Handicap Race - Other Sports

Other Sports

Handicap races are also common in clubs which encourage all levels of participants, such as swimming or in cycling clubs. All participants are clocked in a time trial before the race, known as the handicap. In the race itself, the participants do not all start at "Go"; the starts are staggered, based on the handicaps. The slowest swimmer (or cyclist) starts first and the fastest starts last, making the end of the race (hopefully) close. An ideal handicap race (as in horse racing) is one in which all participants finish at the same time. The winner is the person who beats his or her own time.

Some motorsport events, especially in sports car racing, demand teams to stop the vehicle in the pitbox a fixed period of time depending on the drivers' classification, thus giving advantage to less skilled drivers. An example of a championship using this system is the International GT Open. The advantage of this system over ballast weight systems is that vehicles have the normal performance on track, so better drivers will be abled to recover time and overtake slower drivers.