[Wally]

Watching the Olympics where athletes get to choose their height or weight attempts gave me an idea for a fun run some time. You could have a qualifying hotlap session where everyone goes out one at a time for one flying lap. You get to nominate how much ballast you want to carry on your lap. Every round, the slowest guy is eliminated, and you can then choose to increase your ballast for the next round. Every round you survive, your ballast gets added to your score. We would restart the qual session each round. The guy with the highest score wins.

I don't know if Guybrush would just win, or how much tactics comes into it when choosing your ballast.

[rob]

Hi Wally, if I am reading your suggestion correctly and let’s say that there are 16 drivers, that means that the slowest driver will have to sit out the next 15 races. One race per night, that’s 4 months, 2 races per night that’s still 2 months. That’s exciting for the fast guys but being one of the slower Tuesday nighters, that doesn’t give me a lot of warm and fuzzies.

Although you know that I will always sign up for a season no matter what the format, there may be some that look for alternatives to fill their vacant Tuesday nights.

But I love the idea of choosing your own ballast per race. It will be crucial to work out a ratio for the ballast points to offset the possible lose of position points. For the fast guys there will be strategic and tactical decisions made each race like “Do I risk a position or 2 to gain ballast points” etc. For the slower guys like myself, just forget about ballast and Season results and enjoy the usual night’s racing but with the possibility of racing with opponents that I may not usually be sharing the track with.

Just my 2c worth.

[grat]

Rob: I think Wally's idea is to have it all in one night: 16 "one lap" rounds. But I agree there are a few things that might need some refinement:

1. Rob is right that if you get eliminated first, you spend the whole night watching others. Might be fun for a while, but not for 2 hours.
2. We should think carefully at how you make points. As far as I get Wally's plan, you make 1pt per each Kg as long as you do not get eliminated. This is not the same as setting the bar for a high jump---that would be more similar to state first what time you want to beat and you have 3 attempts to beat it or you are out.

1+2 = some might wish to maximise the time they spend driving instead of spectating. That means running 0 ballast. Then you might have a last round between two drivers, one with 1500points and the other with 0. Not an exciting perspective, as the 0 ballast guy has no chance of winning.

All this said: it might be fun to experiment a bit with some other format for a fun night.

[Wally]

Yes, I meant all in one night. I doubt it would take 2 hours either. Maybe it would, dunno. It's like any racing format where you have a top ten shootout. Those outside the top 10 have to sit and watch. I would definitely pick a short track to do this with - not Spa!

It's not exactly analgous to the Olympics, but only inspired by it. It's more like weightlifting, where the lifters can decide what weight they're going to try to lift next. Think of the ballast as lifting that weight. What you're sort of wagering is that you can maximise your ballast and still beat the slowest time. I want to capture the drama of the slow elimination, and the strategy and drama of deciding what ballast to go for next.

I reckon it's worth a try between seasons. It could be fun.

[marty]

Maybe you could do this without the eliminations so some people dont only get 1 or 2 laps for the nite. Still dial in your own ballast and get points only for the ballast you run but maybe only score top half of the field with bottom half losing the points. Example you run 50kg make the top 10 get 50 points, if you were in the bottom 10 you lose 50 points.

This way strategy would come into it even more. If you only had to beat 1 person you could risk way more ballast but if you need to make the top ten out of 20 going for too much you could end up losing points istead.

This could mean some not so quick guys could make the top 10 and those risking too much could lose lots of points. It would be more inclusive to all and should stay interesting all night that way I think.

[marty]

Also maybe rather the a single lap where everyone watches others it could be just short qualy sessions of say 4 or 5 minutes giving enough time for an outlap and maybe 2 hotlaps at a shorter track.

The solo single laps would be interesting but this would probably make it take much longer. Even if people went every 10 seconds youd end up in traffic most likely. If youbhad to wait for a full lap by each then with 20 people it would take 30 minutes or more just to run a single run. So probably not much more then 1 lap per hour each. Yes it would get quicker with eliminations but then some would be done in 1 or 2 laps.

Having short 6 minute sessions including the overtime to finish a flying lap would keep it fairly hectic. Everyone would be involved the full nite and the end points would be a bit of a mystery til the results are added up and that points format I think would make it more open to anyone to win. Especially if some of the quicker guys scored some big points one round forcing others to go heavy.

Maybe make it that you cant drop ballast any round but you could only raise it. So if you get greedy relative to the field it could put you in a bit of trouble with negative points needing to somehow get into the points and not keep losing them. It could also be that you could go up and down in ballast each round to not keep punishing someone for being over agressive once.

[Wally]

I will give it some thought. Thanks for the ideas.

[marty]

1+2 = some might wish to maximise the time they spend driving instead of spectating. That means running 0 ballast. Then you might have a last round between two drivers, one with 1500points and the other with 0. Not an exciting perspective, as the 0 ballast guy has no chance of winning.

All this said: it might be fun to experiment a bit with some other format for a fun night.

I think with the elimination system points would matter as much as actual position. But thats where I am a little confused, if your trying to get through with as much ballast as possible what is also the advantage of being last man standing. I assume there would be points for this but balancing them would be hard.

If its more about elimination and being last standing then you would not want too much ballast so its a bit hard to imagine how to give points or what reason you would want to run lots of ballast. You could run 0kg and have more chance of making it to the end at least, even if you dont win at least you get more laps for the night.

[Wally]

The point of being last man standing is that you get to run more rounds, and so accumulate more ballast points. You want to carry as much ballast as possible, without coming last.

Yes, your ballast couldn't go down. You'd have to increase it each round.

[marty]

I do like the idea especially trying something new and different. The only thing that I see an issue with is that some guys may only race 1 night per week and put aside a few hours for racing on a tuesday night.

If this means they may only get 1 lap or 2 or 3 in the night they probably wont even bother and take the night off racing. So thats why I think modifying the format into a more inclusive one where everyone can run all night but use the idea to some level as it could make for a fun night and be better for all.

Watching others hotlap isnt really my idea of fun, watching others race can be entertaining but hotlapping I am not a big fan of watching even myself do, let alone others for a few hours

For me personally the original concept id be fine with as I race more then just the 1 night. If I got knocked out early id likely just leave and do something else its just the few that only race league nights I dont think elimination formats will be a great thing.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

How about a race where half the grid goes the wrong way around?  That would create for some hair-raising moments.

[marty]

How about a race where half the grid goes the wrong way around?  That would create for some hair-raising moments.

Would give you too much of an advantage as your kind of used to that, or maybe have the old reverse gear only race.