Race night etiquette / rules

[Coaster]

Hi all, 

Have recently purchased an Arc Pro system and have been enjoying getting back into racing after such a long time.

I've hosted a few nights where I've had some friends over for a race night - I was wondering what race rules / etiquette people tend to impose when you're racing with people who perhaps aren't as keen and just want a fun evening.

For example, how do you run heats to keep the flow going without having to short a race time?  Do you have a rule around a certain number of crashes and you're out for that heat?

Thanks in advance for any advice as to the best way to find the balance between fun for beginners and realistic race conditions!

Tom

 

[woodcote]

Now you have the track and the app, it's a lot of fun getting the formats and the house rules sorted out. I guess you'll end up wanting to run different cars too, which is exciting (but expensive) to put together. At home, a mix of super-resistant GT cars with magnets and high-detail non-mag Trans-Am and 60s sports cars works for me.

 

Where to start? I like team races - pairing up an experienced racer with a less experienced one. It works because it encourages teamwork and the beginners learn quicker alongside a teammate who know what they are doing. You can dial the ARC features down too - maybe just straight tyres or fuel. Unless you have 12 racers, it means fewer car on track, so the racing can be cleaner.

 

Even in single-racer competitions, it's fine to run less than six cars and have a couple of people marshalling the cars (then the number of crashes doesn't matter so much).

 

Having a three-crashes and you're out does work nicely. I've printed out and laminated three credit card-sized cards for each colour throttle. It does really add to the strategy and keeps people on track. You need to define what a crash is and who gets penalised in a collision.

 

The cards can also be used to enforce the most important digital race etiquette - no contact. Any deliberate ramming, pushing, barging or blocking gets a card and drive-through penalty. Three in a race and you're out.

 

What can work well is to run different formats - some longer, some shorter - and keep a tally of how many laps each racer completes (individually or as a pair) during the evening. The overall winner gets a small prize and/or their name on the winners' board.

 

Have fun!