By Jeff Williams, Rocky Mountain Region PCA
PCA Sim Racing Entry Class Manager

Updated 5/23/2025

This document covers how to enable Heat Racing on the Time Limits page and set up a custom heat race format. Once you have the hang of it, it will take longer to read this than to actually do it. Pitfalls to be aware of are marked “IMPORTANT!”. To enable heat racing and create a custom heat race format from “Create A Race,” follow these steps:

1. Click on the “Time Limit” icon

  • On the Create A Race page, this is the fourth from the left if using the Wizard, or the fourth from the top in the left sidebar if using “All Steps.”

2. Click on the “Enable Heat Racing” button

  • You will see “Event Type” change to “Heat Racing Format”

3. Click on the drop-down arrow next to “Heat Racing Format.”

  • You will see a list of pre-built formats you can select from and any custom formats you have created and saved.

4. Click on the “New Heat Racing Format” option, bottom of the page

  • This will open a “New Heat Format” dialogue page with six tabs across the top to create a custom heat format.
  • This article is written from the perspective of setting up a custom heat format, keeping all drivers together in an open practice, then sole qualifying, then a single heat race including all drivers together, who all advance to a short consolation race with an inverted grid, who all advance to a feature race. You can create many other different heat format variations.
  • IMPORTANT! Do not click the “Back” button next to the “Save Format” button. If you do, you are backed out of the “New Heat Format” page, losing all your work to that point. Click on one of the six tabs to navigate this page.

5. Session Info Tab

  • Name of Format: Suggest it be descriptive to make selecting it from the list later easier. For example: “50’P 3LQ 5LH 5LC(invert) 30’F” representing 50-minute practice, 3 lap qualifier, 5 lap heat, 5 lap consolation (inverted), 30-minute feature race. Putting your initials at the front also helps to find the format later.
  • Description: Leave blank or provide a description. I copy the name of my format into here.
  • Max Entrants:  IMPORTANT! Slide this all the way to the right. This value gets used in multiple places on the succeeding tabs. Then click Next.

6. Practice Tab

  • Practice Type: Select “Open” or “Lone”.
  • Session Length: Enter the desired duration. This is just for the practice portion of the session. For now, don’t worry about the “maximum estimated duration” shown at the bottom of the page. Then click Next.

7. Qualifying Tab

  • Qualifying Style: Select “None”, “Lone”, or “Open”. Selecting “None” results in no qualifying session, and the grid for the heat race is established from practice times. Selecting “Lone” or “Open” reveals the following options:
  • Number of Entrants advancing to feature race directly: IMPORTANT! Make sure this is set to “0” so all drivers go to the heat race. If a value other than “0” is entered, that number of drivers will skip qualifying, the heat, and the consolation race and only get to do the feature race.
  • Session Length (minutes) and Session Laps: Usually, for PCA Sim Racing, we set qualifying to be a certain number of laps, usually 2 or 3. If you want the number of laps to control how long qualifying lasts, set “Session Laps” at the desired number, i.e., 3, then set “Session Length” for a duration longer than the number of qualifying laps should take, i.e., 10 minutes. iRacing ends qualifying based on which event occurs first. Usually safe to set at 3 laps & 8 minutes (unless it’s the Nordschliefe). You do not want the “Session Length” (minutes) to be too long or too short. Do the math, allowing time for a warmup lap and the selected number of qualifying pace hot laps, then add a minute or two buffer.
  • Number of Entrants advancing to the main from qualifying: IMPORTANT! Make sure this is set to “0” so all qualifying drivers to go to the heat race. If a value other than “0” is entered, that number of drivers will skip the heat and consolation races and only get to do the feature race.
  • Caution Type: This can be left at the default “disabled”.
  • Scoring: We usually don’t care about this. Leaving the default “Best Lap” is fine.
  • Qualifying Scores Points: Again, we usually don’t care about this. Leaving this checked as “off” (black) is fine.

8. Heat Races Tab

  • Max Field Size: IMPORTANT! Slide this all the way to the right so the number is the same as the maximum entrants value set in the “Session Info” tab. This causes all drivers to be together in a single heat. If it is set for less than the field is split into separate concurrently running heats.
  • Session Length (minutes) and Session Laps: Same concept as the “Qualify” tab. iRacing ends the session based on what occurs first. If you want time to control, set the number of minutes and laps the same, since there generally is no track with a lap time of less than a minute. If you want laps to control, do the math to set the time to be longer than it will take to complete the number of laps.
  • Number of Entrants advancing to the main from each heat: IMPORTANT! Make sure this is set to “0” so all qualifying drivers to go to the consolation race. If a value other than “0” is entered, that number of drivers will skip the consolation race and only get to do the feature race.
  • Caution Type: This can be left at the default “disabled”.
  • Positions to Invert: This applies to the finishing positions from the prior tab, in this case, qualifying. Choose from the drop-down arrow options of None, All, or any number of positions.
  • Heat Races Scores Points: We usually don’t care about this. Set this to “off” (black).

9. Consolation Tab

  • IMPORTANT! First, go to the “Feature Race” tab and slide the Max field size slider all the way to the right so the number is the same as the “Max Entrants” value set in the “Session Info” tab. If you don’t do this, then the consolation race cannot be set up with all drivers to be together in a single consolation race. If it is set for less than, the field is split into separate concurrently running consolation races.
  • Return to the “Consolation” tab.
  • Consolation Races: IMPORTANT! Select “One round, separate races” from the drop-down arrow options.
  • Max Field Size (first race): Slide the “Max Field Size” slider all the way to the right so the number is the same as the “Max Entrants value set in the “Session Info tab. This keeps all drivers together in a single consolation race.
  • Session Length (minutes) and Session Laps: Same concept as the “Qualify” and “Heat Races” tabs.
  • Positions to Invert: Same as before. This applies to the finishing positions from the prior tab, in this case, the heat race.
  • Always Run Consolation Races: IMPORTANT! Set this to be “on” (green).
  • Consolation Races Scores Points: We usually don’t care about this. Set this to “off” (black).

10. Feature Race Tab

  • Max field Size: Per the step above, the slider should already be all the way to the right.
  • Warmup Session Length: Self-explanatory. Allows for a bio-break. Set to 0 to have no warmup.
  • Session Length (minutes) and Session Laps: Same concept as above.
  • Positions to Invert: Same as before. This applies to the finishing positions from the prior tab, in this case, the consolation race.

11. Final Steps

  • The bar graph should look like the graphic below. If the blue bars are different lengths, or you are seeing multiple heats or consolations, it means settings for max entrants, max fields, and/or drivers advancing to feature are not set correctly. Note, you may also have a “Warmup” bar if you set a time for it.

setting-up-heat-races

  • Look at the maximum estimated duration at the bottom of the page. If you are trying to constrain or expand this to a certain duration, go into the various tabs and adjust durations and/or the number of session laps to get to the desired duration. iRacing will charge in full hour chunks.
  • Click on “Save Format”. The custom format you just created will now be in the Heat Race Formats available from the drop-down where you enabled heat racing.
  • To edit an existing heat race format (or the one you just created and saved): Select the format from the drop-down arrow list, then click on the gear icon showing to the right of the heat format name. This takes you back to the “New Heat Format” dialogue page with six tabs across the top. Use these to navigate to where you want to make changes, then click “Save Format” when done. This overwrites your previous settings.
  • To use an existing heat race format as the basis for a new format: Select the format from the drop-down arrow list, then click on the gear icon showing to the right of the heat format name. Change the name of the format in the “Session Info tab and click “Save Format”. Then make edits and save as per above.