Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) means exactly what? Is this so they can thin out the heard for the final so there are less karts on the track? How does this work . . . does this mean the LCQ has their own final seperate from the real winners?
You can obviously only fit so many karts on track, usually 30-40 for most tracks. When classes get bigger than that, they take the top X amount of karts from the finish of each heat and those karts are locked into the final.
Anyone who doesn’t transfer directly to the finals from the heats is placed in the LCQ. Top X number of karts in the LCQ transfer to the final, and anyone who doesn’t transfer is done for the weekend and doesn’t run the final.
So at a huge, competitive race like Supernats, just making the final can be an accomplishment.
The LCQ gives you a last chance (hence the name) to make up for bad results or DNFs or mechanical issues in the heats.
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So like TJ said, it’s a way to keep only so many karts on track at once.
There’s a couple ways to do it. From qualifying, the karts get split into groups.
If the entries are small enough (40-50ish) you can do odd and even Heats. 1st, 3rd, 5th, and so on race for starting position on the inside row, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and so on race for their lineup on the outside row.
You can also go ABCD format, which was used this past weekend at USPKS. Those formats line up from qualifying like:
A B C D
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
…
and so on. You then run 3 heats, each group racing the other once, and points are assigned to the finishing positions in each heat, typically
1st = 0 pts
2nd = 2 pts
3rd = 3 pts
…
Following this format all the way down.
After that, take either the top 15-20 from each odd and even heat, or top 30-40 from points calculations. They transfer directly into the final. The rest of the drivers run a final heat, the Last Chance Qualifier, to try and make the main event. The top 6 make it into the main from there at USPKS. There are no provisionals or guaranteed starters, except SuperNats where the Pro Tour Champions are guaranteed a spot on Sunday, so a DNF in the LCQ guarantees your weekend is over. They’re usually pretty dramatic, hectic, and close, so I recommend those to watch for fun.
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CKNA is doing that this year I assume because of the insane kart counts they are drawing. They weren’t doing that at any of the CKNA races I ran last year, so I was curious.
LCQ is a term that motocross uses for the same type race, circle track it’s a B main (or further letters in big races), consolation race is sometimes used also.
I believe ckna only does it for the bigger national races like spring nats and grands. It is up to them on how many karts they feel are safe for the final but the ckna divisional racing rarely tops 30.
I think it means Last Crash Qualifier.