944Cup

And lucky for you if your racing takes place in the SW, not enough cars in the SP944 classes to have ever earned a split start to date. In the NE and Mid Atlantic, where split starts have been more prevalent, you would have a great time with out of class racing and you would likely never get to go door to door with any of your fellow SP1 drivers, they are so few.

A feature of the split start is that you get both door to door in class racing and you get a mix of classes to navigate the mix of HP versus handling. The first have of a sprint race you go door to door with just in class cars and by the 2nd half of the race you also get to contend with cars not in your class, whether that be by passing or getting passed. Best of both worlds , depending on one's point of view.

944Cup

So where's the fun or challenge of that?????

mmuller

5 wide into turn 1 at the race Start at Sebring. What's not fun about that? 944's started right behind us in the split start

FeuerRacing

Here's another reason... the absolute best racing.

Van

I think it's important to realize that the split start really benefits *both* groups! Those looks like some awesome Sbox starts.

944Cup

Does club racing get any better? Not from my seat. Give me a crowded field of door to door in class racing. SPB and SP944 have made for some great run groups the last couple of years.

gums

Split starts are great, if the class is big enough, which is the only reason to do it.
Of course it only lasts until the first yellow anyway.
I've actually been on track with NASA when they do split starts, and the second wave has pulled up and done a STANDING start! Pretty wild, but they pull it off.

Gary944

The crowds think they're awesome too!

mark kibort

personally, i don't like the split starts.. i like the grid set for all the cars next to one another with similar times. it makes for great racing.. when its broken up, the racing is obviously less, and less fun . IMHO.

mmuller

Its a good thing you don't race SP1, SP2, SP3 or SPB with PCA then. Turns out most of us who do race those classes seem to like split starts mostly because the racing is better for us when we are racing our own class and the mix is these 4 classes. When we do split starts with these 4 classes, the racing is closer for a longer portion of the race, which is more fun than following cars around who are not in your class

mark kibort

I guess it depends on the numbers in the class, and how many in the overall group,and how close the times are. i see your point and have been apart of split start and non split start racing for many years... sometimes being in the spec group, other times, not.
Generally, large groupes of spec cars, benefit from split starts, but if the rest of the run group is fractured into a small group, then for them, its boring.
ive LOVED running with the cup car group that runs with our group 3 in SCCA. (or GT2 and ITE). all are very close in time and it makes for some great racing. i think they like it because their class was only 10 cars with some disparate times. i think there is no one answer and depends on the weekend and turn out. (and type of class)

AceMktg

Prefer split starts for SP classes when size of race group permits: SP1/2/3 & SPB. Closer racing start to finish.

David993S

I am more aware of that than you'll probably ever be.

91K-Man

40 to 70 cars between SP123 and SB. That's in most of the 10 east coast races. Split starts, much better for all racers.

C4 Pazzo

On the West Coast, in SPB we only get to do split starts if we succeed in talking the Steward into letting us (rarely works, especially during the past couple of years) or "happen" to arrive late to grid en masse in qualifying order. The latter is less than ideal, since it causes confusion for the grid workers and we aren't really getting a separate green so can't build a very big gap. In my experience racing SPB with PCA and POC, the racing is better with split starts. The in-class cars tend to stay much closer together for longer than if they get separated by out-of-class car(s) with different performance characteristics that ends up with both classes of cars slowing each other and getting further from the rest of their respective class. The split starts are also less chaotic, I think partly because we aren't dealing with some cars on cold slicks and others on DOT-Rs. With split starts we also avoid the problem of having drivers with divergent skill levels in vastly different machines (think Cup car and SPB) vying for position when the track is most congested during the early part of the race.

My preference would be for split starts for any class that represents 1/4 or more of the field. While I appreciate that part of racing is sharing the track with cars of all classes, I'm not really racing the cars that aren't in my class. Last time I checked, I only got points and Toyo Bucks based on the number of in-class cars I beat