Race meeting format:
National Hot Rods are the equivalent of British Touring Cars for oval racing. Cars are all very similar underneath the bodyshell with all aspects of the cars strictly controlled, that said the cars are infinitely adjustable.
A race meeting follows the format of two heats and a final, the grids for the heats are determined by success, the more successful you have been in recent races actually means the further towards the BACK of the grid you start!! This makes the racing very close and entertaining as the driver who starts at the rear, it is presumed, can battle their way to the front.
The grid for the final is established by the accumulated best results from the two heats with the highest scorer starting at the front.
Championships:
Each region (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland) has a championship which is based on the points each driver scores in each round in the same way as F1 racing. However, there are also four major championships which form the blue riband events of National Hot Rods.
Similar to Golf the “Majors” are the most coveted championships to win, the ‘Big Four” are World Championship, National Championship, European Championship and British Championship, each held at different venues across the regions. These events are ‘Open’ events, which means any driver from any region can participate providing they have qualified for these events; qualification criteria vary for each event.
Cars:
The cars are bespoke built for National Hot Rod racing around a strict set of rules. There are a number of chassis and component manufacturers to allow teams to choose what they feel works best however all cars are created from the same set of rules:
- the chassis is a tubular spaceframe
- the bodyshell is made from Kevlar/ fibreglass and carbon fibre
- engines are a modified 2 litre engine, typically either Vauxhall or Ford and produce around 240hp
- tyres are manufactured by Hoosier, there is a choice of slick and wet tyres however, there is no choice on compound or wet tyre pattern.
Each round drivers are allowed a specific allocation of tyres depending on the event, each tyre has a unique bar code to ensure usage is tracked and therefor within the allocation allowed.
