Community Question: What Do You Think About Unconventional Race Formats?

Unconventional-Race-Formats-IndyCar-Thermal-Challenge-2024-2.jpg

Would you be open to more unusual race formats in sim racing?

  • Yes

    Votes: 71 62.8%
  • No

    Votes: 32 28.3%
  • Maybe, if... (please explain in comments)

    Votes: 10 8.8%

  • Total voters
    113
Racing formats are relatively straight forward in most cases. But are more unconventional structures something to pursue as well from time to time?

Image credit: Honda Newsroom

The essence of racing is easily explained: Whoever covers a set distance the fastest or the most distance in a set amount of time wins. Most popular racing series operate like this, and, as a result, so do most sim racing titles. Would it make sense to switch things up a bit from time to time, though?

IndyCar tried just that over the weekend when running the non-championship $1 Million Challenge at Thermal Club in California. All "look how cool a place for rich people this is" the broadcast tried to suggest aside, the entertainment value of the event was pretty good in the author's opinion, at least for the most part. This was in large parts due to the format, both for the good and bad elements.

The format itself is quickly explained. Drivers would be split in two groups according to a random draw. They then qualified in these groups of 14 and 13 cars, respectively, for a heat race. Each group would have one of these 10-lap heats, with the top six advancing to the 20-lap final race. This had a twist, however, in the form of a half time.


Unusual Format, Unusual Tactics

After 10 laps, cars would come into the pits for a break. Teams were allowed to make only minor changes and repairs and refuel, but, most importantly, could not change tires. This led to the rather comical site of Colton Herta and Agustin Canapino going extremely slow in the first half of the final to conserve their tires for the second half. They just had to make sure that they were still on the lead lap at the half time.

For Herta, this paid off in the way that the Andretti Global driver finished in fourth position, but once again, no one had anything to stop Alex Palou - the Chip Ganassi Racing driver cruised to victory and his share of the $1 Million purse. Deservedly so, as the #10 car had consistently been at the front all weekend. Note that despite

While the two heats and the second half of the final provided lots of on-track action, the first half of the final looked a bit silly all things considered. From a strategy standpoint, the teams that decided to go super slow showed great ingenuity, no doubt. But imagine that one of them would have won despite almost being lapped in the first ten laps - that would have looked a bit weird, to say the least. Go slow in order to win? Sounds like the opposite of what racing is about.

Unconventional-Race-Formats-IndyCar-Thermal-Challenge-2024.jpg

Colton Herta (front) played it slow to go fast eventually. Image credit: Honda Newsroom

Still, the switch-up in race format was refreshing for the most part - for a non-championship race, that is. It did offer lots of action on a track that otherwise might not have been anything to write home about. With some tweaking, it could also feel a bit more legitimate, eliminating the slowing tactic of the final's first half. Suggestions have been thrown around as the race was happening already.

Doing Something Different In Sim Racing?

To circle back to sim racing, possibilities are of course less limited than for real life racing series. One of the suggestions that has been done in sim racing already concerns elimination races. To use the IndyCar event as an example, that would mean a 27-lap race - as there were 27 entries - that would see the driver running last be eliminated after each lap. That way, a car would drop out each lap, with a shootout between the top two deciding the race. Similarly, eliminations could also take place after a countdown.

The event itself caused a lot of controversy with fans, and it will likely be a topic for debate amongst sim racers as well. NASCAR's introduction of stages in 2017 or even the sprint races introduced in Formula One in 2021 are good indicators that tinkering with the race format might be frowned upon.

We want to know: Would you be open to switch up race formats in sim racing from time to time? Feel free to vote in the poll above! Additionally, please share any interesting ideas for race formates you might have in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

And what exactly makes them "more well suited"? What do you think the early racing was like? The only rule out there was getting to the goal the fastest - more than sure there weren't even any "laps" to speak of. All this fluff was added subsequently in order to increase the safety of racing, because there were no simulators back then.

You need to think deeper what is good about real life and what is not particularly worth transferring to the virtual world - and there is no set rule for, say, street racing to be done in Mario Kart and Mario Kart alone. What's even good about arcade game physics to worth the trouble?

And before you call me a GenZ'er with ADHD, think about IoM TT and Irish Road Racing. It's an insanely stupid physical activity, but it's also fun enough for tons of people to risk their lives all the time. And if they'd switch to simming instead, they would have been all still alive and sound... They could even add traffic for more excitement. And if there were more sims flexible enough to offer many kinds of action with more than a few claustrophobic circuits, I'm sure there would be less accidents in real life too.

Of course, there is still the possibility of some of the participants going completely ballistic - which they do on circuits as well - but with a more interesting setup they'd probably have more incentive to get more serious about competing rather than rear-ending and T-boning the rest of the field.
I really don't fkng care about what races used to be... really. I"m only describing a personal preference and what I consider a tendency for the future based on what is being done over the last decades on racing formats and rules only compared with previous decades, not the entire motor racing history (that always changed because of each era tendencies and culture... and current culture is a tragedy).

About the games I quoted... they are made for action... no modding or rule playing required. Just items, shooting, superpowers, flying cars... entire different species from simulation.

Cheers!
 
I really don't fkng care about what races used to be... really. I"m only describing a personal preference and what I consider a tendency for the future based on what is being done over the last decades on racing formats and rules only compared with previous decades, not the entire motor racing history (that always changed because of each era tendencies and culture... and current culture is a tragedy).

About the games I quoted... they are made for action... no modding or rule playing required. Just items, shooting, superpowers, flying cars... entire different species from simulation.

Cheers!
Well, they can still be simulations even with shooting and flying cars - if you put the proper physics in, it's just that some of it is still car related activity that can appeal exactly to car lovers, and everything else is just BS for the underaged, for which adding proper simulation is just a waste of time.

Personally, I believe the simming community is a little bit stuck up and cares too much for adhering to the racing rules to the point of being absurd. As I said, a little more relaxed racing while still employing full on physics modeling would only help the community grow.
I don't see racing, say, one on one (or just a few cars) on a huge virtual public road track - even with traffic - as such a big violation of human values or whatnot - IF you fully understand that this is just a sim, and absolutely should not bring any of this on the actual roads. Also, a sound move in this case would be to limit the entry age (as odd as it may sound) to maybe 21 or even older.

I'm quite certain that if you had to poll the car enthusiast demography from the age 30 and up who are not already into motorsports, they would fancy the idea of a relaxed racing like that. Quite a few of them most likely are already endangering themselves and the road traffic in reality because of that, so shifting the activity into the virtual realm could be a partial solution to the problem. Sure, some of them might be doing it in Forza, but that semi-arcade offers a very limited experience as far as the car handling goes...

I believe it's exactly the virtual public roads that should be never married with any arcade physics, since it could lead to development of wrong driver responses even in the adult brain.
 

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Author
Yannik Haustein
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Shifting method

  • I use whatever the car has in real life*

  • I always use paddleshift

  • I always use sequential

  • I always use H-shifter

  • Something else, please explain


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