NASTE Racing Rules and Format

I wanted to open some dialog around the NASTE racing rules and race format. Over the years we have varied our rules and racing formats and I think it may be time we revisit and document them here on our website for future reference. Here's what I found on our website under the Forum and on the News pages. The dates of the information are from newest at top to the older information below. Some items noted were suggestions that may have not been used.

                                                                 May 2010- Meeting

This would be a total of 9 point series races. Race totals would still be based on your best 8 finishes. Racers would be able to would throw out one race.

NASTE races will include the Board Game Series that was introduced in the 2010 season.

The annual NASTE Halloween Race will be scheduled appropriately at Jeff Courtney's Hemi Heights Raceway Park pending Jeff's approval.

I would also like to form a NASTE Committee. The committe would consist of a small group of dedicated volunteers to coordinate NASTE functions and provide oversite.
One function I would like to suggest would be an award or trophy building day before the season begins.

                                      Two topics came up at the NASTE BBQ on Sunday Aug. 22 2010 that are open for discussion.

1). Ideas for trophies for next season. One idea is to have a perpetual trophy listing the names, dates, and tracks for each race winner. After each race the winner would take the trophy home, add something to the trophy, and return with the trophy to the next race. The winner of the next race would then take the trophy home, add something to it, and again return it to the next race. At the end of the season the point series champion would get to keep that trophy, in addition to having the NASTE Point Series Championship Trophy with his or her name added to the nameplate.
     
A trophy building session was also scheduled for Sunday Oct. 3rd to build some trophies for the individual races.

2). The topic of what cars and classes to race also came up. For the past few years the NASTE Point Series Races have all been IROC style races, which has proved to be a successful format when new racers are considered. Racing individual racer owned cars versus IROC style cars, or some combination of the two was briefly discussed, but warrants more discussion.

                                Here is what was decided by the NASTE members in attendance at the NASTE BBQ on Saturday Sept. 12th, 2009:

Race Days will be Saturdays, Gates Open at 3:00 P.M. Races Start at 6:00 P.M.

The Season Opener will be the Annual Halloween Race at Hemi Heights Raceway Park on Friday October 30th 2009. This is a NON Points Race, cars will be Judged for prizes and the race will be for bragging rights only. Cars will be Judged in three categories, Funny, Creative and Scary. Costumes optional but clothing is mandatory. The Annual Halloween Races will be the season openers for future NASTE Racing Seasons. The Halloween Openers will be held at Hemi Heights Raceway Park unless otherwise specified before the beginning of the new season.

  All NASTE races for the 2010 season will again be IROC style races. As scheduled for now 1/24 tracks will race the NASTE '55 Chevys. 1/32 tracks will race the NASTE Carrera Aston Martin Vanquish cars. HO tracks will race T-Jet cars. These types of cars for IROC races are subject to change.

  There will be an official NASTE Scrabble table set up at each race for Scrabble competition in conjunction with the racing.

                                                    Aug. 2008 online discussion:
Bill - Hey ya'll, yesterday we talked a little bit about how long our races should last. As I remember we talked about the length of the heat races and we would leave it up to the race host/track owner, taking into consideration how many racers were in attendance. I'm good with that, but how about set minimum and maximum parameters? I was thinking the heat races should be no less than 2 minutes, and not more than 4 minutes. We could even establish a heat race length bracket system based on attendees i.e.;
up to 10 racers = 4 min. heats,
11 to 17 racers = 3 min. heats,
18 and over racers = 2 min. heats.

What do you think? Input.............  -----------Bill

Bryan - I was thinking about that after our meeting and I think you hit the nail on the head!

also I think we talked about start time...it use to be around 7pm....do you think maybe 6pm would be to early? or maybe 6:30? i know some people work on saturdays and getting to the race is an issue....if someone is comming late they can call and we can set them up to run later in a heat maybe?
Just wanted to toss that out there....

