I’ve been thinking about my experience at Milwuakee, and looking at all the individual pieces of the Indycar oval entertainment package, there was a standout part that added little entertainment value to the spectacle.
Four lap qualifying at ovals other than Indianapolis. It adds nothing compared with the “best of two laps” version that had been used in the past.
It appears the purpose of the change was to add value to the spectacle by increasing the track time. The result of is that the IRL have extended the same amount of entertainment value, over twice the period of time.
Net result: boredom.
There’s also an argument that it devalues four lap qualifying at Indianapolis.
Contrast this to the road course qualifying format changes. Now, instead of one session, we have four sessions to decide the grid. The time has been extended slightly, but the entertainment value has been multiplied by three or four, because in each session, there is something to watch.
Net result: excitement.
So how to you fix the oval qualifying? Simple: Break it up into three sessions.
Session 1: All cars run in a best lap of two qualifying format. Top 12 cars advance to the next round. Grid positions 13 onwards are decided in this session.
Session 2: Top 12 cars run in a best lap of two qualifying format. Top 6 cars advance to the next round. Grid positions seven through 12 are decided in this session.
Session 3: top 6 cars run in a best lap of two qualifying format. Top 6 grid position decided by results of this session.
Times from previous sessions do not carry over. The draw is run in the same order for each session, with the eliminated cars excluded, to ensure that each car gets around about the same preparation time between sessions. There should be a slightly longer break between sessions 2 and 3 to give the teams time to make more changes.
This works for a number of reasons:
1. You have increased the amount of time, but also the level of interest, so the intensity of the session is maintained.
2. You maintain that level of interest, throughout the field, throughout the session. This is good for fans, good for television, and good for sponsors.
3. Versus will love it, it’s got logical places to put ad breaks, and plenty of interview opportunities.
4. You have a format that is somewhat similar to the road course format. You can even call the top 6 the “Firestone Fast 6″. I’m sure the Firehawk won’t mind, and it also gives him (it?), two more opportunities to fire t-shirts into the crowd, which may give him an actual chance of firing one at me (hint).
The disadvantage is the intensity of the session for the teams, but given the teams have coped with the road course three session format, I don’t see that as a big issue. Anything else (tire allocation – my thought is to restrict to one set for the three sessions, timings, etc.), should be something the people at the IRL can work out.
I think there should be a new draw for each portion. This could be done at the start amd remove anyone who misses out
The thing that put me off separate draws between sessions, is by doing that, you don’t give a team a guaranteed period of time between runs.
By running them in the same spot for all three sessions, you can almost guarantee, that say, with a 10 minute break between session 1 and session 2, they’re going to have something in the range of 25 minutes to make setup changes. You want to encourage set up changes, it’s good drama, and gives Jack Arute something to talk about.
If you’re at the end of session 1, then draw position 1 for session 2, you don’t get that opportunity, but your rivals might. I don’t think that’s fair.
Seems awfully complicated.
I would just line them up by practice speed – slowest guy goes first, fastest guy goes last. Each car gets two laps, best lap counts.
Always gives you something to look forward to, as far as “Will the next guy go faster?”
Not like oval qualifying really matters, anyway. May as well spice it up for TV.
Practice speed isn’t always the best indicator. If I was going to do that, I’d line them up by points order.
I think no matter what order you line them up in, a multi-session idea has the potential to work.