2018 FARC season

The 2018 Falkner Automobile Racing Championships is the upcoming season for the stock car sanctioning body FARC.

Best-of-10 championship
As part of a continuing effort to help the smaller teams remain viable in the sport, FARC officials announced significant changes to the FARC Lowe Dollar Series championship format.

FARC Competition Director Jen Walker published an announcement to FARCRacing.com that, out of the 16 races scheduled for the 2018 FARC Lowe Dollar Series season, only a driver's best 10 results will count towards the championship, with their lowest scores to be wiped upon starting races 11 and beyond.

This change comes as a compromise of sorts between the season-long points battle and the much-criticized "FARC-Off" playoff format from 2015, which was seen by some as giving preference to drivers and teams that rarely showed up, the most egregious examples being Leslie Riggs' inclusion in the FARC-Off after only making two starts before the cutoff, and Tristan Kristoph's inclusion in the "Final Five" after finishing 10th in his only start of the previous round.

"We believe that the new format will provide the most balanced competition between all of our teams," Walker wrote. "The teams that can only run more limited schedules will be able to compete for the FARC Lowe Dollar Series championship, but there will still be that incentive to improve on their results by making the effort to show up to more races."

30-car grids, stage racing, & consolation races
The FARC Lowe Dollar Series race format will also experience changes for the 2018 season, starting with a reduction in the standard grid size from 36 starters to 30. The top 28 fastest cars in qualifying will be locked into each race, plus the returning Wild Card spots, where two teams outside the top 28 qualifiers are randomly selected to start at the back of the feature. The Rockford 200 will still start 60 cars.

While most races will be contested with the traditional single-race format, the short tracks with limited pit lane space will also accommodate 30 starters with a new 2-stage race format, similar to the 3-stage format that will be implemented at the 2017 Rockford 200 and beyond.

After qualifying, the 11th - 30th place starters will contest the short stage 1. The top 10 finishers will join the top 10 overall starters in stage 2, which will finish off the race. The bottom 10 finishers of stage 1 will be eliminated from the race and credited with finishing 21st - 30th overall.

To compensate for the reduced grid sizes in addition to providing greater entertainment for the fans at the track, points-paying consolation races will be held before the feature at all events. All teams that fail to qualify for the feature will line up in inverted order for a sprint race, with the winner receiving 5 points, the same as last place in the feature. Points will also be awarded to the rest of the top 5, and points-paying finishes in the consolation races will count towards a driver's best-of-10 during the season.

Inverted starting grids at short tracks & road courses
All races at ovals under one mile in length and road courses in the 2018 FARC Lowe Dollar Series season (excluding the Rockford 200), as well as every FARC Super Series and FARC Truck Series race, will feature post-qualifying inversions of the starting lineup.

After qualifying, the pole sitter will roll a six-sided die, and the number that they roll will determine how many rows are inverted for the start.


 * 1 = No inversion
 * 2 = Top 2 rows inverted
 * 3 = Top 3 rows inverted
 * 4 = Top 4 rows inverted
 * 5 = Top 5 rows inverted
 * 6 = Full field inversion, excluding Wild Card winners & cars failing to post a qualifying time

At 2-stage races, a full field inversion will take place for both stages. The pole sitter will still be credited with the pole and receive bonus points.

Schedule
The Lowe Dollar series schedule shrinks from 24 race weekends in 2017 to 16, but will continue to exhibit a variety of tracks, including short tracks, dirt tracks, road courses, and superspeedways. Sayre Speedway, ABQ Speedbowl, 70/77 Speedway, the Illinois State Fairgrounds, River Spirit Expo Center, and Chicago Motor Speedway return from the 2016 calendar. The season opener moves to San Antonio's Remembrance Field, joining the TM Master Cup Series at the combination football and motorsports stadium. The season finale has been christened the Smash Beer Oktoberfest Nationals, and will be hosted at a different track each year, beginning with the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway. The series will also visit Karl's Superstore Jonesboro, Nelson Ledges Road Course, Moncton Speedway, Provo Motorsports Park, and Roswell Speedway for the first time. Texas Motor Speedway, Berlin Raceway, and Talladega Superspeedway all make their returns to the Lowe Dollar Series calendar.