Championship Formula Racing (Speed Circuit v3) at WBC 2015

For me, the game of Speed Circuit that I grew up with has become the game of Championship Formula Racing (CFR) to be published by Jolly Rodger Games.  Although I did not know it at the time, that transformation started when I took over GM duties for the Speed Circuit Tournament at what was then Avalon Con many, many years ago (I actually don't remember when).

So while the program at WBC 2015 will say Speed Circuit, for me it will be the first tournament for Championship Formula Racing with what will be the game's final rules set (I promise).

Many, many thanks to Chris Long for being Chief Steward again this year.  I will get up to Lancaster on Thursday and Friday to run the demo and as many qualifying heats as I can but will not be staying through the weekend.

There is only one rules adjustment from last year, which I describe below.  Also note that these core rules are very close to being locked down as the rules set for CFR.  I will also be bringing development versions of some of the components that may end up in that version of the game, including a card-based system for car set-up.

Finally, I will be bringing up components for racing against historical drivers that will be included in CFR.  I may run one or two historical drivers at the demo Thursday and would be happy to loan out the components to anyone who wants to play with it at the con.

On to the tracks.

Thursday Q1:
Track 1: Hockenheimring (PDF)
Track 2: Monza (PDF)
Track 3: Shanghai (PDF)

Friday Q2:
Track 1: Albert Park  (PDF)
Track 2: Monaco (PDF)
Track 3: Valencia Street Circuit  (PDF)

Saturday Q3:
Track 1: Circuit of the Americas (PDF)
Track 2: Buddh  (PDF)
Track 3: Suzuka  (PDF)

Sunday Finals: Marina Bay  (PDF)

Rules Links:

• Consolidated Core Rules
• New Die Roll Chart
• WBC Tournament Rules

Note that some terminology has been rejiggered in this version.  "Test" is the new official name for attempting to exceed your top speed, acceleration, deceleration, or start speed.  Also note that these rules refer to the components that I currently imagine will be in the box for Championship Formula Racing.  Some components will be different in a large format, live event like WBC but I've tried to make the components work at that scale and WBC will be a good test for those.  Also, the tables you are used to seeing are gone and have been replaced by a new thing I built out to make them look less like 1970s era war game combat charts but the underlying math is the same.

Rule Change:
Starting Grids for more than 6 cars (from the core rules)


When there are between 7 and 12 cars in the race the blue spaces are all used and some number of red spaces will also be used, from front to back, as shown by the numbers on the picture below. So in a 9 car field, we would use all of the blue spaces plus the first three red spaces (marked “w/ 7+”, “w/ 8+”, and “w/ 9+”).

Cars are assigned to those spaces from front to back and from inside to outside. As always, the first car will be placed in the front row to the inside. The second car would be placed in the front row to the outside, etc. If a space is not being used for that number of cars, then it is skipped. Thus the last car will always be in the last row to the outside. The example below shows a 9 car field and indicates the order in which cars would be placed in each space.

The purpose of this layout is to balance out the effect of pole bids regardless of how many cars are in the field.

See the core rules linked above to see how this grid system works with 6 or fewer cars... a thing that rarely happens at WBC.