Race Format

The Visions R/C race is all about gaining exposure for radio controlled car racing while creating a fun family friendly environment for sportsman and pro racers alike. Entries are limited and race days are shorter to accommodate leisure time for participants to enjoy all the other events and amenities available at the Visions Off-Road event.

Since entries are limited due to the race hours, the Visions R/C race is solely focused on 1:8 off-road buggies (nitro and electric). This limits the number of cars you need to work on and creates availability for more participants. There are 2 divisions for each nitro and electric - Sports and Open. Additionally, there is one very limited Invitational class in nitro buggy with only 11 drivers invited. 4 additional drivers will have the opportunity to bump in to the invitational class by racing in the Open nitro buggy class.

The Open and Invitational classes in nitro and electric have prize purses along with trophies. The Sportsman classes have trophies, but no purse.

All classes will be streamed live on LiveRC and Speed Sport. After the event, a 1 hour TV show will be produced and aired on Speed Sport featuring the Invitational class, along with select highlights from other classes.

Sportsman/Open Nitro Buggy and Sportsman/Open E-Buggy will both run a traditional race format with 3 rounds of qualifying using qual points. The best 2 of 3 rounds will count. Mains will be run as traditional "A, B, C" mains. ROAR rules will be followed for vehicle tech and tie-breakers.

12 drivers will seeded in all sportsman main events, with the top 3 bumping up. Bump-ups are mandatory, and the driver's who bump will earn the award for the position they finished in the race(s) they bump up from.

Qualifying rounds will be 6 minutes for nitro and 5 minutes for electric.

Sportsman/Open Nitro Buggy mains will be: 30 mins (A-Main), 20 mins (B-Main), 15 mins (C-Main and lower).

Sportsman/Open E-Buggy mains will be 7 mins (A-Main), 6 mins (B-Main), 5 mins (C-Main and lower).

The Invitational class is only for Nitro Buggy. All drivers in the Invitational class may also race in the Open E-Buggy class.

*All formats and race lengths are subject to change based on weather, entries, and other factors that deem a change necessary.

Read below for information on Open Nitro Buggy advancement process to the Invitational class.

A total of 4 drivers in Open Nitro Buggy will earn a spot in the Invitational class.

All other drivers have a chance to earn their way in through the Open Nitro Buggy class. To earn your way in to Invite, you need to TQ one of the 3 rounds of qualifying in the Open Nitro Buggy class. After the 3rd and final round of Open qualifying, the remaining overall TQ of the Open class who did not win a round of qualifying will receive the final Invitational class position.

Advancement to the Invitational class is mandatory for any driver who earns a spot. A $1,000 bonus will be awarded to each of the 4 drivers who advance, which is equal to the purse for first place in the class.

Qualifying takes place for both Open and Invitational classes on Friday. Because of this, driver's who advance from Open to Invitational will be doing so as qualifying is in progress. The TQ of the first round of open will advance to Invitational before the first Invitational qualifier, so that driver will race all 3 qualifiers in Invitational. The driver who TQ's the second round of Open will advance after the first qualifier is complete in Invitational, so they will receive a 14th place finish in the first qualifier, thus starting in 13th place in A-Main #1. That driver will get to race qualifiers 2 and 3 for Invitational. The driver who TQ's the 3rd round of Open, and the overall TQ of open, will advance after qualifers 2 and 3 are complete. They will receive 14th and 15th place finishes in the first and second qualifiers of Invitational, and race the third qualifier.

The Invitational class will be comprised of only 15 drivers, 11 of whom are invited and 4 of whom race their way in from the Open class.

Driver Selection
Deciding who is in the Invitational class is an extremely difficult process because there are so many people worthy of earning a spot. Only 4 people are guaranteed a spot in Invitational: the previous year's winner, the current IFMAR World Champion, the previous year's ROAR National Champion, and the previous year's EFRA European Champion. All other invitational drivers will be selected by hand based on racing resume, TV personality, fan base, as well as consideration to give relatively equal representation among chassis manufacturers. We kindly ask that everyone understands and respects the drivers selected, because there is absolutely no way we can appease everyone. We would love to invite 50 people, however we need to keep the Invitational class to a single heat of racers to fit within TV air time constraints.

Qualifier Races
There will be 3 heads-up qualifying races held on Friday for the Invitational class. Each qualifier is 5 minutes. The first qualifier will set the grid order for main #1, the second qualifier will set the grid order for main #2, and the third qualifier sets the grid order for main #3.

Before qualifying begins, each driver will blindly pick a card that contains a letter on it. That letter will determine where they start in each of the quaifiers. The starting position for each qualifier is shown in the chart below. Each driver will start once in the top 5 spots, once in the middle 5 spots, and once in the back 5 spots. The "total" column to the right is a sum of their total grid starting positions. All drivers have a total sum of 23 to 25. Drivers who start 1st all have a higher total of 25, and drivers who never start 1st or 2nd all have a lower total of 23.

The goal of this format is to provide all heads-up racing action for the fans and avoid the same person starting out front every race. However, we also feel it is not fair for a driver to start in the back of the pack during a main event when all 3 count. This format allows a driver who starts in the back in qualifying to move up the grid order before the main event, thus giving them a very fair shot to do well in all 3 main events. In other words, a driver doesn't need to TQ each qualifier, he/she needs to move up far enough to put themselves in a good starting position for each main event.

Card	Q1	Q2	Q3	Sum
A	1	9	15	25
B	2	15	7	24
C	3	6	14	23
D	5	12	6	23
E	4	11	9	24
F	6	13	4	23
G	7	3	13	23
H	8	4	12	24
I	9	5	11	25
J	10	14	1	25
K	11	7	5	23
L	13	8	3	24
M	15	2	8	25
N	14	1	10	25
O	12	10	2	24

Main Events
Invitational class will consist of 3 main events, each 15 minutes. All 3 main events count towards the overall finishing order. In the case of a tie, the tie-breaker is whoever finished higher in the 3rd and final race. There is purse money up for grabs for the winner of each main event, the overall event winner, and a bonus if a driver wins all 3 main events. Points are awarded for each main event as follows:

Pos	Points
1st	25
2nd	22
3rd	20
4th	18
5th	16
6th	15
7th	14
8th	13
9th	12
10th	11
11th	10
12th	9
13th	8
14th	7
15th	6

A $30,000 cash purse is up for grabs in the Open and Invitational classes. Win up to $15,000! The purse is awarded as follows:

Invitational Purse
1st Overall	$5,000
2nd Overall	$3,000
3rd Overall	$2,000
4th Overall	$1,500
5th Overall	$1,000
Main Event Win Bonus (3 main event winners)	$1,500
LiveRC Clean Sweep Bonus (if you win all 3 main events)	$5,500

Open Nitro Buggy Purse
1st Overall	$1,000
2nd Overall	$600
3rd Overall	$400
Invitational Bump-Ups (each of the 4 drivers who advance to invite)	$1,000