Standing Starts?

[¡As-de-mim!]

The start: Road courses need standing starts. The rolling start is a holdover from the days when all Champ car events were on ovals. Standing starts are exciting, they are the norm all over the world, and they are something that the oval-only Indy Racing League can't do. That in itself makes it worth doing.

As CART becomes an American-based international series, it seems only logical to adopt this world standard.

[Lee Janotta]

Yes, without a doubt.

But they should use the old F1 4-3-4 stagger!

It'd be _so_ awesome to see 4 cars on the front row!

[Snrub]

It would be cool, but CART has had a history of 1st lap crashes. Maybe with Brack gone it's possilbe.

[f1manoz]

I went with maybe. Standing starts are an international standard, but rolling starts is what makes CART unqiue, even though they do race on road courses for the majority of the time... Standing starts is just one more step CART takes to become F1 Jr...

[Wrex]

Rolling starts have no place on anything other than an oval. F1Man, whats more concerning to you, CART becoming like F1 or retunring to IRL?

To me neither is relevant.

Standing starts (without launch control and TC) bring another exciting aspect to racing.

Although Lee's idea sounds fantastic, lets be realistic. With the safety focus we have today it's just not feasible.

[Jay]

What Wrex said...exactly what Wrex said!

[racer69]

Leave it as rolling starts. Traditionally this has always been used and they are safer as well as being easie on the clutches, drivetrains etc....

[greg.n]

what racer69 said! Exactly what racer69 said. CART is CART not F1 so comparisons aren't relevant. If you had stading starts on half the street circuits CART races on you'd lose half the field in the first two laps. Its hard enough with rolling starts without making it harder.

[Russfeld]

There's really no more probablity of crashes in standing starts or rolling starts. F1 and CART both have their fair share of silly incidents. However I think they should do standing just because its more exciting, more fair (none of this BS of 3 rows and then a 100metre gap to the next car), and its the road racing standard.

Rolling doesnt make CART unique at all.

[Wrex]

Does CART have less starting incidents with Rolling starts than F1? I think not.

I agree with Russfeld also about some of the ridiculous gaps and 'false' starts in CART.

[macdaddy]

I could learn to accept standing starts on non-ovals. But perhaps many of the street circuits on which they race don't provide enough width along the start/finish straightaway to provide for a standing start. If you're starting P4, it won't do you a lot of good to get off to a blistering start, only to find that you can't pass the front row anyway. You've almost gotta have a straightaway that allows for 3- or 4-wide. Without that, you're just gonna end up with carnage.

[Speedworx]

Rolling starts are much more fun and safer.

[BootsOntheSide]

Rolling starts are the tradition, in a time where CART is desperate to regain its popularity among its home audience. They also provide something different for European viewers, and increase the chance of getting most of the cars through the first laps.

I'm convinced that if CART went to standing starts, it would further increase the rate of teams signing European pay-drivers, as they would ahve an advantage over the guys who aren't used to standing starts. It would frequently remove at least 5 cars on the first lap at first (until everyone is used to it), and would require massive investments from Lola and Derrick Walker in order to make the cars survive teh one-off pressure on the clutches.

As for the false starts, what about the problem of needing to identify jump starts? Formula 1's technology to do this costs a fortune for every track, not to mention the sensors on the cars. CART needs to keep costs low, and rolling starts are condusive with this.

[DNQ]

I've previously thought standing starts are the way to go, but rolling starts is what champcar racing is about.

[Liz]

Rolling starts -- because they are safer, because they are unique to our series, and because. Just because.

I like rolling starts and I don't want to think of Paul Tracy making a standing start from P10 and punting the next four rows into the gravel trap.....

[429CJ]

No for standing starts - they are dangerous, just remembering death of Riccardo Paletti in Canadian GP in 1982, or close call in 1994 San Marino GP with JJ Lehto and Pedro Lamy.

[Flatspot]

Rolling starts for me too.

I personally don't find rolling or standing any more or less exciting than the other.

The biggest problem that CART has had in the last few years is that it keeps trying to reinvent itself to distance itself from the IRL. That BS has got to stop! CART is different enough already based on variety alone.

Changing how the starts occur would just add to the confusion, further upset the manufacturers, add cost for both teams and venue owners and the list goes on.

As soon as CART stabilizes, maybe then.....

[macdaddy]

Aren't they toying with the idea of introducing a couple of standing-start events in Atlantics?

[tanalised]

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of events with standing starts, especially with traction control gone. Might require some modification in the cars based on the way some of them get so bogged down just leaving the pits.
But I guess rolling starts are the tradition for Champcars and right now they need some stability and to stop reinventing themselves every season.

[KC]

Without traction control and launching software a CART car is very difficult to start from a stop without either stalling or spinning up the tires and not moving out fast enough. Its easier in the pits because the pitlane speed limiter is engaged and won't let the car overrev.

As far as safety is concerned, I see no difference between the two series. Both have a history of first turn crashes for little or no apparent reason.

Rolling starts are a part of American racing and the series is racing mostly in the US.

[Snrub]

It would be pretty silly to have half the grid stalled out. Look at the old pit stops though (pre-limiter), there weren't that many people stalling out. They could always change the engine spec to include 40lbs flywheels so no one stalls out. They'd need 900hp though... 1lbs rotational mass ~= 40lbs static mass, I'm guessing the current flywheels weigth 4lbs, so 36*40 = 1440lbs extra.

[nitehusky]

I love the standing start and would be very glad to see CART adopt them BUT, as MacDaddy said, technically I don't most courses are wide enough and therefore safe enough to allow this.

[JohnSSC]

Well I think Liz is right, the sight of PT doing his Schumi Lite imitation as he launches himself up and over 3 rows and then driving through the next one after landing is enough to make one think twice about standing starts.

I will say this though, the rolling start is a farce right now. The starter waves the green if the pole sitter is facing in the right direction. The rest of the field can be more strung out than a heroin addict in rehab, but they get the green anyway. Do it one way or the other, but could we do it properly?