iRacing Season 5 Tuesday Sprints

[Paul Thurston]

In the absence of anyone else to do it I've volunteered to run the Tuesday night races for season 5, so welcome to the Season 5 Tuesday Sprint series.  

The intention is to fill the gap between the Friday ACHF fun races and Sunday 90 minute endurances.  The cars are ones we've raced for at least one complete season previously on tracks we are all familiar with.

The series will run concurrently on alternate Tuesdays.  Each series will be run over 7 races.

Series one - Dallara IndyCar

15 minute qually
40 minute races
No mandatory pitstops, though fuel will almost certainly be required.
One reset (Fast Tow) allowed
Two wide rolling start
One dropped score will be allowed

Series two - Multiclass - Radical & Daytona Prototype

15 Minute qually
60 minute races
One mandatory pitstop
One reset
Two wide rolling start
Three championships:
- Outright
- DP Class
- Radical Class
One dropped score will be allowed within each championship

Tracks in both series will be selected to match a recent week of the official series wherever practical.  This will help to give opportunities to practice the track/car combination and also help with the availability of up to date setups.  I've analysed which tracks have had the best attendances in previous SRO series and the more popular ones will be given preference.

Obviously it's impossible to match them up exactly because the Rad and DP are in different series and the Indy Cars run ovals and this is a road only series but I'll make a judgement call for each week and be as fair as I can to choose tracks which suit one or other car.

Because the official schedule for 2011 S1 hasn't yet been announced I've not yet worked out the full schedule.

The tracks which came up as most popular in order of average attendance are:

Sebring
Brands Hatch
VIR
Laguna Seca
Silverstone
Infineon
Watkins Glen

Philip Island and Barber also scored very highly but we've only run one race at each so far so I'll keep them in reserve.  They're good tracks though and are both well suited to either series IMO.  I've included Spa in both series because it's Spa, everyone here will be buying it and I'm not expecting any complaints.

The provisional schedule up to the end of Week 13 is listed below.  I've noted where a track is used by the official series the week before.

Date    Series   Track              Official Series
4  Jan  Indy     Road America       Indy
11 Jan  Rad/DP   Spa
18 Jan  Indy     Watkins Glen Boot  Indy
25 Jan  Rad/DP   Brands GP          DP (2 weeks previous)
1  Feb  Indy     Spa

Unless I receive any violent objections to this schedule I propose to set up the championships and we'll get racing in the New Year.

Paul

PS.

Attendance at the Monday night practice sessions has dwindled to practically nothing.  As they double the cost of each series to the league I'm thinking we won't run them but if enough people want them then we can see how it goes.

[Paul Thurston]

After a great deal of deliberation and study of the official schedule and respective DP/Radical laptimes I have decided on the following random list of tracks for the remainder of the Tuesday nights:

08 February 2011 Rad/DP     Laguna Seca
15 February 2011 Indy         Silverstone
22 February 2011 Rad/DP     Barber
01 March 2011     Indy   Mid  Ohio Full
08 March 2011     Rad/DP    Silverstone GP
15 March 2011     Indy        Barber
22 March 2011     Rad/DP    Infineon Long
29 March 2011     Indy        Infineon IRL
05 April 2011   Rad/DP     Spa (GP Pits)

With the exception of 15 Feb where the most recent official road course is Watkins which we've already run the Indy series is following the official one to maintain a supply of setups and practice opportunities.  Sadly week 13 has pushed us out of synch with the official road course weeks so we'll run practice sessions on Monday if people want them.

For the Rad/DP series I've picked tracks where the race WRs are within a second.  The exception is Spa which we're bookending the season with because, well, it's Spa.

I have made an effort to synchronise the tracks with the official Radical/Corvette series to try and redress the performance balance between the two cars a little bit.  the DP still has an advantage at all the remaining tracks so I think that's fair overall.

I picked Laguna as the next race because it's short notice and we all know it.  I hate the place personally but hey ho.

Paul