Knowing all the rules, the ins and out of a series is helpful, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story and it rarely answers everyone’s primary question- “how does this work?” To answer that question about Match Tour we have put together a quick reference, a FAQ and a timeline all in one and created the Users Guide to Match Tour.
Pre Event:
Match Tour is a part of the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo Series. Event information can be found at SCCA.com and registration is handled via MotorsportsReg. Don’t forget, Match Tour events do offer contingency prizes, which you must register for with SCCA to be eligible. 2014 programs are not listed at this time, but when they are you can register by logging into SCCA.com and selecting the programs you are eligible for.
Friday:
With the exception of events on restricted sites, Match Tours will kick things off on Friday with a practice course, an Evolution Advantage School, check-in and tech. There are many advantages to being onsite on Friday if you are able. Things begin with the Evo Advantage School, designed to get you up to competition speed and ready for the weekend. Afterwards the practice course opens to all with tickets to run being sold. This is an excellent opportunity to get comfortable on the surface, tune your car and get some seat time before official runs begin. The other advantage to being on site Friday is early tech and check-in. By taking advantage of this you can focus your Saturday morning on course walking and preparing for the event. Speaking of walking, expect the Match Tour course to be available to walk on Friday evening as well. Oh, and By the way, the same course is used on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday Class Competition:
Of course, not everyone will be able to be on site on Friday, so Tech and Check-in will be open Saturday morning. Once wheels start turning, Saturday is a standard autocross. All National Classes will be offered including all Ladies’ Classes, as well as local classes if they have been requested by the host Region. There are no bump or index classes. Events will be broken into 4 Heats and all drivers will get 4 runs. Saturday will culminate with a party where trophies will be awarded. Top finishers will also be eligible for contingency prizes from Saturday’s competition.
Pro ShootOut Qualification:
Saturday competition will also serve as the qualification method for the Pro Shootout. Each of the day’s Heats will be scored on index. From these indexed results, the top 8 drivers will be pulled, have their tires marked and placed in the Pro ShootOut, scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Everyone else will continue their event on Sunday, beginning with Knock-Out Rounds.
Pro ShootOut Random Draw:
At the Saturday Night Party all the drivers in the Pro Shootout, except the one with the top index time for the day, will have their names entered into a hat. The top Index driver will pull a name out of the hat, and that is who they will compete against in the first round. The person who was drawn will then pull another name and that will be the top of the next pairing. This process will continue until the bracket is filled and is expected to produce more than a few quotables for the announcers to use during the ShootOut.
Knock-Out Rounds:
Sunday begins with a series of Knock-Out Rounds. These rounds will be run in the same Heats as Saturday, but without the drivers pulled for the Pro ShootOut. At the beginning of the Heat, each driver will get a warm up run and then take a single run that will be scored on index. After every driver has taken their scored run, a cut will be made with those faster than the cut moving on and those slower being eliminated. Where that cut is placed will depend upon the number of drivers in the event and will be announced prior to the Knock-Out Rounds beginning. This process will continue, with the field of drivers getting smaller and smaller, until only 4 remain. The 4 drivers from each of the 4 Heats will then move on to make up the field of 16 in the Super ShootOut.
Ladies ShootOut Qualification:
Ladies class competitors can qualify for either the ProShootOut or the Super ShootOut by finishing in the top 8 in their heat on Saturday or by advancing to the final 4 of their heat in Sunday’s Knock-Out Rounds. The remaining Ladies Class drivers will be eligible for the Ladies ShootOut. Drivers will be selected for this by performance in the Knock-Out Rounds. The 8 ladies who advance through the farthest will qualify, with tie being broken by margin. In effect, this means that, should 9 Ladies all be eliminated in their 3rd rounds, the 8 who ran times the closest to the top in the round will make the ShootOut.
The Pro ShootOut:
The Pro ShootOut is a single elimination tournament featuring the top 32 drivers, 8 from each Heat, from Saturday’s competition. Drivers will compete on dial-ins, based upon their class winner’s time. This means that, should a second, third or forth place finisher from a class make it into the ShootOut, they will be competing based upon the time that won their class. In each round, the driver who has the highest margin to their dial-in (Dial-in - Time = Margin) will advance.
The Super ShootOut:
The Super Shootout is a single elimination tournament featuring the top 16 drivers, 4 from each Heat, from the Knock-Out Rounds. Drivers will compete on dial-ins based upon their own best time recorded thus far in the event, be it from Class Competition or from the Knock-Out Rounds. In each round, the driver who has the highest margin to their dial-in (Dial-in - Time = Margin) will advance.
The Ladies ShootOut:
The Ladies Shootout is a single elimination tournament featuring the top 8 drivers, based upon performance in the Knock-Out Rounds. Drivers will compete on dial-ins based upon their own best time recorded thus far in the event, be it from Class Competition or from the Knock-Out Rounds. In each round, the driver who has the highest margin to their dial-in (Dial-in - Time = Margin) will advance.
A bit more about Dial-ins:
A Dial-In, in effect, is a performance delta. It is how fast you are believed to be able to go. In the Pro ShootOut the class winner’s time is used to set the Dial-in to put a premium on winning your class. If you win and qualify for the Pro ShootOut, you get to run on your own Dial-in. If you finish second, you are in effect running a Dial-in that is a little quicker than you ran and thus, the class winners have an advantage. In the Super and Ladies ShootOuts everyone runs on their own Dial-ins, so those ShootOuts have a more even footing.
And a little bit on Sandbagging:
The concern with Dial-ins is that people will “sandbag.” This means that you don’t run as fast as you can in hopes of getting an easier dial-in. The honest truth about sandbagging is that it is impossible to prevent, all you can do is make it harder to do. The reality of Match Tour is, to make a ShootOut, you have to go pretty fast. The Pro ShootOut requires you to be in the top 8 in your Heat and the Ladies and Super ShootOuts require you to advance through a number of Knock-Out Rounds. If you can do that, without going as fast as you can go, you will carry “sand” into a ShootOut. Keep in mind, the only way to do this, is to be faster than everyone else and once you are in the ShootOut, your Dial-in will reset every time you go faster than your Dial-in. So yes, it is possible to sandbag, and yes, it may help you get a little farther but to win, at some point, you are going to have to go as fast as you can.
