Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville

Quick Start Guide

System requirements:

- Please be sure that your computer matches or exceeds the system requirements displayed on the box.

Installing:

- Place the Sprint Cars: The Road to Knoxville into your CD-ROM Drive. If Autorun is enabled, the program will start automatically. Click on Install then follow the on-screen instructions.
- If Autorun is disabled, click on Start, Run, then in the Open line type D:\Launch.exe (where D: is the letter of your CD-ROM drive) and click OK. Click on Install then follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: For Windows XP please be sure you have administrator rights to install and play the game.

Direct X® 9.0

During installation Sprint Cars: The Road to Knoxville, you will be prompted to install DirectX® 9.0. If you do not already have DirectX 9.0 installed follow the on-screen prompts to complete the DirectX installation.

We strongly recommend that you obtain the latest DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers for your video and sound cards. Using drivers designed for an older version of DirectX can have unpredictable results. Updated drivers are typically available at no charge through your hardware manufacturer’s website.

For additional information on DirectX 9.0 please visit www.microsoft.com/directx.

Starting:

- Double click the Sprint Cars: The Road to Knoxville icon found on the Desktop, or…

- Click on Start, Programs, Sprint Cars: The Road to Knoxville and Sprint Cars: The Road to Knoxville icon.

Controls

Default Configuration

Left arrow key | Steer Left
Right arrow Key | Steer Right
Up Arrow Key | Accelerate
Down Arrow Key | Brake
Space | Change View
[ | Glance Left
] | Glance Right
F8 | Glance Back
Quote “ apostrophe ’ key | Shift up
? (question) / (forward slash) | Shift Down

Introduction

Welcome to the world of Sprint Car Road to Knoxville games — the total Sprint Car, ¾ Midget and Open Wheeled Modified racing experience. Race in six gameplay modes including an extensive multi season career mode. Play as a driver or as a team owner or both it’s up to you how you want to earn your prestige and money.

Sprint Car Road to Knoxville offers you over 20 tracks from across the U.S including famous tracks such as Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Dodge City Raceway Park, and Williams Grove Speedway. Your opponents will be tough but you can gain extra speed off of them by drafting. Be careful though, if you’re too aggressive you’ll make enemies and it won’t be easy to get around the track with a vengeful opponent resisting your attempts at drafting or blocking your race line.

How to Drive in the Dirt

When you race on a dirt track you’ll notice that it’s much different that racing on a paved track. In dirt racing you actually want to slide around the corners. This is known as a powerslide. The trick is to maintain control as you slide through the turns. Using the brake and the gas while you turn around the corners will allow you to control the slide. Practice racing in Rookie mode to get a feel for how to turn your car on several tracks. Short tracks, banked tracks and longer tracks offer different challenges. Learn to master each track to become a well rounded driver.

Quick Start Guide

The quickest way to get straight into the action in Sprint Car Road to Knoxville ™ is to select Arcade mode and Single Race. Before you fire up your engine for the first time however you should take a look at the Tutorial found in Arcade mode. The Tutorial offers a great overview of drafting, and mastering the powerslide turn. To access the Tutorial select Arcade from the Main Menu and Tutorial. Additional information about each of the menus is available in the Race section of this manual.

Once you’ve finished with the tutorial it’s time to race. To start a single event race select Arcade and Single Race from the Main Menu. If you just want to practice select Arcade and Practice. Next, choose the level of difficulty class from the Difficulty menu. From the Car Select menu choose the car class, model and skin you want. Select your track from the Track Select menu. In a Single Race you can also select the Race Length and Race Format from this menu, in Practice mode just the Time of Day can be selected. Choose your Control Setup. At the Race Format screen you can start your race, tune your car or skip a race. Select Race when you’re ready to get behind the wheel.

Goals

There are many different goals in Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville, depending on the mode of play you have chosen.

In Arcade mode you have several different race types. In Single Race you can race any car class on any track. This mode is good for testing different tuning set ups and racing techniques as well as understanding the flow of a event from the qualifying round all the way through the A Main. You can pick your track and time of day to create racing conditions you will encounter in Career mode.

