Hinckley Radio Control Car Club

Would anybody fancy trying racing with an F1 style fastest lap type qualifying? In an attempt at making things more interesting I'm proposing trailing a qualifying system in which the total number of laps covered during qualifying sessions is no longer the key but rather your fastest lap during qualifying being used to calculate your finals starting position. This is basically how the Formula 1 Grand Prix grids are calculated. The current qualification system produced the following Quicksilver A final starting line up yesterday.

A Final
1. Mark Stevens - fastest qualifying lap 12.41
2. Andy Lappin - fastest qualifying lap 12.40
3. James Carroll - fastest qualifying lap 13.86
4. Richard Dobson - fastest qualifying lap 13.98
5. Chris Packer - fastest qualifying lap 14.13

But taking racers fastest laps would have seen Andy and Mark swapping places at the front of the grid. Alan Marson would have taken 3rd place on the grid ( his fastest qualifying lap being 13.22 ) demoting James to 4th and then Norman Stephens ( fastest qualifying lap 13.91 ) taking the 5th place in the A final and no doubt being delighted about it! Myself and Chris would have then been front row in the B final.

This would maybe bring another element into the qualifying with racers hanging back to make clear track space to get a clear lap in - Also if the computer projection display can show fastest times rather than laps it could make exciting watching as the leaderboard shuffled during qualifying. Nobody would need to ruin their own fastest laps to move out of the way for faster cars in qualifying - it would be up to the drivers to find the track space they need to get that A final pole sitter lap in without being hindered.

Am I mad or can anyone else see this as a possible idea?

Richard

Now that is a good idea, if the software will allow it!

Personally I'm not in favour of this. I enjoy close racing and the current format caters for this. In effect we get 5 races during an afternoon. If it came down to 1 lap qualifying would we get as much racing? Also I tend to be a consistant driver. I don't mind which final I'm in, but when we actually get down to racing in the finals I enjoy having a close race. What happens if an erratic driver puts in 1 fast lap and lucks into the A final. He/she then might become a moving road block for the rest of the finals.

Richard, you mentioned with 1 lap qualifying people would be less likely to get in other peoples ways. But I think people will be more reckless with 1 lap qualifying, pushing too hard, crashing more and giving the marshals more work. The current format encourages you to keep your car on the island so theoretically getting in someones way could slow you down as it often leads to a crash.

If we want a system based on fastest lap we could base it on fastest 3-4 consecutive laps. This would encourage consistancy and speed. Plus if you had a crash or some issue with the car you would hopefully still have some times on the board to take you into the final.