Bill -  I think 6:00 pm race start is good. It seems like in the past that has been a reasonable time to start. The only consideration might be the races that are "out of town" for the Portland area racers, like maybe Eugene where we will be carpooling? Do we want to adopt a "home town" type precedent for NASTE where races out of the Portland metro area would be considered "out of town" races and have different start times?  ------------------Bill

Bill - Hey folks, I took a look here just to revisit this topic. I want to get down some notes for a NASTE rule book for next year. After the last race at Hemi Heights I think we could go with 3 minute heats up to 19 racers. I would like to amend it to read:

Up to 10 racers = 4 minute heats
11 to 18 racers = 3 minutes heats
19 plus racers = 2 minute heats

Race start time is 6:00pm.

-----------------------------Bill

Monte - I like the 2-minute heat 2-off rule that I think they use in the Tacoma area.  That will make it shorter and eliminate the bad drivers quickly.  Larry, they'll only be in your way for two crashes.  If we have fewer drivers, we can just run more heats.  More than two offs would be hard to track.  We can use three-minute heats for endurance events.

                                                              NASTE 2009 Racing Season
                                                                                Sunday August 17, 2008

NASTE members met on Saturday August 16th to finalize the race dates for the 2009 season. For the 2009 season all the NASTE Point Series Races will be IROC style races. NASTE's main objective is to promote slot car racing, and we have found that one of the best ways of giving new racers a great first experience is by holding IROC style races. Members also discussed the overall theme of NASTE races, and the intent to keep the racing simple and appealing to new racers. In addition to the race dates members agreed upon some general rules for the upcoming season.

In addition to IROC cars, IROC controllers will be used. Racers will volunteer to provide controllers at each race. One controller will be assigned to each lane, same as cars. In the event of damage to a controller, the owner will be reimbursed for the parts necessary to make the repairs by the NASTE treasurer from NASTE club funds.

Each race event will be two Rounds of racing. A Round consists of each racer racing one "Heat Race" on each the track's lanes. "Heat Race" laps and fractions of a lap are totalled  to determine finish positions for the Round (i.e. on a four lane track, 1 Round = each racer completing 4 Heat Races, one on each of the track's lanes).

To simplify lane rotation, Heat Races will start at the track's Start/Finish line. Fractions of a lap will be scored on a tally sheet, and be added to the racer's lap totals. The heat race length will be determined at each race depending upon the number of entries. 

Races will be run in one of two types of race formats. One format is the standard racing format (best of two) NASTE has used for years. This format will be referred to as The "Big NASTE" Format. In this format there are two Rounds of racing with each racers best finish of the two rounds determining their overall finish position. Championship Series Points will be awarded to each racer based on their overall finish position. Track owners or Race Hosts will decide what format they wish to use.

The other available format will be called The Full Monte. In this format the two Rounds of racing are completed with two different types of cars. The first round will be raced with one type or style of car, and the second round will be raced with a different type of car. The Rounds will be run and scored in the same manner, but for each Round each racer will have a separate finish position. Simply put, each Round is a separate race.  Championship Series Points will be awarded to each racer based on their best finish in either Race/Round. In this format it is quite possible for two racers to earn the same amount of Championship Series Points at the same race. This is in step with the scoring system NASTE used in the late 90s when racing multiple classes at the same event.

Racer's final Championship Series Point totals will be based on their best 8 race finishes.       

Thanks to everyone that came out to the BBQ! The racing schedule should be finalized within a week or two. So buckle up and get ready for a great season!
--
Bill

                                                                               New Rules for the NASTE 2007 Race Season:

Racer's best 10 of the 12 races will be scored for the NASTE 2007 Point Series.

Racers must "qualify" for the NASTE Point Series (effective as of 12/9/06).

Racers that have attended a minimum of 9 races (75% of total races) will qualify for the NASTE 2007 Point Series.

Pre-payment of all race fees for an entire season, will pre-qualify a racer for the NASTE Point Series.

Racers will be charged a fee of $1.00 to compete at each NASTE race. The fee will be waived for new racers, for their first two races. Children 12 and younger will race for free. (These fees effective January 1, 2007).

IROC contollers will be used for the NASTE IROC Races. NASTE members will supply and have controllers in place on the track, racers will not be allowed to use their own controllers.

NASTE Point Series points will be awarded to qualifying racers only.