[christopheraser]

In order to make the night finish a little earlier, I'll make these changes:

Qualifying starts at 8:20pm (Eastern DST) - 10 mins earlier, and will now be 15 minutes long (5 mins shorter).
The practice session before race 2 will now be 10 mins (5 mins shorter).

This will make the night finish 20 minutes earlier.

Does that work for everybody (thinking about the qually start time, mainly).

Being in WA a 5.30pm qual is already a bit of a stretch for me. Chopping a further 15 mins off hurts me even more. Can we hold this change until the end of daylight savings?

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I think stick with the current format as far as 2 x race and qual goes, I think it's been proven.

I like the idea of longer races every now and then - but 2 races also gives everyone a second chance if something untoward happens in the first.  So it's good to have a mix up - a bit like the V8 Supercars having an endurance race every now and then.

It would just be good to shave a few minutes off here or there.  Even an extra 10 or 15 minutes would make a nice difference IMO.  When we start finishing at the last half of the 22nd hour during the week it is a bit of a killer for my sleep - but that's just me and my issues!

I also agree with Marty about qualifying and it only needing to be a bit shorter.  This way it's more of a hotlap and a bit more tension as you really only have time for a couple of decent laps.

[Gratulin]

I try and set a time close to my best early in the qual session to 'bank' a time. Reduces pressure a bit! Then I use the tail end of qual to try and beat my PB. The shortened qual will reduce the 'grip up' impact unless Wally is planning to change the rate.

[Bacchulum]

When we start finishing at the last half of the 22nd hour during the week it is a bit of a killer for my sleep - but that's just me and my issues!

Nah, not just you, I'm pretty much the reason we start this early now.

Instead of making qual shorter, why not start qual @ 1930 for 1 hour and start race 1 @ 2030?
As long as you join by 2022 you still get your 8 mins qually.

[Bird]

When we start finishing at the last half of the 22nd hour during the week it is a bit of a killer for my sleep - but that's just me and my issues!

Nah, not just you, I'm pretty much the reason we start this early now.

Instead of making qual shorter, why not start qual @ 1930 for 1 hour and start race 1 @ 2030?
As long as you join by 2022 you still get your 8 mins qually.

Heck that's exactly what I was thinking; combine praccy with qually.
It takes some of the pressure off, and hell how many times I wished my praccy lap would be my quali one...

p.s. I need my sleep, too. I fall apart pretty early nowadays...lots of brain-wringing exercises in the day.
p.s.2 yay for military times!

[Freezer]

My two cents . . . leave it as is except maybe shorten the between race gap down a bit.
Only really need time for maybe a drink/toilet stop (5 min).

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Instead of making qual shorter, why not start qual @ 1930 for 1 hour and start race 1 @ 2030?
As long as you join by 2022 you still get your 8 mins qually.

Yes, good idea!  Although for people that are in W.A. it means they would have to be home and racing by about 17:15 their time as qual would finish at 17:30 for them.

The other option would be to do what iRacing does, and whatever your best time is on the practice server through the week is your qual time.  Not necassarily saying this is the way forward, but an option for discussion never-the-less.

[marty]

When we start finishing at the last half of the 22nd hour during the week it is a bit of a killer for my sleep - but that's just me and my issues!

Nah, not just you, I'm pretty much the reason we start this early now.

Instead of making qual shorter, why not start qual @ 1930 for 1 hour and start race 1 @ 2030?
As long as you join by 2022 you still get your 8 mins qually.

Heck that's exactly what I was thinking; combine praccy with qually.
It takes some of the pressure off, and hell how many times I wished my praccy lap would be my quali one...

p.s. I need my sleep, too. I fall apart pretty early nowadays...lots of brain-wringing exercises in the day.
p.s.2 yay for military times!

Having only 1 real crack at the qualy is actually a bit more fun and a big part of the qualy challenge. It also makes it more likely some guys may get the odd poor qualy and not always start up the front. Get traffic and you may well be stuck mid pack or worse.

Last round my first qualy lap I ended up behind gratulin and couldnt do anything about it so I just gave that lap a miss and put all my eggs in thel ast lap basket.

I waited for the end of the session looking for a gap in traffic to head out with enough time to get my outlap in.

I thought I pushed hard enough too and put in a pretty good lap only to see the goat boy sneak ahead by a tiny margin. 

Long qualy would be ok but only if it didnt get to 100% grip for 10 minutes at the end which would take away from the dynamic grip quite a bit. If the race starts at the time it does having a 1hr or 10 min qualy doesnt make any difference in the time the race finishes inly tales some of the pressure off.

But the shorter session makes qualy much more interesting then having multiple goes at a quick lap.

[Bacchulum]

. If the race starts at the time it does having a 1hr or 10 min qualy doesnt make any difference in the time the race finishes

It will finish a whole qually session (20mins or 8mins) earlier, as that's my suggestion.
And I know it sucks for WA, which is pretty much why we're at where we're at now.

Get traffic and you may well be stuck mid pack or worse.

Most of us live mid-pack or worse, with one lap qually I never got stuck "at the pointy end", so it makes little difference back here.
Mid-pack isn't as precise as the front runners, less time hurts us more than you guys, generally.

[edit]
An afterthought about shortening the gap between races.
I don't think that's possible as it's governed by how long it takes Wally to configure it, I don't think he twiddles his thumbs in there.
Correct me if I'm wrong Wally.

[Wally]

I see I have some light reading after tea. I'll ponder and come up with a compromise that works for most.

[Bacchulum]

A few of us have been through this before and the best compromise for WA and ES seems to be what we have.
I'm blessed with DLS atm but when that ends my Wednesday's are going to be hell, so I can't finish any later than now.
And I doubt any WA guys will want to start earlier, so.....

[Guybrush Threepwood]

When DLS ends WA will be only 2 hours behind the eastern states.  They are in a better position than South Australia who, when DLS ends, will still be a number of years behind.

Ziiinnnggg!

[marty]

An afterthought about shortening the gap between races.
I don't think that's possible as it's governed by how long it takes Wally to configure it, I don't think he twiddles his thumbs in there.
Correct me if I'm wrong Wally.

There will always be some gap and no matter how prepared Wally is things can come up and just decide not to work like last week.

Between races and you also need some time for people to get into the server go to the toilet etc so too short a period wont always be great for all.

If the race was to start at 8:30 which I guess it wont for the reasons already stated then how long the actual qualybis not realy the issue. This can be whatever length is wanted or needed as really the practice session is the one that can end at whatever time but it just needs qualy/race to be at a time that suits most or at least Victorians 

[Bruce]

Haha funny and brave man GB!

[Wally]

The 8:30 qually start time has evolved over years to cater/compromise for all timezones and people's general availability, so that stays. A combined prac/qually isn't fair on people who can only get there at the last minute.

I also want to keep qually 1, because qualifying is a bit of extra fun or pressure, finding clear track, not stuffing up your lap etc (although the idea of starting in leaderboard order is an interesting one).

The only goal is to make the evening finish a little earlier.

So I'll set the schedule as follows (All times eastern DST):

Qually start at 8:30pm, and runs for 15 mins (5 mins shorter). Qualifying is usually only a 2 lap stint on softs, anyway, before returning to pits, so there's time for a few cracks at it.
Race 1: 8:45pm (30 mins)
Practice 2: 9:15pm for 10 mins (5 mins shorter)
Race 2: 9:25pm (30 mins)
Finish: 9:55pm (10 mins earlier).