bpanther wrote:
We have just converted some of the practice time into more qualifying and race length based on feedback that qualifying sessions were too short.
In the end this deal.
in 2008 and prior years and number 15 min sessions were used to get cars on track. This combined with 40 min races and a short clean up in between allow all races groups to run on the same day. It was tight, but managable.
At Miller there is on relaity that cannot be escaped. Lap length
944 spec tiimes at Mid-Ohio were 1:44 or so. At Miller even on the 3.0 mile track that same car is to 2:20-2:25. That means 30 seconds more per lap. What does that mean? In 15 minutes allowing for 1 warm-up and 2 cool down lap (est 2:35 seconds each for "fast cooldown") you only have 10 mintues for actual track time. That comes to about 4-5 laps maybe. That is just not that many laps. So you really need 20 min sessions to claw back 2 more laps.
Plus during a race one double yellow takes longer gather the field so you need that extra 5 mintues per race. Then if you consider a clean-up between races. 5 mintes is barely enough time to get a safety truck around the track and be able to rope tow in wounded car. If that car can't roll it will take much longer than 5 mintues to clean up.
So that is why things had to be moved around. I don't like the fact that the "practice day" is gone, but once I looked at the session times it became clear to me there was just not the hours in the day to do it anyway differently and still provide some usable track time for each racer.
Now I have not decided if I will supersize or do the wedensday practice day.
