Pole position

In motorsport the pole position is the position at the inside of the front row at the start of a racing event. This position is typically given to the vehicle and driver with the best qualifying time in the trials before the race (the leader in the starting grid). This number-one qualifying driver is referred to as the pole sitter.

Grid position is typically determined by a qualifying session prior to the race, where race participants compete to ascend to the number 1 grid slot, the driver, pilot, or rider having recorded fastest qualification time awarded the advantage of the number 1 grid slot (i.e. pole-position) ahead of all other vehicles for the start of the race.

Historically, the fastest qualifier was not necessarily the designated pole-sitter. Different sanctioning bodies in motor sport employ different qualifying formats in designating who starts from pole position. Often, a starting grid is derived either by current rank in the championship, or based on finishing position of a previous race. In particularly important events where multiple qualification attempts spanned several days, the qualification result was segmented or staggered, by which session a driver qualified, or by which particular day a driver set his qualification time, only drivers having qualified on the initial day eligible for pole position. In a phenomena known as race rigging, where race promoters or sanctioning bodies invert their starting grid for the purpose of entertainment value (e.g., pack racing; to artificially stimulate passing), the slowest qualifier would be designated as pole-sitter.

Pole position (disambiguation)

Pole position is a racing term identifying a starting position at the front of the grid.

Pole position may also refer to:

Pole Position II

Pole Position II (Japanese: ポールポジションII, Hepburn: Pōru Pojishon Tsū) is the sequel to racing arcade game Pole Position, released by Namco in 1983. As with its predecessor, Namco licensed this game to Atari, Inc. for US manufacture and distribution, who also released a port of it as the pack-in game for their Atari 7800 Prosystem console.

Overview

The gameplay is the same as in original Pole Position, plus slightly improved graphics, a new opening theme song, and new tracks. In addition to the original Fuji racetrack, there are three others to choose from: Test (resembling Indianapolis Motor Speedway), Seaside (resembling the 1982 United States Grand Prix West circuit in Long Beach), and Suzuka. The cars have a different color scheme, the explosions now show debris, and there are several new billboards. The timer is displayed as "TIME" in the Japanese version (as it was in the original game), and it is displayed as "UNIT" in the American release.

Pole Position II has been re-released as part of various Namco Museum compilations, but the Fuji Speedway and Suzuka Circuit were renamed to Namco Circuit and Wonder Circuit (after Namco's Wonder series of Japanese theme parks) respectively. In Namco Museum Virtual Arcade, they were renamed to Blue and Orange respectively, even though neither track features the colors.