The skilled charioteer would corner as tightly to the meta as possible sometimes grazing or even crashing into it. This made for incredibly tight turns at either end of the spina. The ends of the spina were anchored by poles or obelisks called the meta. The racing circuit was open with a median strip called the spina dividing it. The race was normally seven laps around the stadium floor. There were usually 10-12 heats on a race day, with as many as 24 on major events. Crashes were frequent and could be quite spectacular.
Between start and finish pretty much anything was allowed. The first driver to complete the seven rounds was the winner- that was it. The Romans did use a staggered gate system, the carceres, to ensure the outside teams didn't suffer from unequal racing distance. and little which could be describe as rules. With the racing circuit being sand, there could be no lanes. A good driver could win enough to make less wealthy equestrians jealous.
CHARIOT RACES PRETTY DRIVERS
Most drivers were slaves, but there were also some professionals among them. And, quite naturally, there was a huge amount of betting surrounding the races. They were quite literally comparable to modern day sports stars. The larger teams, as many as six to ten horses, were very rarely used and mostly as a showcase of drivers skill rather than speed. A two-horse team was called a biga, a three-horse a triga and a four-horse team was a quadriga. The chariots were built purely for speed, very far removed from war chariots, and were drawn by teams of two, four or sometimes more horses. As befits Roman society, the best teams were those in which the common auriga was employed to best effect with their better, the funalis.
The team of horses was called auriga the best horse was the funalis, always the horse on the extreme left.