In the Championship mode the goal is to be the top point’s leader after 15 events. In this mode you can race any car class. The Championship mode is a good way to become familiar with the flow of a season

When you select Multiplayer from the Arcade menu you will be racing against another player in an event format race including standard qualifying, heat and main races. The goal here is to beat the other player.

Time Trial mode allows players to race on the track of their choice, trying to achieve the best lap time. Your best time is recorded in a code, a string of letters and numbers that you can use to compare your time with other people across the world. Take your code to the www.sprintcarsthegame.com and see how you compare to other drivers.

In Career mode, you earn points by racing well. You don’t necessarily have to win every race to have a successful career but the better you do the more season points you receive. If you have the most points at the end of a season you win that season. You receive cash awards for winning the qualifying round, heats and main events.

Main Menu

Once the introductory movies are complete, you’ll find yourself at the Main Menu. Here you can choose from the following:

Arcade

Choose Single Race, Championship, Multiplayer, Time Trial, Practice or Tutorial. See the Arcade section of this manual for additional information about Arcade mode.

Single Race – Enter into a single event

Championship – A season of events in the car class of your choice

Multiplayer – Play against a friend in a single event

Time Trial – Set records on any track and compare your times to others

Practice – Drive around any track solo

Tutorial – Learn advanced driving techniques

Career

Choose Continue or New. See the Career section of this manual for additional inforamtion about Career mode.

Continue – Pick up where you left off in a saved career

New – Start a new career

Hall of Fame

Review Track, Season, and Career Records as well as the game credits.

Options

Modify game options from this menu. See the Options section of this manual for additional information about the Options menu.

Arcade

Select from any of the three car classes and race in a Quick Race, Single Event, Career or Vs. Mode race.

Rookie, Veteran or Pro?

It is important to know the differences between Rookie, Veteran and Pro modes before you race for the first time.

Rookie difficulty is for beginners. In Rookie mode your top speed and acceleration is low but your handling high and your opponents are less skilled. This means that you run a bit slower than the other difficulty settings but you have more control when you powerslide or turn your car. Veteran difficulty is for more experienced driver. Speed and acceleration is increased but you’ll need to have a good handle on the powerslide as your handling and opponents will make it more challenging. Pro difficulty is for seasoned professional drivers. In this mode you have top speed and acceleration but so do your opponents. All of this power also makes turning tougher to master.

Car Selection

Once you’ve selected the level of difficulty you can select your car class. There are three car classes available to you at the beginning of the game but you can unlock several additional recreational car classes by winning events in Career and Arcade modes.

The three car classes availble to you at the beginning of the game are Sprint Car, Open Wheeled Modified, and ¾ Midget. Each of these car classes offers additional customization by selecting the car Model and Skin. Each car Model determines the acceleration (0-60 time), maximum speed, engine size and horsepower.

Track Selection

In Single Race, Multiplayer, Time Trial and Practice modes you can select from the available tracks when you start the game. Additional tracks can be unlocked by winning events in Career and Arcade modes.

Season Schedule

1. Super Motoplex
2. Huset’s Speedway
3. Eldora Speedway
4. Ash Hollows Speedway
5. Dosrada Raceway
6. Pickenback Raceway
7. Turnpike 42
8. Williams Grove Speedway
9. Knoxville Speedway
10. Brite Peak Speedway
11. Tri State Fairgrounds
12. Sea-Belle Speedway Park
13. Dodge City Raceway
14. Steer Plains Speedway
15. Moose Head Speedway

In each of these track you can set the Race Length and Race Format. The Race Length determines how many laps you will race from short to long. Race Format offers two options, Brief and Full. A brief Race Format means you will only race in the qualifying and A Main races. A full race Format means you race in a standard race format with practic, qualifying, heat and main events.

Control Setup

The Control Setup menu allows you to determine which controller you would like to use to drive, or if you would just like to simulate the race or watch the computer AI race for you. You may also tune your vehicle before the race from this menu.

