"The Big Easy - Great Event! (almost!)

joedobner · **Joined:** Thu Apr 01, 2004 3:15 pm **Posts:** 85

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Me, too. As the raw sheets guy, the hold-up during the second heat was my fault, resulting in downtime and a couple re-runs. I either didn't record one car at the start (and didn't figure it out until several additional cars had finished) or a false start trigger occurred.

A couple 'issues' definitely contributed to this situation:

1. During that time, we had no 'buffer' - we were waiting for cars to come from grid to the start line, so each car was getting launched immediately as it came up from grid. Any distraction in the bus could easily result in missing a car coming up to start. AFAIK, this has never been an issue before (we've consistently kept several cars queued up at the start and/or announced car numbers at the start line), and I understood from the radio communications that the grid worker was having trouble seeing the start area. I guess either some big vehicle was parked in the way during heat 2 or that particular grid worker just needs some glasses.

I'm pretty sure it was a false start trigger. ES 4 knocked over one of the start cones, and when I picked it back up and reset it I probably tripped the start beam. The next few cars after that had to be re-run.

I believe that was during the time we 'ran out of cars' that I mentioned earlier. It happened shortly after I relieved the second heat worker, so the grid worker might also have just started and hadn't gotten into the swing of things yet.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Keith Quistorff wrote:

2. The bus was so far from the finish that there was no way to confirm visually whether each car crossing the finish line was the one the time was being recorded for. If one car is missed at the start, or one doesn't physically break the finish beam, or an extra start or finish signal is captured, we're suddenly one car off without knowing it. This has been a problem in the past, several times since we started taking advantage of the new timing system's additional range, and I've complained about it enough. Nonetheless, anytime we locate the finish too far to see from the bus, the risk of a single, simple error causing downstream errors is increased significantly. Again, I'd sure prefer having the start far from the bus over the finish far from the bus. (Rant off)

No need to rant -- I'm finally coming around. I do now think that a remote start does cause fewer problems than remote finish.

Unfortunately we couldn't have done that exact course w/ a remote start, but Im sure we can make it work next time!

Patrice Bousquet · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:16 am

A solution to the remote finish might be to put 1 worker a the finish calling on the radio the finishing car.
Or if you want to go high tech a wireless video camera.

Patrice

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:01 am

Patrice Bousquet wrote:

A solution to the remote finish might be to put 1 worker a the finish calling on the radio the finishing car.
Or if you want to go high tech a wireless video camera.

Patrice

Heck, forget that. We could just put wireless timer transmitters on each car, that way we could share the expense with the Time Trails group!!! Score!!! No moire flase starts then. We just have to keep switching them from car to car

- dow

steve remchak · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:17 pm

swithing them? make everyone buy one. :twisted:

just kidding.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:21 pm

Brian Herring wrote:

We could just put wireless timer transmitters on each car, that way we could share the expense with the Time Trails group!!! Score!!! No moire flase starts then.

Or everyone could add $300.00 to their AX budgets get their own transponders! :roll:

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:10 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

Brian Herring wrote:

We could just put wireless timer transmitters on each car, that way we could share the expense with the Time Trails group!!! Score!!! No moire flase starts then.

Or everyone could add $300.00 to their AX budgets get their own transponders! :roll:

Sweet! Great suggestion Vincent!

On an unrelated note, I hear that sarcasm has a hard time being relayed over the internet!

- dow

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Not if you use the words 'teh' and '11!!1!!'.

Sarcasm not caught upon teh intarweb? OMGLOLWTFBBQ!!!11!!1!one

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:28 pm

Brian Herring wrote:

On an unrelated note, I hear that sarcasm has a hard time being relayed over the internet!

I got your sarcasm. Even us folks from down east get that along with sunlight pumped in. I'm pointing out that those bad boys are expensive for those who haven't priced one. Of course it will get me more track time in '06 so I'll have one too.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:36 pm

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Todd Breakey wrote:

I want to thank EVERYONE for their patience with all the "Hold Starts"

A couple 'issues' definitely contributed to this situation:

1. During that time, we had no 'buffer' - we were waiting for cars to come from grid to the start line, so each car was getting launched immediately as it came up from grid. Any distraction in the bus could easily result in missing a car coming up to start. AFAIK, this has never been an issue before (we've consistently kept several cars queued up at the start and/or announced car numbers at the start line), and I understood from the radio communications that the grid worker was having trouble seeing the start area. I guess either some big vehicle was parked in the way during heat 2 or that particular grid worker just needs some glasses.

(Rant off)

That grid worker has glasses thank you very much! It was impossible to see the start or the que to start from the far end of the grid. Partially because there were some people paddocked and parked by the "wrecks", and partially because the bus blocked the start line from view. Only when I got within 10 cars of the close end of grid could I see the que, if no one was parked there. I tried to send a car from grid everytime a car came around the pivot cone, but then rerun cars were getting back in line confusing the issue. It took a couple moments to rectify the situation because there were not 5 or 6 drivers ready to head for the start without notice and it took some time for them to drive that far and make sure they didn't cross in front of a returning car. The fact that we were using two lanes for each grid also confused many and I was answering a lot of "where should I park" and "how many runs do I get" questions and directing traffic as well as sending cars. I pretty much know how to run grid, so I did the best I could under the conditions. Oh, and I was told by the heat one grid person that I needed to check off each car on the entry list sheet as I sent them to the line, and since it was heat two, the classes were scattered through 3 or 4 pages. The entry list's formatting does not use the same class designations as on the cars and the class headings are not set off from the entries so it took extra time to even find the right class especially in the street tire classes.
Isn't there a way to change the class headings to letters that match what we use on the cars(and make bold or offset to the left or blank line above or???)? It would have been much easier to recognize
STU
than "street touring unlimited (street tire)"

Tonya Mauldin · **Posted:** Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:30 am

Chuck Frank wrote:

Isn't there a way to change the class headings to letters that match what we use on the cars(and make bold or offset to the left or blank line above or???)? It would have been much easier to recognize
STU
than "street touring unlimited (street tire)"

No there isn't a way to change this. Might I suggest getting the list prior to the event starting (I print these lists by at least 9:45) and writing on the papers the designations that you recognize.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 3:14 pm

That's what I finally did, I hadn't worked grid in a while, so it was just something that took a few minutes extra. If I work grid again, I'll be better prepared.

David Teague · **Posted:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 3:23 pm

I have a Question, why do why even give these sheets to grid? I of course gave it to the first grid worker in the morning because I knew that is what I was supposed to do, but I have no Idea what the purpose of this is.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 3:37 pm

David Teague wrote:

I have a Question, why do why even give these sheets to grid? I of course gave it to the first grid worker in the morning because I knew that is what I was supposed to do, but I have no Idea what the purpose of this is.

The theory is that the grid worker can check the numbers and class of the car before they send it to the start line, elminating confusion.

It works, sometimes.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Ryan Holton wrote:

David Teague wrote:

I have a Question, why do why even give these sheets to grid? I of course gave it to the first grid worker in the morning because I knew that is what I was supposed to do, but I have no Idea what the purpose of this is.

The theory is that the grid worker can check the numbers and class of the car before they send it to the start line, elminating confusion.

It works, sometimes.

It works a lot more than just theory. When we started implementing this during my tenure it probably cut T&S comfusion down by 1/2. Don't underestimate how challenging it is to have just a few "I CAN'T FIND THIS CAR IN THE COMPUTER" moments when a car is about to start.

IMO we need to check the car and number 100% of the time before a car leaves grid. Believe me it's worth it if you just find one or two cars in error.

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