How do you organize Solo 1s?

[coreysmith]

Would someone mind giving me a description of a typical Solo1 day in Ontario? Specifically I'm looking for things like:
What time do you start (arriving and competing)
What time do things usually wrap up?
How many competitors?
How many cars hot lapping at a time?
Run groups?
Number of hot laps per "run", Cool down/warm up laps?
Practice time?
Are there marshals, are they the competitors?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm looking for ideas for how to improve our events. We typically have about 20 cars but the days are very long. I think this is mostly due to the fact that we do not let more than 1 car hot lap at a time. We just recently started letting cars out for their warm up lap while the previous car was finishing (2 cars on track but only one hot lapping).

We usually show up around 9 or so. Tech the cars and register. Have practice from about 10:30 till around 12:00. First car out around 12:30 . Lat car for the day around 6:30 sometimes later.

[ctenche]

I'll take a stab at answering your questions.

What time do you start (arriving and competing)
Registration opens at 7:30 and closes at 8:45.

What time do things usually wrap up?
We wrap the competition by 5:00 PM but usually are there till at least 6:00-6:30 since we have a BBQ on Saturday and read event results.

How many competitors?
On the whole we have about 125 competitors registered for the series. However, event attendance varies from track to track and year to year. Right now we are at about 50 competitors per event. In the past we had as much as 80 competitors per event.

How many cars hot lapping at a time?
This varies depending on the size of the track. We put out at least 4 cars on the track at the same time. On some of the larger configurations, we sometimes have 7 cars out at once.

Run groups?
Yes, we use them. They are split up according to times and number of classes.

Number of hot laps per "run", Cool down/warm up laps?
One warmup lap, three hot laps, one cool down lap.

Practice time?
We have an open lapping/practice session in the morning between 9:00-9:45. If things go well, we have a short lapping session at lunch and at the end of the day if time permits.

Are there marshals, are they the competitors?
All competitors must marshal otherwise their times will not count.

Where are you writing from Corey?

[coreysmith]

Thanks for the info. I'm writing from Nova Scotia. We have several car clubs here and one road course. Atlantic Motorsports Park. Not sure the exact size but lap times are in the 1:20 to 1:38 range for most competitors.

Man, if we had 80 competitors we would be there for 2 days:)
It is simialr to what happended with autox. It got so popular I don't even bother going anymore because the days are so long.

You must send the first car off around 10?

Sounds like the biggest difference is the number of cars on track at a time which is what I expected. There seems to be a perception that it is not safe you run multiple cars at a time here, even with marshals, ambulance, etc.

[Taylor]

Corey: That's because everyone there is so anal. :)

BMW Club runs several STUDENTS on the track at once on AMP... no incidents that I'm aware of (collision wise). So whats' the big f'ing deal? Didn't they used to run a chase car? How's that any different?

Just another thing in the way of the sport growing out there.

Fire Extinguishers at each Marshalling Station, and if you have enough people that you need to put multiple cars on the track at once then you have people marshal. Course I suspect AMCRA marshals can be "rented" relatively cheaply, though no offence to them, they shouldn't be needed. Plus you guys can see the whole track from the tower. Start out running two cars, then 3, then 4. No reason why you can't put 4 or 5 on that track at a time with marshals. Just need to know how to space them out, grid people by their past or expected performance. Yellow flag if a car is getting "too close". It's pretty simple. You just need to want to do it, want to make it work. Which is probably the most difficult thing for you.

[coreysmith]

And as you know the other race schools have lots of cars on the track at the same time too.

I have been pushing for this for a while. We have upgraded our timing gear so that it can handle multiple cars now. So it is just a matter of convincing those in charge I guess.

Convering the marshal stands with properly equiped people is not problem if the car count is high enough.

[ctenche]

Corey, just as an aside, cars are "generally" spaced out to be about 7-10 seconds appart.

[Rob McAuley]

...and cars are sorted on the grid by their lap times. Fasted car goes first, slowest last.

The clerk of the course starts the cars, and ensures that there is a safe distance between them (at least 10 seconds). He/she should also know not to start any cars when the lead car is within about 20 seconds of pit-out.

There are a number of marshal stations, and marshals are ready to throw various flags as directed by the clerk:

Yellow - You've caught the car ahead. Back off, and this lap won't count.

Green - Resume racing. Your next lap is hot.

Red - Car off the track. Race halted. Stop at the next marshal station.

The day flows quite well once we get times on the new people.

You should come by for a visit and see how we do it!