Car Tuning

The Tuning Menu allows you to modify your vehicle setup in order to squeeze out the most performance for a given track. If you are unsure about how to tune your car you can select Auto Tune. Auto Tune will give you a basic setup but this isn’t necessarily the optimal tune for the track. You can save your tune for a given track and car class once you have made your changes.

As you drive around the track you may notice that front of the car will either head to the wall or the back end of your car will slide higher while you’re turn than you want. When the front end tends to want to hit the wall that means your car is too tight. When the backend slides out too far that means the car is too loose. There are simple tuning adjustments you can make to help improve your handling. Read through the tuning options to determine what adjustments you should make depending on your situation.

When you practice adjust your tuning until you are comfortable driving the car then start to push it to increase your speed.

Stagger

Adjusting the Stagger of your car changes the circumference and width of the car’s right rear wheel in relation to the left rear wheel. By increasing the size of the right rear tire you increase the grip on the track and make the car turn left. If you decrease the size of the right rear tire your speed and acceleration increases but you lose track grip. On flater tracks a larger stagger can be helpful on higher banked tracks a shorter stagger is often beneficial. If you find that the car tends to be loose when you step on the gas lower the stagger.

Spacing

Changing the Spacing adjusts the distance of the right rear wheel from the chassis of the car. This adjustes the distance between the body of the car and the inside wall of the right rear tire in order to imporve the turning ability on a flater track. A larger spacing increases the car’s sability but decreases your top speed slightly on straightaways. If you find the car is loose when entering a corner increase you stagger

Travel

Travel determines the range of movement of the wheel when it extends away from the car. Modifying the travel will change how high the car sits up and where the center of gravity is located. By increasing the front travel you put more weight on the rear of the car which is optimal on tracks with less traction. On tracks with more grip or higher banking in the turns it is best to lower the travel to increase the cars stability.

Shocks

This is what determines body role and pressure applied to the tires in the turns and acceleration on the straight away

Each of wheels has their own shock adjustment for compression and rebound rates.

Soft: Soft compression and rebound

Medium: medium compression and rebound

Hard: hard compression and hard rebound

The harder the shocks the less bounce and give. For flatter tracks you need the shocks on the right side to give a bit more, this will shift the weight of the car on to the side tires to increase traction in the turns. If you find the car tends to do a 4 whell drift which means the whole car slides up track in a turn try to decrease the shock stiffness on the right side.

Spring

The Spring changes the way the car responds to the bumps on trhe track. Modifying this setting also determines body role and pressure applied to the tires in the turns and acceleration on the straight away. A higher Spring will help make the car sit flatter during a sharp turn, but will also make it bounce more easily on bumpy tracks. A lower Spring setting make the car travel more smoothly over bumpy track surfaces but means more bounce and less traction. If you find that the shock changes have not helped run softer spring with a harder shock.

Gears

The Gears setting determines the speed and engine braking of your car. The lower the number the higher the speed and the less engine braking in the corner. The higher the number the lower the speed but the more engine braking you receive. You want to optimize your settings so as the car reaches the turn point the engine RPM should be just at red line stage. If you find that you are spinning out during accerlation try lowering the gear number.

Weight

Weight distribution affects the way the car handles while turning. Putting more weight on the rear increases the your acceleration but makes steering more challenging when turning. More weight on the right side of the car makes the car want to turn right.

On a flater track you want to put a bit more weight on the right and front of the car. This will allow the car to roll toward the right rear when turning. A track with more traction should have less weight on the right rear. If you find that you are loose and other adjustments haven’t help try to small weight changes. Flater tracks try more right weight and higher banked tracks try decreasing the weights.

Tire Pressure

Tire pressure adjustments are a trade off between traction and speed. The lower air pressure the better the traction but the increase in tire wear. On track with higher banking turns you can run the car with higher pressure on the right rear tire. On a flatter track less tire pressure on the right rear tire helps power through the turns.

Wing Adjust

The wing on a sprint car helps keep the car on the track at high speed. The Wing Angle determines how much down force is exerted on the car. The steeper the wings angle the more down force. While you’re racing you can adjust the wing position up or down.

When tuning the Wing Position should start out closer to the front position at the beginning of the event and move back during the day. This movement will help provide more down force on the rear wheels as the track becomes drier.

