Solitaire racing: Here is how I simulate a Saturday night short track format.
Here is a picture of the race sheet I use. I created it quickly on Excel. If its hard to read, and you want a clear copy, just PM me an email address.
Let me walk you through the format:
Qualifying is the two yellow areas on the top of the sheet. Each car takes a flying lap and then is on the clock for two laps. The best of the two laps is recorded as the qualifying time. Results are recorded on the right side of the sheet. All cars qualify in the same lane which I pick at random.
Heat races is the blue area on the sheet. Cars are lined up for the heats based on qualifying times using a 4 car inversion (fastest qualifier in each heat starts fourth). Each car runs for 8 laps and their time is recorded. To simulate the extra effort needed to pass cars and move up, cars starting in row 2 have .2 seconds added to their total time. Cars starting in row 3 have .3 seconds added to their total time. This is explained in the blue box on the left. Results are recorded in the blue area on the right. Each heat race is run in a different lane - both different lanes than the one used for qualifying.
The feature race uses both the green and tan areas. At this point the feature starting line up is based on the heat race results. Currently there is no inversion in the feature starting line up. This may change. Heat one cars start in the inside row, Heat 2 cars start in the outside row. Like in the heats, rows in the back have a penalty added to simulate them having to pass cars to move up in positions. Rather than running each car for their 40 lap feature all at once, I break it down into 10 lap segments. Each car runs 10 laps in each of the 4 lanes. The times for each lane are added up to determine their feature total.
If I didn't explain any part of this well, feel free to ask questions!
