Lan.Jet

I have recently run with a club that mixed HPDE 3-4 drivers with the TT and had mandatory point by’s but you could pass anywhere. This seemed strange to me I though it would be safer if they had designated passing areas with no point by. That way you can hang back and get the run to pass quicker instead of getting a point by 50’ from a corner then drag racing to it.

jaa1992

Haven't seen TT mixed with HPDE 3/4
However most groups HPDE 3/4 is pass anywhere with a point by.
In the SE for TT a point by is optional, I always give one so the faster guy doesn't loose much if any time and he knows where I'm expecting him to go.

Maybe now that my car is running on all 8 cyl that won't happen as often

Aardwolf

For NASA it seems like each region is different and even each season. Last season they had TT and HPDE4 together. This season they have HPDE3 and HPDE4 together.

What happened with the engine not hitting on all cyl?

naschmitz

With COMSCC (comscc.org) they run cars in groups of four or five. Cars are sent out 20-30 seconds apart and you get three clean laps. They try to group cars together that are competing in the same class in case track conditions are variable. Each car submits a time beforehand so that every car in the group should be running similar times and not catch up to the car ahead. If you do catch the car ahead of you, you get the choice of keeping any of your times or giving them up for a re-run.

I like it a lot. When it's your time to go, only the next three laps count -- doesn't matter what times you did in practice.

davidfarmer

Mid Atlantic and SE NASA both run TT alone, and it's open passing. I usually only run 1 or 2 laps, so getting to grid on time, and in order, is vital to getting that clean lap. At VIR Mid Atlantic last month, the "pace car" screwed us over a few sessions, and bottled up the group, literally making the first hot lap a throw-away. This caused problems, as some of the cars decided to hammer it anyway, others decided to save it for the next lap.

Anyway, to me it's more important to set yourself up so that there is NO passing than to worry about the correct way to do it.

Jason

What you described is not a TT, it's a timed HPDE.

Lan.Jet

This is the way I am use to.


It would be nice if they ran it like this here. I understand this was at Lime Rock and they did have much time to fit all the races. But it was hard to get a clean lap the difference in lap times between the cars were large I run 59.xx and some cars are 1.12 it is very hard to get a clean lap. And it gets very frustrating and dangerous. It would have been nice if for the last session they only had TT.

L98Terror

Get your car counts up, in the great lake they get 40+ TT cars so you have to have your own run group.

BTW that would suck doing TT in hpde traffic

Kubs

If you have to pass in a TT lap it wont be a fast time anyway.

drivinhard

when I did EMRA up in your parts back in the day, we used to test n tune all day then they'd block off 2-3 hrs at the end of the day and we'd basically do NASCAR style qualifying, everybody on grid, 1 car at at time. kinda nerve racking to have to go out with all eyes on you and lay it on the line and only get 1 crack at it, whatever that one lap was, was what you left with.

if it was a big group or a big track (watkins), they'd stagger the cars, maybe 2 out there at once.

jaa1992

#2 spark plug was not tight. Must not have got it tight when I put the headers on. Still have an issue somewhere because its running so rich it didn't pass emissions.

The Spark

In NASA-TX Region they usually have enough cars to run TT by itself.

I ran Hallett last year where they combined DE and TT. They had designated passing zones and told DE to stay out of the way because TT will pass with or without pointbys. It really wasn't too bad. There weren't enough DE cars to cause much problems and they did a pretty good job watching their mirrors.

Wayne O

With NASA in Arizona TT's are not run with HPDE groups. They generally separate big bore and small bore TT groups. There's open passing anywhere. The first session we line-up on the grid where we more or less expect to be and after we get our first session times we grid according to our lap times.

95jersey

I have done TT's with 3 seperate groups and I like the end of the day TT only sessions. It not only gives you clean laps, but without traffic it helps vastly with your concentration. Nothing worse than trying to get every 10th out of your lap while having to worry about a car you are coming up on. I also think running timed laps during HPDE is plain out dangerous and asking for trouble.

I just did one with EMRA and they did it the later way (time laps during HPDE). In my opinion it was a pure mess and NO ONE was giving points bye's as everyone was trying to get good times and didn't want to let a faster competitor (me) by. I was 95% like a wheel to wheel race in cars without cages trying to get good times (never do that again).

I always thought CART did a great job. They would run open track all day long 8-3:30pm (even through lunch) and then start the relays at 3:30. This way you have maximum track time, no stupid schedules to follow, and you get clean safe laps at the end of the day.

az55

I really think TT's should be run everywhere the way they run in NASA Arizona Region.

By lining up on grid according to lap times, the guy in front of you is just a tad faster and the guy behind you is slower.

It allows for safe, clean, fast laps every session.(it also helps you learn by watching the guy in front and why he is faster, so eventually you can beat him)

Cheers,
CV

drivinhard

SE does it basically the same way, but the above isn't always the case. We may qualy on scrubs and then run stickers for our 1st timed session (and pick up 2 seconds, and be faster than 2-3 cars in front of us).

Usually gap it a little bit if varkwso isn't watching

but yeah, lining up by lap time is the only way to assure 2 or 3 clean laps.

jaa1992

Now you've gone and done it. He'll be adding a DQ rule if there is more than a car length gap

varkwso

Yep....

varkwso

4 years ago we ran combined DE and TT in SE - it stunk. We run TT solo now with grid by fastest time of the day. I would love to split BB and SB but unlikely unless I can sign up 60-80 TTers an event and drop another group in the line up. We often sell out 45-50 though..

drivinhard

1 car gap going into 10a....75% of the time we don't even know if we are gonna make it

if he sees you with a big gap coming down 12, just tell him you spun the tires coming up 10b

I have enjoyed the SE format since I started in '09, it's more TT friendly than mid-atlantic (only other region I've done NASA with). mid-A looks like they are adopting some SE practices though