RACING

Race Screens

Race Rules

A race event is a series of stages throughout the day. Races begin in the late afternoon and end in the late evening. The track will dry out during the day as more races are run. This makes the racing conditions change for nearly each race so you will have to make adjustments to your race line, or where you race on the track throughout the day.

Practice

Get to know the track in the Practice session. This is where you modify your setup to maximize performance.

Qualifying

At the qualifying sessions you get one warm-up lap to achieve top speed and two timed laps to determine your spot in the heat (or main race in a short format race). The fastest qualifying car gets a cash bonus in Career mode.

Heats

The two heat races each include twelve cars. You must finish in the top six cars in your heat to make the A Main. Finishing seventh or below means you have to race in the B Main for a second chance at making the big show. Winning either heat means a cash bonus for the team in Career mode.

B Main

In the B Main there are 12 drivers who are placed in order of their qualifying times. This is a second chance for those who did not place in the top six of their heat. Finishing 5th place are lower will award you prize money but that’s the end of the event. Those that place in the top four don’t win any cash but go on to the A Main, giving them a chance at the big money.

A Main

This is the main race for the evening. To get this far you have to be either one of the top six finishers from each of the two heats or the top four finishers from the B Main. The top drivers from heat one take the first six spots, the second six spots are taken by the heat two drivers, with the remaining four spots from the B Main filling in the last positions.

Race Flags

The Rce Flags are displayed on the Race Screen in the lower left hand corner. Each flag can have several meanings depending on the race situation.

Green Flag

The green flag is shown at the start of the race and at a restart of the race to indicate the race is underway and racing conditions are normal.

Green and White Flag (crossed flags)

This flag is shown when you reach the halfway point in the race. You have completed half of the laps of the race.

White Flag

The white flag is shown to indicate that only one lap remains before the race ends. You will also see the white flag when an opponent has won the race. This means that you will only complete the current lap even if it isn’t your last lap in the race.

Yellow Flag

A yellow flag indicates that a car has been damaged enough that it is unable to complete the race and is in a dangerous position on the track in relation to other cars. A yellow flag is also displayed when a car stalls and has to be restarted.

In either situation the screen will fad black and the race will continue at the start line. The damaged vehicle will be removed from the track and all cars will be in the positions they were in when the flag was displayed.

Black Flag

The Black Flag is the pently flag. When you try to cut a corner too closely, or end up off of the racing surface for an extended period of time you will see a black flag. When you are shown a black flag you should go back to the spot where you exited the track or your current lap will not count.

A black flag is also shown if you drive in the wrong direction around the track. This flag will be removed if you turn around and go in the correct direction, returning to the point where you began travelling the wrong way.

You will also be shown a black flag when your car is completely undrivable due to extensive damage.

Checkered Flag

The checkered flag is displayed at the end of the final lap of a race to notify all drivers that the race is over.

Career Mode

If you’re looking for a deeper experience, enter Career mode and make your way up through the ranks to become a dirt track champion. Start your career with $5,000 to buy a ¾ Midget and hire a driver. Earn enough money in a season to upgrade your car, buy a new car and hire another driver. Career mode offers you the chance to test your racing skill, stamina, and patience over seasons, challenging not only your racing ability but also your money management skills. Striking a balance by purchasing and upgrading the right cars, hiring the right drivers, having enough cash to repair car damage, and picking the right sponsorship package can be the test of a true racing champion.

Starting A Career

The first step to beginning your career as a professional driver is to create a team and manager. Using the arrow keys or mouse highlight Career and Select New from the Main Menu and press the Enter or click on it . The New Career screen should be displayed. Press the X Key to create a random Team name or the Z the key to Edit the name and create your own. Once you’ve created both a Team and Manager name press the Enter key to begin your career.

When you begin a new career you must purchase a car, hire a driver and pick an event to race. To get started quickly simple select Manage Cars from the Manage Career menu, next select Buy Car. You start the game with enough for a ¾ Midget. Select the Model and Skin of the car you would like to purchase and press the Enter to purchase your new car.

