PORT ROYAL, Pa. — The fourth-largest paying sprint car race in the world, the Tuscarora 50, has arrived.
Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway is set to host its three-day crown jewel event starting Thursday with two nights of preliminary action. It all climaxes with Saturday’s $54,000-to-win finale.
The All Star Circuit of Champions sanctions the event for the third year in a row and will utilize its traditional format on Thursday and Friday.
Saturday’s program, however, utilizes a one-off format:
Time trials
The field, no matter the size, will split into two flights of qualifying: two laps, two cars at a time, and an invert of four in the eight-lap heats.
Heats and redraw
A field size of 47 cars or less will use four heats.​ The top four qualify for the main event and the top two go to the redraw.
Anything more will utilize six heat races. The top three qualify and the winners go to the redraw.
Feature lineup
In the six-heat format, the fastest time trial cars from each flight that failed to make the redraw will start seventh and eighth, respectively.
Starting positions nine through 18 will be filled by remaining heat race transfers.
In the four-heat format, starting positions nine through 16 will be filled by heat race transfers. Additionally, positions 17 and 18 will be filled by the fastest time trial cars yet to qualify.
If the winners from Thursday and/or Friday have yet to qualify, they’ll start 19th and/or 20th in both formats and do not need to run the B Main.
B Main
The front row will line up the fastest time trial cars from each flight yet to qualify.
The remainder of the B Main will line up by heat-race finish.
Four to six cars will qualify, depending if the Thursday and/or Friday winners need to fall back on guaranteed starting spots 19th and/or 20th, to set the 50-lap, 24-car main event.
Lucas Wolfe, the winner of the 2020 non-qualifier race, will start 25th if he fails to qualify.