Fixed Gear Crit
23-03-2018Crit NewsInterviews & BackgroundNewsRHCRHC BK 11

Red Hook Criterium implements several changes in the qualification system for RHC Brooklyn No.11

March 23, 2018

Last year, the Red Hook Criterium qualification system received a total overhaul, the hot lap qualification system was replaced by a heat qualification race system. This change was made to give every competitor the chance to compete in a race and gain experience. After having this system in place for the whole 2017 series, further fine-tuning is done for RHC Brooklyn No.11 with several ‘big’ changes. These changes aim to give every competitor even better chances to race their bike during a RHC. In short, the Super Pole will be abolished and the Last Chance Race (LCR) will now consist of four ‘Another Chance Races’ (ACR). in addition, the grid formation for the final is changed. We talked with David Trimble the owner and founder of Red Hook Criterium to find out more about the new system.
Photography: Tornanti.cc

Men’s
For the first time everyone will have two chances to qualify for the final. No matter what happens in your heat you will still advance to the next round. This will benefit those who have had bad luck in the heats and give more experience to those in the bottom half of the field.

Heats 
There will be 4 (12 lap) heat races with 80 starters each. The top 20 from each heat will transfer directly to the Final. We will again be using random heat assignments. This has proven to evenly distribute the top riders and (in theory) prevents athletes from complaining about where they start.
The “Last Chance Race” is now the “Another Chance Race”
Finishers outside the top 20 in the heats will transfer to an Another Chance Race (ACR). There will be 4 ACR’s with 60 starters each. These races will be the same length as the heats with 12 laps. The top 5 finishers from each ACR will transfer to the Final. The winner of each ACR will receive a starting position near the front of the Final.
Athletes stay in the same group so if you are in Heat 1 and finish outside the top 20 you will advance to the ACR 1. This will give everyone an equal amount of recovery time between races. Athletes will be gridded up based on their heat finishing position (21st finisher starting at the front and so on).
How will the riders be gridded for the Final?
We are scraping the Super Pole session as it was a little ahead of its time last year. With this new format, we’ll have 4 riders per row. If you win your heat you will start on the front row alongside the other heat winners. If you finish 2nd in your heat you will be on the 2nd row and so on. Having just 4 riders per row will make the grid a lot longer which makes doing well in your heat even more critical. It should also make the start of the race a little less chaotic with more space between everyone.
Women’s
The women will follow the same format which is a big change. We are anticipating 70-80 starters. Based on these numbers all the athletes will compete together in a single (10 lap) heat race. The top 30 will advance directly to the Final. The rest of the athletes will advance to an ACR (approx 50 starters). In the ACR first 25 riders will be advancing to the Final.

We like the idea of putting more pressure on qualifying for the women’s race. By eliminating the bottom of the field the Final will have a slightly smaller field but it will be higher quality. However, those who do not make the final will still get at least 2 chances to race.
We may tweak this format closer to the race based on how many entries we ultimately get.


What is staying the same
In both the men and women’s field, we’ll continue with the 1st lap and mid-race prime in the Final. We’ll also be bringing back the Rockstar Games Top Antagonist Award. The exact format for this is still being developed and will be announced on race week.

You may also like