Once you purchased a car you need to hire a driver. Go back to the Manage Career menu and select Manage Team. To hire or create a driver press the click in an empty Drivers spot. From the Hire Driver menu you can select Create Driver to make your own driver or choose one of the available drivers.

Now you must assign your new driver to your new car. You can do this from the Manage Team menu. To the right of the drivers name are several icons. Highlight the icon that looks like a car and press the Enter Key. This will reveal the Assign Driver menu. Select the car that you would like the driver to use and press the Enter key to assign them to that car.

The next step is to select an event to race in. To choose a race select Manage Season from the Manage Career menu. You will then be presented with the Season menu. Select Season Schedule from this menu to reveal the available races in the season for all of the car classes that you own. In this case you will be only shown the available ¾ midget races with all other events marked with a red x-mark. Each event has a Series description; Amateur, Semi-Pro, and Pro. The Amateur series is the easiest and the Pro is the most challenging but potentially the most financially rewarding. Select an event by pressing the Enter key. A green check-mark will appear next to the event.

Once you have selected an event you can start racing by pressing the Z key from anywhere within the Manage Career menu or click on Enter Next Event from the Season menu.

Manage Your Career

Your team’s details appear on the Manage Career screen, they include Sessions Duration, Career Duration, Career Earnings, Cash Spent, Cars Owned, Seasons Completed, Series Wins, Midget Wins, Modified Wins, Sprint Car Wins and Feature Wins.

The Manage Career menu is accessible between race events and allows the player to buy, sell, and upgrade cars, hire and fire drivers, sign sponsors, select events to race, review their standings and save their current race information.

To buy, sell or upgrade your car select Manage Cars from the Manage Career menu. You can hire, fire and assign drivers to cars you own by selecting Manage Team. To select a race event, see your point standings or end your season select Manage Season. Review your sponsor offers and current sponsor in the Manager Sponsors menu. To save a career press the X key or click on Save.

Sponsorship

Sponsors are businesses that offer you money to fund your racing career in exchange for placing their logo on your car when you race. You begin your career without a s sponsor. If you’re successful, multiple sponsors may approach you. Choosing the right offer can make a big difference in a successful career.

A typical contract will last between 1 and 5 events, paid at the end of each event. Sponsors pay bonuses if the player wins an event. Win enough races and you’ll be recognized by companies with deeper sponsorship pockets.

Repairs

It’s likely you will damage your car enough so that it will need to be repaired. Repairs are necessary in order to get your car back into working condition. If you’ve damaged your car during the race a list of the damaged items and the cost to repair them will be available after the race. To see the list select Repair from the Race Format menu.

While in an event you only have a limited time to make repairs. This means that you can only repair a portion of any damage you may have incurred. Between events you have as much time as you need to make repairs and you can fully repair your car once you’ve completed an event. You can repair your car between events by selecting Manage Cars from the Manage Career menu, highlight the car you would like to repair. The wrench icon denotes where you access the repair menu. Click on box with the wrench icon to make repairs to that vehicle.

The Repair Car menu displays each of the car parts in the first column, the percentage damage in the second column and the cost to completely repair that part in the third column. To fix a particular part click on it or click on Repair All Items .

Upgrades

You can upgrade any of your cars with the money you earn in Career mode. There are a number of enhancements that you can make depending on the car class. To access the Upgrade menu select Manage Cars from the Manage Career menu, highlight the car that you would like to upgrade. The arrow pointing to the right indicates the upgrade menu. Click on the box next to the item and then click on Purchase to upgrade that vehicle.

Replays

When the race is complete, and race results menu appears, you can choose to replay the race by pressing the Z key.

Replay Controls

X Key | Menu Display ON/OFF
Z Key | Change Car
Space Bar | Change Camera View
P Key | Toggle Pause/Play
Escape Key | Exit

Options

To access the Options menu highlight Options from the Main Menu and press the Enter Key. There are several sub menus available to you from within the Options menu; Race, HUD, Control Layout, Sound Options, Video Options, Graphics Effects Options and Save/Load Options.

