What’s New For The 2017 Fall Season

It’s time once again to kick off another season here at the Sim Auto Racing Association, and here’s what’s new and what you need to know about it all:

A lot of what we do each season here at SARA wouldn’t be possible without the help of some great partners. Midwest Powersource comes on board helping support the Late Model Sportsman portion of the Sportsman Series, as well as the Super Sim Series and will be a big part of our Fall Brawl later this year. DonutsDesigns joins as a supporter of the new UMP Modified division as a part of the Open Wheel Series. And then we’ll see Lokotoco Designs and Downeast Chassisworx as supporters of a couple of our Super Sim Series races during the course of the season.

And of course we have returning partners in the TUNDRA Super Late Models who have stepped up as the presenting sponsor of the Super Sim Series. Hides Pride, Callaway Investments, The Car Show Show, Area 52 Designs, JVM Racing, and The POSSE all return as well.

We can’t thank these partners enough, so help us show support by clicking on the logos below and visiting their pages and social media outlets (if available) to show your support.

As another way to help show support to our great partners, we’ve updated out custom SARA contingency packages for the new season, which features all of our partner logos. The new contingencies are available for each car we’ll be running this season and we would appreciate if drivers could add these to your schemes for the new season, however they are not required. We’ve also updated our Winner Decals that drivers can add to their schemes after winning a SARA feature.

The Contingencies and Winner Decals can be found on our Downloads page: HERE

The biggest change for the 2017 Fall Season is our division lineup.

Mondays will now be the first dirt night of the week, with the new Open Wheel Series. The series will feature both the 360 Non-Wing Sprint cars and the UMP Modifieds, which will alternate weeks throughout the season. Each car will have it’s own points battle, with a combined championship up for grabs as well.

The Sportsman Series will return to Tuesday nights, which the Street Stocks will continue to be a part of, and the Late Models will make their return to the series as well. The two cars will also alternate weeks throughout the season, and will each have their own points battle and a combined championship.

The Dirt Late Model Series will continue to run on Wednesday nights, but will make the move up from the Pro to the Super Late Model for a full points season.

The only division not changing cars will be the Super Series on Thursday nights, but the division name will be different with TUNDRA Super Late Models coming on board to present the TUNDRA Super Sim Series.

With the new Open Wheel Series on Mondays, and the Sportsman Series on Tuesdays, three championships will be up for grabs in each series this season.

The Open Wheel Series will see the 360 Non-Wing Sprints run 6 races during the season for their own title, and the same goes for the UMP Modifieds for their 6-race season. Drivers who choose to run both cars will battle it out for an overall combined championship, using their total points from each individual standings to determine the champion.

The same goes for the Sportsman Series as the Street Stocks will run 6 races during the season for their own title, and the Late Models will also have their own 6-race season for a title. Drivers who choose to run both cars will battle it out for an overall combined championship, using their total points from each individual standings to determine the champion.

Add all of these championships up, and then include the Late Model Series and the Super Sim Series, and there will be a total of 8 titles available for the 2017 Fall Season.

For each individual car in the Open Wheel Series and the Sportsman Series, a drivers 5 best points races will be scored in the individual points totals, allowing 1 drop race for each car.

For the overall combined points championships in the Open Wheel Series and Sportsman Series, drivers will use their 5 best races from each car for a total of 10 races being scored towards their points total.

For the Late Model Series and the Super Sim Series, our traditional drop race system will be used, allowing two drops during the course of the season, scoring a drivers best 9 out of 11 races towards the championship.

We’re happy to announce that thanks to our great partners, all four divisions will have purse and prize money available for the new season.

For the Open Wheel Series, a total of $70 in prize money is available, with $30 of that going to the overall combined points championship ($15 champion, $10 second, $5 third). The remaining $40 will be split up between the 360 Non-Wing Sprint and the UMP Modified ($20 each), giving out four random $5 awards to any driver that competes in 5/6 races in either car as a participation bonus.

For the Sportsman Series, a total of $70 in prize money is available, with $30 of that going to the overall combined points championship ($15 champion, $10 second, $5 third). The remaining $40 will be split up between the Street Stock and the Late Model ($20 each), giving out four random $5 awards to any driver that competes in 5/6 races in either car as a participation bonus.

A similar system is being used in the Dirt Late Model Series, with $30 going to the overall points championship ($15 champion, $10 second, $5 third). An additional $30 will be given out randomly to six drivers as $5 awards to any driver that competes in 9/11 races as a participation bonus.

For the Super Sim Series, an impressive total of $265 has been added to the purse/prize fund for the season. $60 will go to the overall points championship, paying out $25, $15, $10, $5, and $5 to the top five in points. $30 will be given out randomly to six drivers as $5 awards to any driver that competes in 9/11 races as a participation bonus. The Rookie of the Season will earn a $10 award. And last but not least, a total of $165 will be split up and distributed as a weekly purse money to the top three in each individual race for the 11-race season ($7 to the race winner, $5 to second, and $3 to third).

**In order to receive any of the weekly payouts purse for the Super Sim Series, a driver must attempt to race in at least 7 races to claim their prize. Otherwise the prize money will be forfeited and will be added to the end of season points purse. This is being put in place to reward the drivers that attempt to run a majority of the season rather than someone who only shows up a couple times.

After a successful season of running Heat Races in our dirt divisions last season, Heat Racing will make it’s appearance back on asphalt for the first time since the Summer of 2014. The Sportsman Series will add Heat Races for the upcoming season, giving drivers a chance to race their way into the field and for a better starting spot on the grid.

The Heat Race process will mostly remain the same as last season, with one exception being how the Pole Shuffle gets lined up. Last season, we took the top finishers from each Heat Race, and put them into the Pole Shuffle which randomized the starting order of the front of the field. However for this season, that Pole Shuffle will now use a handicap system to line up the front of the grid, placing cars with a better average finish in the division, at the bottom of the Pole Shuffle lineup. The handicap system will use drivers’ average points per race to determine the lineup, which should allow for more passing up front including lead changes.

**For example, Driver A and Driver B both qualify into the Pole Shuffle. Driver A is averaging 96 points per race, while Driver B is averaging 88 points per race. Driver B will start closer to the front, while Driver A will be handicapped further back due to their higher average points per race number.

Last season we introduced a new Provisional system, mainly put in place to help out league regulars at the beginning of a new season when car counts are usually high. That system slightly backfired on us a little bit, when car counts exceeded our expectations and we averaged nearly 40 cars per race and we were forced to send cars home every single race, including new drivers that were high up in the standings.

For the new season, the Provisional requirements are being slightly tweaked and will now include points provisionals for the asphalt divisions. Two provisionals will be given out based on points as long as drivers are in the top 15 in the standings, which will use last season’s points for the first two weeks, and then will use current points starting in Week 3. Then three provisionals will be given out to “division regulars” who have attempted to start a majority of races in a division over the past two seasons (this list will be added to the division pages for the provisional order for division regulars). The limit of drivers only being allowed to use two provisionals during the season will still be in effect.

This new provisional rule should continue to get our regulars into races as much as possible while still allowing new drivers that are high up in points to make races each week as well.