Season 1 IFCA SuperTouring!

by **IFCA GTDon** Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:36 am

Season 1 IFCA SuperTouring Oct 19th!

Finally! We get to pick our own cars and build them any way we like! The only requirement is using race tires. That's it! Any car that fits into A-Class is legal!

No more build sheets! No more testing multiple cars!

But wait! How can we have equality this way?

Simple, with a new feature borrowed from drag racing where you place a limit on how fast you can go. It's called a dial-in time. Set your fastest lap on the practice leader board and we will add +0.4sec to your best time for your dial-in time. This is the time you are not allowed to go under. If you do, there will be a massive time penalty.

Because this is a very modest governor for equality and not quite like the drag race version, we will also utilize the ballast handicap after the first race at Sebring on Oct 19th 6pm CST. As with drag racing the point of having a dial-in that you can't go faster than, is to be able to run unequal cars in a more fair race. Road racing offers some different challenges in this regard mainly because we are not running a single lap but multiple laps. This is why the impact of a dial-in is not nearly as high as it is at the drag strip. Even so, during the heat of battle, knowing you are only allowed to go as fast as your dial-in on any given lap can make for some intense pressure. How hard do you push before you go too fast while chasing your rival who is giving you draft during the final few laps?

As you can imagine, knowing just how fast you really are and managing your speed with a kind of restraint is key. Anyone who thinks they can run a slow sandbag time and then run faster during the race is in for a big shock. It becomes critically important to always run as fast as you possibly can so that you can go as fast as you are allowed during the race without fear of "breaking out" of your dial-in time. Sounds easy, right?

Let's say you did some good practice and are steadily and consistently within 0.2sec of you best lap in practice. You might tie it on a good run or even beat it on a rare great run. But with the dial-in added, your best lap time becomes 0.4sec slower, meaning that it is much easier to reach your fastest lap time now. So much easier, that you will have to pay attention to your lap times during the race. The only remedy for this is to go exceedingly fast during practice so that you have the smallest chance of going too fast during the race. The faster practice time you have the faster race time you are allowed, and the less chance you will have of breaking out.

Drivers who just run a few laps during the week, and do most of their practice during the warmup will be severally handicapping themselves in the wrong direction. They will be much faster than their dial-in and be very limited by this.

Because more emphasis is being placed on your best practice lap the races are 2 weeks a part instead of 1. This will give everyone plenty of time to sharpen their laps in order to maximize their speed.

Be advised this is still just a pilot program with only 3 races. Tire wear will be minimal with 2 pit stops, everyone will be on softs and 1 medium. Weather will be clear. You will drive the same car for all 3 races.

For more details go here:

https://ifca.forumotion.com/t6943-ifca-super-touring-oct-19th

Good luck @ Sebring Oct 19th 6pm CST!