Race Options

Vibration: Select the strength of the controller vibration. [ Strong / Weak / Off ]

Damage: Set the level of damage. [ Simulation / Arcade / Off ]

Yellow Flags Arcade: You can turn these on or off in Arcade mode. [ On / Off ]

Yellow Flags Career: You can turn these on or off in Career mode. [ On / Off ]

Tear-Offs: Turn these on or off. [On / Off ]

Multiplayer Catch-up: This is a speed and handling boost for the player that is behind in a multiplayer race until he approaches the first player. This only applies to Arcade mode. [ On / Off ]

HUD Options

Times:Turn the times portion of the HUD on or off. [ On / Off ]

Lap and Position: Turn the lap and positions on or off. [ On / Off ]

Tacho, Oil, Water and Gear Information: Turn these HUD objects on or off [ On / Off ]

Damage: Turn the damage icon on or off [ On / Off ]

Drafting Information: Turn this meter on or off [ On / Off ]

Control Layouts

Keybaord Options Player 1: Set the control layout for player 1.

Keyboard Options Player 2: Set the control layout for player 2.

Wheel Options – Player 1

Wheel Options – Player 2

Sound Options

Vehicle Sound: Adjust the vehicle volume.

Crowd Sound: Adjust the crowd volume.

Commentary: Adjust the volume of the announcer.

Interface Sound: Adjust the menu interface volume.

Interface Music: Adjust the volume of the interface music.

Speakers: Optimize the setting for your speaker system [ Mono / Stereo / Surround Sound ]

Video Options

Color Depth: 16 bit or 32 bit

Resolution: 640 by 400 to 2048 by 1536

Brightness: 0 to 9

Filtering: Bi- Linear/ Tri Linear / Anisotropic

Sync to Refresh: On / off

Graphics Effects Options

Track Specular: On/off

Enviroment Mapping: Off/ Low /High

Shadows: Low/ Medium/ High

Texture Quality: Low / Medium /High

Particles: Off / Low / Medium / High

Frame Blur: Off / On

Save / Load Options

Autosave: Turn the autosave feature on or off [On / Off]

Save Options: Save the current option settings

Load Options: Load option settings

CREDITS

DEVELOPMENT

Big Ant Studios

[Big Ant Logo]

www.BigAnt.com

Executive Producer

Ross Symons

Lead Programmer

Warren Spence

Lead Artist

Dylan Bray

Programmers

Jarrod Moldrich

Russell Black

Toan Huynh

Artists

Rita Cavanagh

Chris Concepcion

Andrew Gillard

Daniel Hoult

Ben Jackson

Brooke Luder

Ben Millwood

Lead Tester

Jared Lambert

Game Testers

Georgia Patton

Daniel Riddle

Antony Symons

Music and Sound Design

www.TimMcMillan.com.au

Special Thanks

Frank Colautti

Adam Lancman (Rest in Peace)

Scott Pederick

Evelyn Richardson

Jane Symons (Rest in Peace)

Natalie Symons

Dale Trezise

Neil Trezise

FMOD Sound and Music System

©1994-2006 Firelight Technologies

PUBLISHING

THQ

[THQ logo]

Front Office

Doug Clemmer

Alison Locke

Scott Zerby

Production

Peter Armstrong

Brian Ewoldt

Cindy Hudson

Michael Cucchiarella

Packaging

John Gamades

Jessica Klaustermeier

Michael Tschimperle

Michael McDonough

Marketing

Nicole Yolitz Armstrong

Dawn Nelson Helle

Director, Quality Assurance

James Robrahn

Testers

Greg Stewart

Michelle Holida

Jamal Kahn

Justin Nissen

Announcer

Christopher Sabat, OkraTron 5000, Inc.

Video Trailer

Mediajuice

Special Thanks

Mike Mathis

Tony Stewart

Brett Frood

Mike Mathis

J.D. Kramer

Logitech

Ron Capps

Andrea Gohman

Chris Amundson

Gina Lehmann

Jan Topel

Julianne Turk

Justin Nissen

Kari Morschen

Karen Schultz

Michelle Schroeder

Sam Anderson

Tony Schumacher