[Stevensville Mike]

I had to work the week/weekend and missed all of the first three WoO nights from Volusia, but looking at the results the WoO have apparently gone away from heat inversions. They are starting the cars straight up from quals now.

The last time I remember a series doing this was......... hmmmmmmm..... I don't!

Anyone else?

[revjimk]

Doesn't make sense to me....won't this just make for more follow the leader races?

[SDHill89]

There's no invert but the feature lineup is set by the heat finishes now instead of cars getting their qualifying times back. I think the idea is to make drivers battle for every position in the heats instead of just settling into a transfer spot. At Volusia the heats were mostly flat out with not much passing because the track was still pretty wet, so its hard to tell if it'll make the heats better or not. It did seem like the Nascar fans that came over from Daytona understood what was going on better without the heat invert.

[cmakin]

Originally Posted by SDHill89 There's no invert but the feature lineup is set by the heat finishes now instead of cars getting their qualifying times back. I think the idea is to make drivers battle for every position in the heats instead of just settling into a transfer spot. At Volusia the heats were mostly flat out with not much passing because the track was still pretty wet, so its hard to tell if it'll make the heats better or not. It did seem like the Nascar fans that came over from Daytona understood what was going on better without the heat invert.

We certainly don't want to confuse the NASCAR (c) fans with racing now, would we. . .

[jim goerge]

Originally Posted by cmakin We certainly don't want to confuse the NASCAR (c) fans with racing now, would we. . .

Years back a guy I worked with a was a Napcar fan and I took him to Haubstadt one night when the outlaws were there. He couldn't understand why we had to run a C and a B before we ran the A main. He really thought the top 43 were going to run the A lol I still laugh when I think about it, and 43 sprints trying to run at TSS at once lol.

[Rich Mersereau]

I was there every night, outlaw heats always stink. The main focus is on the feature, local promoters really need to learn this. Get the features on the race track. We're here to watch the main event, not necessarily the qualifying events. A good feature will make you forget bad heats. Of course wingless fans are spoiled by consistently getting both.

[rclaridge]

They might as well just qualify and run the A main!

[Stevensville Mike]

Originally Posted by SDHill89 There's no invert but the feature lineup is set by the heat finishes now instead of cars getting their qualifying times back.

I didn't pick up on that. Thanks, SD. I really don't know how I feel about that yet. I guess it seems more fair to line up the Feature that way, but maybe I am just so used to getting qual spots back or running a dash that I am wary of the alteration.

But I will give them credit for trying something new. Just like the All Stars tweaking their qualifying format last year. We'll see how it plays out.

[revjimk]

Originally Posted by SDHill89 There's no invert but the feature lineup is set by the heat finishes now instead of cars getting their qualifying times back. I think the idea is to make drivers battle for every position in the heats instead of just settling into a transfer spot. At Volusia the heats were mostly flat out with not much passing because the track was still pretty wet, so its hard to tell if it'll make the heats better or not. It did seem like the Nascar fans that came over from Daytona understood what was going on better without the heat invert.

I didn't catch that either... who knows?

[JDFAST]

I'm a hardcore old school CRA sprint car fan.

I was used to 8 car inverts for mains and heat races, if u did not transfer in heat race, the best u could start is 9th. NOT A BIG FAN WHEN USAC CHANGED the cra format

Also, if u do not qualify well in USAC or sometimes draw the right pill for qualifying, you have little chance to win the mainevent
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Saw a couple of late model hell tour races in IL. first off, I've probably never seen a good lm show, but the 10 or so I have been too, were not my cup of tea. But I saw they had no invert of for heat races, and I thought ***. than someone told me, if someone does not qualify well, they can get a good starting position by winning a heat race, sounds good, but .....hard to do that..............

Than I i've started watching WOO and KWS series on West Coast. I noticed only a 4 car invert, and thought , crap worse than USAC, what's wrong with everyone, give me cra format ever night. BUT....... what I found was, if u win the heat race, u get to start in the dash which determines the top 8? guys. Plus WOO now has two groups of qualifying, so in theory,, if u get horrible track conditions, ur not totally screwed. I've seen a few ISW shows, were heavy hitters were in the c main due to horrible pill draw. So how does the woo format work in theory, it rewards guys with good lap times, the top two qualifier that transfer into the main, go into the dash, it also reward guys that win heat races (invert of 4), and I've also seen Kyle Larson (i think it was him) qual badly, and but come through the heat race and win, and got a draw for the dash.
......................................

So currently, the USAC National format is MY LEAST favorite format. It rewards guys that qualify well.
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I find way more passing, the more u invert cars, plus the better drivers do better. If u only have fast guys up front, its hard to pass them, but mix in different cars of skill, speed, $ etc, the racing can be awesome, that's why IMHO the local racing is better than national. On the natiional level, 10-20 guys have great equipment, where as local track maybe 6 or 8 guys
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I grew up racing 1/4 midgets, we inverted all the cars for the mainevents, including the QMA Grandnationals, nobody whined about, it just made better race car drivers that learned how to pass cars
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My favorite race by far,even though it is a wing race, is the trophy cup where they invert the whole main, and yes I have seen guys start last and win the overall and main event
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said my $.02 and more, but ......USAC needs to update their format, i'm going to less and less usac races, and traveling further to see KOW Wing races, where anyone has a chance to win even after qualifying.

still love usac racing, but IMHO they could do better with their format, i would go to more races if they returned to the CRA invert of 8 cars for heats and mainevents