Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

With the schedules having dates that conflict how many cars make for a good event in your opinion? 

I usually just hit Outlaw shows in my area, so I'll base it off of that. 

I've been to Outlaw shows with 22 cars before and the show kicked ass!  I've been to shows with 50, and the show was a snoozer.  Twenty 410 sprinters can put on a pretty good show.  Having 12 full-time Outlaws, and 3 or 4 tough locals can make a great show.  There will always be a handful of very low budget teams and I don't think adding another 20 field fillers makes for a better show.  If the last chance race is nothing but guys who can't even crack the top 15 of the A-main, I'd rather there not even be an LCQ.  

For the Nats, I like to see 100.  For multi-day shows, it's nice to see 40-50+.  One night shows, 20+ is just fine.  

I like to see 31+ show, that way I get at least 4 heats a B and an A for my money, but like egras said, I've seen some awesome shows with 21-25 cars show up.  

For a normal sactioned show, 32 is the magic number, anything more is creame cheese. 

For me, there have to be enough cars to make the Heats meaningful

If everyone or almost everyone makes the feature, whats the point of heats?

Heats meaningful ?????

Sadly, the only things meaningful are time trials and the dash. 
I don't have an answer on how to line up heats without penalizing the fast guys, but most aren't very meaningful - if passing is meaningful

I like enough for 4 heats, so about 32 cars.

Whether there is 20 or 50 you'll likely be seeing the same 10-12 cars run up front in the feature.  

More than 26.

Less than a gazillion.

I hit the tracks that have a good base for sprint cars. I like to see 4 heats with a possible b main. You usually get a good car or 2 in the b that couldn't move forward in there heat race. If not it gives me a chance to take a restroom break or grab something to eat. Ohio sprint speedweek was always a good time back in my time. LOL, that was more than 30 yrs ago now.

If there is a big race on streaming and a 20 car 410 show an hour from home on a 99 degree day my central air has been winning that battle more often than not.  

Stan Meissner

If there are 24 good cars to start the feature, I'm happy. 

A

My vote is about 32 cars. That gives you 4 heats, A B-feature and a main event.

Maybe this is a good place to ask this question. If there's not enough cars, they'll cut back from 4 heats to 3 heats at a WoO (And, presumably a H-L race). If there's too many cars, why can't they go from 4 heats to 5? Running 13 cars in a heat race sends a message to some teams to just stay home next time. 

It's because it doesn't jive with the split field qualifying and how the heats get seeded.  It would have to be an even number of heats.  WoO used to run 6 heats with 49 or more cars but they abandoned that a few years ago (2020 I think) and went with 4 heats max.  The all-stars had a 5 heat program but now with HL now also doing split field qualifying, they will have same issue as WoO.  I believe that with the new 4 heats max format for the outlaws that the most you could have in a heat is 12 cars because once you hit 49+ cars, they lock the top 20 from each qual group into heats (40 cars total) and add a non-qualifier race where the top 4 cars will tag the tail of the heat races.  So 48 cars would produce 4 heats of 12 while 44 cars OR 49+ cars will produce 4 heats of 11 (after the non qualifiers transfer to heats).  But yes, I agree that 12 car heat races can be pretty frustrating.for some teams, especially if you start 12th

If they can't do 5 heats because it's an odd number, how can they do 3?

More heat and less transfer cars from each heat makes more sense to me. Finishing 6th in the heat race and qualifying for the a main isn't nearly as meaningful as finishing third to earn the spot and working your way through a b main or c main to make the feature if you finish worse than third

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

Because they don't use split field qualifying for 3 heat nights because there are only 21-31 cars...the entire field qualifies against each other.  When you go to qualifying flights and split the field in half (38 cars or more), then you can only have an even number of heats as flight 1 will have the same number of heats as flight 2

It is mathematics.  Any thing can be changed if the racers and/or the fans want it. Plus streaming providers can likely influence the events.  So changes may be coming or not. 

Well, if fast qualifiers take the pole, its probably gonna be pointless

I'm OK with NO  qualifying & random draw for heat lineup....

Random draw works great as long as there is a "passing points" format.  

But to answer the question, I'm always hoping for as many cars as possible when I'm there.  When I'm watching on FLO, I don't really care how many.

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