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To a novice it would appear that the inside lane has an advantage as it is shorter but I'll go with one of the middle lanes, say blue. How to you guys handicap the racing?

Just use lane rotation. No handicap.

Everyone runs all the lanes and does the best they can on each.

At least that is how we have always done it, and still do.

I realized that would be the answer but doesn't that make for a long night, if there are lots of competitors? Each heat is 6 races, each final is six races. I have been thinking about an oval for years for laps and beer, but actual racing?

Each driver runs each lane. Set your heat time at say TWO minutes with maybe a minute, minute and a half between each heat for cool off and minor repairs. Whan all lanes have been run by all drivers. Thats it. The driver with the most laps wins

My 4 lane oval traditionally hosts our opening round and the guys are pretty keen after their Xmas/New Year break so a full turnout is about 14. We run five classes and as Harry said everyone does lane rotation and we do 2 minutes per lane.
Racing starts at 7.00pm and a half-time break for food and raffle a car then back into it. Usually all over by 11.00 and push 'em out the door around midnight when they've finished bench racing.
Chris.

OR...

Run digital w/lane changers. :D

Hey - I've raced on that very track out in the Hamptons on Long Island; that is 'The Beach Oval' owned by a member here!

Actually it is currently listed in the classifieds on this site - and at great price!

Interestingly on this track the top-most (longer) lanes are a little *faster* than the bottom-most (shorter) lanes... Cars routinely run *under* two seconds per lap on this 10' by 20' oval - so this is a fast track! Banked tracks can often even things out across lanes... But yeah rotations is the key.

At South Shore Speedway, also on Long Island, they try to mirror real racing, like you would find on a typical short track bullring. They race heats on the four lane track in four segments - no time limits - just a set number of laps - the best cumulative finish in the four segments wins that heat. Based on finishing order drivers are assigned to consis, e-main, d-main, c-main, b-main etc.

At the end of race night there is one Main Event Winner. Almost every race finishes with all drivers on the lead lap and races are routinely decided by less than a scale car length. I have to say I really like this format and feel I am racing against other drivers and not racing against the track, or the computer, or the clock.

It is kind of like a scale race experience.

BTW...Beers and Brats. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, the whole point of a great track is the FUN you have with good people.

As most know we do not hold organized racing here. Some call it "chasing" not racing...or good old Fun Runnin'.

But we do race in a way. We all build similar cars and when we are on the track the close contact action is all the fun we can ask for.

I think you will discover that people will really enjoy an oval track regardless if you just do beer and brats, or set up the timer.

10-4 Harry! Fun runnin' is what we do at the North Cedar Raceway here on Long Island every Wednesday night.
You've seen the dozens of pictures Frank (from NY) has posted before he started spending more time in NC than NY. Four T-Jets on a 58 ft. road course, and you could cover 'em all with a (clean) shop rag!
But I like my competition nights, too, be it HO or 1/24 scale stuff. -- Ernie

If you look at the track picture you can see the track has staggered starting lines. The staggered starting lines equal out the lap lengths. I have my track staggered also.

I've not seen it done, but you could stagger the location of the lap counters to effectively lengthen the lap length of the inside lanes. Staggered starting locations will only lengthen the distances of the first lap. I raced on an Ogilvie 85' tri-oval for several years. We always raced 8 three or four minute heats, so everyone ran all 8 lanes. We didn't find doing it this way required lots of extra time, even with large racing fields.

Forget my idea above, staggered lap counters will only lengthen the first lap too! :think:

I thought about the stagger start thing - to truly even out the race lengths it would have to be *extreme*.

Figure the straights are the same, the turns are circular, and the lane spacing is 4 inches which means that (regardless of turn sharpness and regardless of straightaway lengths) starting from the inside lane, each successive lane is 2 feet longer *per lap*!
Since each diameter is larger by 8 inches (4 inches for each side) times Pi gives us about 24 inches or two feet per lane per lap. Thinking about four lanes that would put the outside lane about 6 feet longer per lap - Multiply that by a short race of only ten laps would require a stagger start of 60 feet - 20 laps would be 120 feet!

Staggering when you think about it.