In 2015, the SARA Fall Brawl Spectacular became “sim racing’s biggest short track event of the year” when five divisions of racing took over the virtual Five Flags Speedway for an entire week of racing. The 2nd Annual Fall Brawl is fast approaching, taking place November 14th through the 17th, and SARA officials have been hard at work preparing for the event. With H&H Sign Supply signing on as the presenting sponsor of the event, as well as providing a $200 purse to the Super Late Model race, the 2016 Fall Brawl Spectacular is already shaping up to be another major event to cap off SARA’s 2016 Big 3 Series.
This year’s H&H Sign Supply Fall Brawl Spectacular will bring a new qualifying format to the table. As seen in the two previous Big 3 events, SARA officials haven’t been afraid to try new things when it comes to qualifying, when it saw the Summer Heat take on a knockout-style bracket for the top 12 cars to determine the lineup for that event. The final event in the series will see another new qualifying format, but nothing overly crazy compared to the tourney-like bracket seen back in the Summer.
There will be two different stages to qualifying – First drivers need to lock themselves into the field, and then those drivers will race it out to determine their starting spots for the 250-lap main event.
Making The Field
TIME TRIALS – First up, once testing and practice is complete, all drivers will stage on pit road for Time Trials, with one car heading out on track at a time to lay down their best laps. The Time Trial order will go in reverse order from practice speeds, with the drivers at the bottom of the charts rolling out to take their laps first, with the fastest car from practice laying down their laps last. The top 20 cars from Time Trials will guarantee themselves a position in the main event, however those speeds will not determine their lineup for the race, but will only lock themselves into the feature.
C-MAIN & B-MAIN – Any driver that is outside of the top 20 after Time Trials, will have to race their way into the field. If more than 35 cars attempt to qualify, the remaining cars will be split into two groups: a C-Main, and a B-Main. Drivers from the C-Main will have to race their way into position to make the B-Main, and then the B-Main will see drivers battle it out for the last few remaining positions in the main event.
For this example, let’s say 40 cars attempt to qualify. Drivers that time trial 21st on back will have to race their way in to the feature, with drivers 31st-40th going to the C-Main, and drivers 21st-30th going into the B-Main. The C-Main will roll off first and only the top five finishers will advance their way into the B-Main, where they will again have to race their way into the field. The B-Main will then roll off, and again only the top five cars will advance but this time the advancing drivers will lock themselves into the feature event.
Both the C-Main and the B-Main will be 25 green flag laps. Caution laps will not count in either race.
If there are 35 or less cars attempting to qualify, we will skip the C-Main, and will only run a B-Main (LCQ) where the top five cars will make the race.
PROVISIONALS – Lastly, up to three provisionals (up to SARA official’s discretion – less than 3 may be awarded) will be awarded to put the maximum amount of cars on the grid up to 28 drivers.
Setting The Lineup
Once the drivers have locked themselves into the race, then we’ll move on to actually determining who will start where in the main event.
RANDOM DRAW – Each driver that has made the main event, will then take part in a Random Draw. More information on how the Random Draw will be done will be available soon.
HEAT RACES – After the Random Draw, drivers will be placed into one of two Heat Races depending on their number drawn, which will determine the starting lineup for each Heat. The driver that draws the “#1 chip” will start 1st in the Heat Race, with the “2nd chip” starting on pole for the second Heat Race, and the rest of the drivers will be split between the two Heats from there. Once the Heat Races roll onto the track, wherever each driver finishes will determine their starting spots for the feature.
Each Heat Race will be 25 green flag laps. Caution laps will not count in either race.
Whichever Heat Race that the fastest qualifier from Time Trials ends up in, that driver’s Heat Race will determine the lineup for the inside row, with the other Heat determining the order for the outside row.
More Info Coming Soon
The Random Draw and how drivers finish in their Heat Races, could play an important role in the outcome of the Fall Brawl, as it will set the stage for a long and grueling 250-laps around the half-mile Five Flags Speedway.
More information will be available soon for the H&H Sign Supply Fall Brawl Spectacular, with registrations also opening within the next two weeks. Stay tuned for more details.