With all of the different styles of racing that come to rfactor, you would think that it would be important to ISI to provide a more diverse array of options for sessions in an event. Basically right now you can just run practice, qual, warm-up, race. One example that should be at the top of the list due to the large amount of dirt oval racing and even other types of racing that use it is having Heat races within a single event. A typical dirt event would look something like this. Practice - All cars - Usually based on a short time or small number of laps, like 6-10 laps. Rfactor 2 has this. Qualifying - Individual - Most local tracks don't do this, but the top tier series such as World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Latemodels run qualifying sessions where each car takes a couple laps. The qualifying options in Rfactor 2 are fine. Heat Races - Several small field races, usually 6-8 cars per heat, depending on how many are at event. Usually a small amount of laps, between 8-12 laps per heat. Modder should then be able to set what positions transfer to what Main. Example: Lets say we have Positions 1-4 go to A-main. 5-6 go to B-main, 7-8 go to C-main, the rest go home. Dash Races - Some series use these as a fun race such as a Dash 4 Cash, while others use them to set the lineup for the A-main. Usually its only the winners or top 2 from each heat, and it is also a short race, sometimes as short as 6 laps. Features/Mains - The A-main is the big one. It is where the majority of points are earned. They are also the final and longest race of the night which crowns the events overall winner. Field size is usually around 24 cars. Laps can range anywhere from 20 for smaller cars/events to over 100 for top series latemodel/sprint car events. In my example above the top 4 went straight to the A-main. So lets say we had 4 heats. That sets the initial 16 cars in the A main. The other 8 cars would come from the transfer spots in the other mains. Again going back to the above example, we had 2 cars from each race go to the C-main. The C-main would be run with say the top 2 going to the B-main. Those 2 cars would start at the back of the B-main. Transfer mains are usually around 6-12 laps. Then the B-main would be run and the top 8 would transfer to the A-main and start at the back. Inverting - It is also very common for a certain number of cars to be inverted. There is a lot different ways this can be done, like drawing numbers from a hat, pre-determined in rulebook, etc. This is another small option that would make dirt guys very happy! Can anyone else think of anything I missed? Overall, the more options we have for sessions, the more realistic we can make these events.
