Newbie Question

[Valvarez]

I'm interested in oval racing but I have a (perhaps stupid) question: How can a 4-lane oval track be fair for all racers if none of the lanes are the same length?
Thanks for humoring me.

[sweet]

Alternate lanes, so that each car does the same amount of "time" on each lane....4 lanes, 4 cars. If all 4 cars do 3 minutes on each lane, then they all have had an equal chance to go the same distance.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Yep, lane rotation is the key.

[Valvarez]

So you run 4 heats and then total up the times?

[sixtiesracer]

Not the lap times, but the total laps completed after rotating through all of the lanes.

[RichD]

With lane rotations usually at the end of a heat you do not move the car back to the start finish line, you move the car laterally to the next lane. If there are more cars than lanes at the end of the first heat one car will rotate out and another will rotate in, the new car would be placed at the line and the stopping position of the car rotating out would be marked. After all of the cars have rotated in parked cars that have not run all of the lanes would start to rotate back in next to where they stopped. The total number of heats equals the number of cars entered. Most of the time when lane rotations are used the race has timed heats. There is a sort of a hitch when there are a lot more entries than lanes, you would probably not be on the track the same time as several other racers. You might be passing everyone on the track and would be tempted to take it easy, however someone that will be running in different heats might be faster. It is possible to score races with lane rotations on paper, but most folks have computer software to manage the race and keep track of the results.