# Bonus Laps?



## TK Solver (Mar 18, 2004)

I've been looking for some creative ways to score races where the drivers have to reslot each others cars. My track is a road course with roughly equal complexity (turns) in each quadrant of a 12x6 table. What do you guys think of the idea of awarding a bonus lap each time you re-slot one of your opponents' cars? Depending on the type of car in the race, a lap takes anywhere from 7 to 16 seconds. Seem fair? The obvious question is, will a bonus lap seem like enough motivation to actually slow your own car and re-slot another? I guess the second question would be, can people accurately keep track of their bonus laps over the course of a 5 minute race?

When kids are racing, they usually want to race for a certain number of laps, stopping the race whenever someone de-slots. They end up spending almost as much time re-slotting cars as they do racing and there is bickering over who kept racing after someone spun. I'm hoping that this bonus lap concept will get them to go for timed races and eliminate most (some?) of the bickering.


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## SCJ (Jul 15, 1999)

Run a crash-n-burn (CnB) race in segments….we do and it helps level the field.

What I'm saying is…….if you run two minute heats (two minutes on each lane, rotating each racer through each lane) then break this up into one minute segments with a track stoppage at the end of each minute. At most, a racer is off for 59 seconds…those that come off the track/wreck can clean their tires and are put back on at the end of the minute, those that don't come off/wreck can't touch their car until the end of the heat.

Did that make sense?

-------------------------
www.SlotCarJohnnies.com


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

We do our crash and burns kind of like SCJ suggests but we run to _x_ amount of laps (varying _x_ according to "slow cars/fast cars", twice on each lane, then rotate. Points per segment are awarded to racers in order of coming off, first off gets lowest last off gets highest - we also add 1 for 2nd place and 2 for 1st. For example on the local Scorpion each segment would award:

1st off - 1 pt
2nd off - 2 pts
3rd off - 3 pts
4th off - 4 pts
5th off - 6 pts
Winner - 8 pts
Here's what the results look like:


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*CnB is the way to go..*

Like SCJ said, some sort of CnB is called for here.
The drivers will quickly learn the longer they stay on the track the longer they race.
Basic CnB?
After the start of the race when you crash you are out for the rest of the race.
And if you have more drivers than lanes?
The first driver that wrecks in a heat is replaced by one of the extra drivers at the end of the heat...
Think about it and come up with a version that works for you and your gang...
Have fun...
Scott


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## TK Solver (Mar 18, 2004)

Thanks for the details. I will give crash and burn a try.


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