Firestone Indy lights - Preliminary Discussion

Hi guys

Testing the waters for a precursor to the Indy Pro Series.

#15, #26 & #66 2008 Acura ARX-01b Stock Upgrades and Tunes only

ABS STM TCS and Auto gears on

Six rounds initially run at approx 50 miles except for round one, a double pointer:
1) Indy Oval, 40 Laps (Freedom 100)
2) Infineon IRL, 24 Laps
3) Sunset Oval, 20 Laps
4) Laguna Seca, 22 Laps
5) Motegi Oval, 32 Laps
6) Road America, 12 Laps

Qualifying on ovals will be out lap, two flying laps then stop for time accumulation. Each car will run individually with the next car leaving when the first car has started it's second flying lap.
Qualifying on road courses will be a five lap session with cars stopping at the end of lap four.

Rolling starts for Ovals, Standing for road courses

Two man teams allowed and can run different paints

I have come up with a simple number and logo as a vinyl pack which can be sent. It's nothing spectacular but it'll do.

If anyone's interested just leave a message, I'm initially looking at Saturday possibly to run after another event (not sure what day the Pro Series and TASCAR is planned but could possibly be an undercard for those?). If I get eight or more interested I will look at firming up dates and opening registrations

TASCARs will definately be on a saturday.

What time does TASCAR kick off usually? Don't wanna clash with it

9pm BST

I'd be looking to run it beforehand then, maybe 7.30 kickoff. Shouldn't last more than an hour

Interested.

Increase the lengths of a few of the oval races, and reduce the lengths of some of the road races. Example: the Sunset Oval race to at least 35, 20 laps would be finished in 15 minutes, I think. In my opinion, the races should be 25-30 minutes long.

1) Indy Oval, 40 Laps (Freedom 100)
2) Infineon IRL, 20 Laps
3) Sunset Oval, 35 Laps
4) Laguna Seca, 18 Laps
5) Motegi Oval, 50 Laps
6) Road America, 10 Laps

Intrested

I will allow manual gears if it helps get people interested, but I'd like to keep it as stock as poss

I must advise sedona oval over sunset, I understand if you want to go for accuracy, but there was an inordinate amount of apron hugging going on at sunset when we tested this two years ago.

MJG36 here: Yup totally agree with you, swap Sunset oval out for Sedona, increase race distance to 50 laps

Sedona's a crash fest all the time Id rather run Sunset

And you can still easily pass on the high lane at Sunset, so apron hugging shouldn't be a problem.

And I think Sunset should be 40 or 45 laps. The lap times in the Acura prototypes should easily hit 40-50 seconds per lap.

In fairness that's what i was thinking. We'll see what MJG says

I do have an idea. What if I were to put on a trial event, two twenty/twenty five lappers, first at Sedona, second at Sunset and see which is preferred? Day and time open to suggestions, what do people think?

I'm just afraid that Sedona will end up being a wreckfest as Franchitti mentioned.

So Sunset is the safer choice then? Probably best to stick to the original plan then cheers guys

I would be down to test, though. Wednesdays are packed for me. Off-weeks for TCC will be fine. And I'm also busy Friday nights, Saturday afternoons, and Sunday afternoons.

Could look at running it on a TCC Break week on a weds, perhaps 9pm BST?

mjg36 wrote:1) Indy Oval, 40 Laps (Freedom 100)
2) Infineon IRL, 20 Laps
3) Sunset Oval, 35 Laps
4) Laguna Seca, 18 Laps
5) Motegi Oval, 50 Laps
6) Road America, 10 Laps

Much better

mjg36 wrote:Could look at running it on a TCC Break week on a weds, perhaps 9pm BST?

Wednesdays are the Clio Cup.

You'd have thought as my brother helped start it I'd have know that! Lol. Ill have a think

Tuesday and sunday are obviously no-go areas.

Saturday is currently home to several mini series, and eventually TORA's Le Mans and then TASCAR, so you'll have to be quick in getting this one off the ground IF you want to do saturdays.

Fridays are Mikey J's championships currently, which means you'd probably have to have the races a little earlier in the evening.

Wednesday is clios, which means if you want to host something at 8pm UK time, you are left with Monday or Thursday.

8PM UK time on Fridays are fine by me, as my Friday Spec Series are at Midnight UK... a timeslot that I figured would be safe, yet at the same time somewhat accessible to any hardcore TORA racer.

Friday 8-8.30pm bst sounds like a possibility for a start time