Championship Formula Racing is a game that lends itself to house rules. Below is a list of some.
If you want to simulate racing from the 50’s and 60’s, remove all 2 value set-up cards (except skill) and build a car that has 0 total set-up points. Aerodynamics started to impact open wheel racing in the 1970’s increasing their ability to accelerate, decelerate, and take corners faster.
If you want to provide newer drivers with a more competitive experience, you can reduce the amount of build points that more experienced drivers use during set-up to 1 or 0.
Handicaps can not be used in sanctioned organized play events.
A properly calibrated pole bid can be key to victory. Especially with larger fields, a two-part bid can provide more suspense and some hints for drivers hoping to be on pole.
After an initial blind pole bid, the bottom half of bids (rounding down) are placed on the grid as normal. The top half (rounding up) keep the skill and wear bid in round one in front of them and then participate in a second blind bid. The amount bid in both parts are added together before placing the top half of the field on the starting grid.
Detailed Knock Out Bid Examples
Some examples of how knock-out pole bidding will work.
Lets say the field has 7 cars. In the first round everyone bids like this:
Alice bids 4.5
Bob bids 4
Cindy bids 3
Dan bids 2.5
Eric bids 1
Frank bids 0
Gail also bids 0We round up what top-half means so 4 cars will advance normally from a 7 car field to round 2. Another way to think about this is that everyone who has equal to or better than the median bid in round 1 will advance to round 2.
In this case Dan's 2.5 bid is the median bid, so Alice, Bob, Cindy, and Dan all advance to round 2. Eric qualifies 5th, Frank and Gail will roll dice to break their tie for 6th and 7th. Those last three can be placed on the grid.
In round 2...
Alice bids 0
Bob bids 2
Cindy bids 3
Dan bids 2We add both rounds worth of bidding together now:
Alice = 4.5
Bob = 5
Cindy = 6
Dan = 4.5So, Cindy ends up on pole, Bob 2nd, Alice and Dan will roll dice to break their tie.
Here is another example in a 7 car field.
Round 1:
Alice bids 4.5
Bob bids 4
Cindy bids 3
Dan bids 3
Eric bids 3
Frank bids 3
Gail also bids 0The median bid here is 3. That means that everyone but Gail actually advance to the 2nd round of bidding.
In theory, everyone can end up advancing to the 2nd round. It is just not very likely in larger fields.
The core rules stipulate that you must navigate corners after you cross the finish line. Alternately, you can decide to ignore corners after crossing the finish line.