2014 brings the second installment of the Tire Rack SCCA Match Tour program, and with that comes a series of developments to the concept. These developments are rooted in participant feedback and designed to tune these events to be more inline with the core values of the SCCA Solo program; Competition, Camaraderie and Community.
The foundation of the program remains consistent. Saturday is a 4-run, “One-Day Tour” and Sunday will be a series of competition rounds culminating with the Super ShootOut, the Ladies ShootOut and the new for 2014 Pro ShootOut. Other improvements include the introduction of Knock-Out qualifying, indexing by heat and dial-in based ShootOut competition. While the 2014 rules are still in process, here is a quick peek at what’s in the works for 2014:
Class Competition:
Match Tour events will begin with class competition where all National SCCA classes are offered, including Ladies Classes. Events will be broken into 4 heats with each driver offered 4 runs. Class competition is a stand-alone aspect of the Match Tour program, offering trophies and contingency prizes to top finishers.
Regional Competition:
Any Region who wishes to score the Saturday event as part of their local points series may do so. These Regions will be given a set of results from the event with only their region members scored. In addition, any region opting to take advantage of this will be entered into a Region v. Region competition that will trophy the top performing Region for each Match Tour.
Pro ShootOut:
The biggest change for 2014 is the addition of a Pro ShootOut, with cash prizes up for grabs among the top qualifiers in the event. These qualifiers will be pulled from each of Saturday’s heats, based upon by heat indexed results and pitted against each other in a tournament based on dial-ins. The dial-ins will be taken from the class winner’s times.
Knock-Out Qualifying:
With the Pro ShootOut drivers pulled from the grid order, Sundays will start with a series of Formula 1 qualifying inspired Knock-Out rounds. Running in the same heats as Saturday, these rounds will begin with an unscored warm-up lap and then see everyone in the heat take 1 run, scored on index. The field will then be ranked and cut, with those faster that the cut moving to the next round and those slower being eliminated. This process will repeat until only 4 drivers remain. Those 4 will move on to the Super ShootOut.
Super ShootOut:
The Super Shoot out will take the 16 drivers remaining from the Knock-Out Rounds and pair them in a tournament based on dial-in. Unlike the Pro ShootOut where the dial-in is taken from the class winner the dial-ins will be based on the individual driver’s best time. That time can come from Class Competition or from the Knock-Out Rounds.
Ladies ShootOut:
Ladies Class competitors will again get their own ShootOut in 2014, but the qualification will be a little different. Ladies Classes will be included in the Knock-Out rounds and the Ladies ShootOut will be made of the Ladies Class competitors who go the farthest through those rounds without making it into the Super ShootOut. Ties in round advancement will be broken by determined by the margin to the top time indexed time in the round.
Dial-In Competition:
All of the ShootOuts in 2014 Match Tour competition will be based on dial-ins. A dail-in is a delta time, established by a fastest time run on the course by either an individual or a class. Dial-in scoring will be based on how a driver runs compared to that dial-in. For example, if driver from Super Street has a dial-in of 45.000 and runs a 45.001 and a driver from Street Touring R has a dial in of 47.000 and runs a 46.999, the STR driver would advance as that driver ran a quicker time relative to the dial-in.
Look for more complete explanations of each of these, and full details on the Match Tour program when the 2014 rules are released in the coming weeks!
