if I am wrong, but as I recall, there was no sprint race on Sunday last year because of the enduro. So, it seems like 2 sprint races this year is a better deal than last year!
Ed

#20

edavidson wrote:

[quote]Sean - correct me if I am wrong, but as I recall, there was no sprint race on Sunday last year because of the enduro. So, it seems like 2 sprint races this year is a better deal than last year!
Ed[/quote]

And follow up question, being as last year was only one race, what was the cost of last year’s event?