Now, I’m certainly not blaming any of this on less than superior timing system equipment. Just bringing up some facts.

https://dragracingedge.com/the...we-land-on-the-moon/

WoodyB needs to comment on this one.

John, qualifying runs.. was there a difference? Assuming.. you had LRL comparison?

Now hold on a minute. Lets not groom these things too well. I have to count on those system glitches to give me a win light every now and then. Take care. Tom Worthington

i had something happen to me a couple of weeks ago staged on transbrake button bottom bulb went out let button go to restage and after my box timed out rolled in put top light out like i was deep just loaded up but happen to the next pair right behind me

Twice in the last year at two different tracks I have seen something that was wrong with the lights.
One track every car in one lane was going red. This is with a Pro Tree and cars that never go red unless we really mess up. Later found out they knew something was wrong.

The other track on left lane there was a few cars (and mine was one of them) that when you bump in both lights came on almost same time and would go red. So I ended up in final round and had lane choice. I took right lane and my opponent who had had same problem earlier did that. I waited on him and he backed out and staged again but it went red. We talked about it and split the purse because there was something wrong with the lights in he left lane. Note we had both already talked to track manager and let them know and they said it was an IHRA Sportsman spectacular race and they set the lights and they were supposedly good but had noticed a few cars having issues. I felt splitting the purse was the best deal because we both knew there was something wrong that was out of our control.

There was a track around here that used to be .04 difference on most cars between lanes. It was consistent but you needed to know what lane you were going to be in before you dial or have a good plan and work it.

There was also a track around here that the MPH was always about 5 to 6 MPH faster than any other track even though ET was same.

I do not have much problem with the last two examples you just have to be aware and work with it. By he way both of those last two examples do not do it anymore the problem was some how resolved.

Superior equipment? How about zero maintenance?

I saw an instance last week where both cars were fully staged (both bulbs on in both lanes) and one lane went red before the tree dropped on the other side like it would if there were only one car staged on a single run. The stage bulb on the lane that went red never went out or flickered. I did not hear the cause or what the fix was, but they were down for about 15 minutes and then went the rest of the night without issue.

Wow that's 10 minutes of my time reading that article i will never get back. i actually read it a second time because i thought this was a joke at first. I think you need to start by remove anything that states facts, but you would make a good article writer working for CNN or MSN on making theories up and rolling them together into one large garbage article that makes zero sense and has little facts. Love the one part how you equate flushing the toilet or turning popcorn machine on can affect making a pass down the track. That has to rate up on the top 10 list for track managers excuses when an issue happens. Sorry Bob turned the popcorn machine on so that's a rerun....

You go from power in your house to turning the lights at a racetrack can effect the timing system. I mean serious the computer in your house "slows" down when uploading and downloading files and you equate that to a timing system. The article is a total mountain of garbage info that anyone that works in the IT industry or timing system or even electrical certainly got a good laugh out of it.

Maybe you did it on purpose to draw attention to dragracingedge.com especially with the title and its doing exactly that, but whatever pills you are taking or smoking you need to get better ones or get off them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Turk,

I don't think John is too far out in the weeds here. With today's cars being so consistent and races being decided by a few thousandths almost every pass, maybe it is time to make sure the tree/timing systems have clean power. I'm not an engineer, but who knows?

I heard that a lot of the dropped stage bulbs were with cars with the same brand of wheel.

Turk - Gecker was correct on his theory. Back in the day, trees would dim with power surges that would effect your reaction time.

Weeds , this guy is out in space past the moon landing. Maybe back "in the day" on a Chrondek timing system with floodlights for starting line beams if Bob turned the popcorn machine on the tree could dim down back in the day. lol

quote:

Originally posted by Turk:
Wow that's 10 minutes of my time reading that article i will never get back. i actually read it a second time because i thought this was a joke at first. I think you need to start by remove anything that states facts, but you would make a good article writer working for CNN or MSN on making theories up and rolling them together into one large garbage article that makes zero sense and has little facts. Love the one part how you equate flushing the toilet or turning popcorn machine on can affect making a pass down the track. That has to rate up on the top 10 list for track managers excuses when an issue happens. Sorry Bob turned the popcorn machine on so that's a rerun....

You go from power in your house to turning the lights at a racetrack can effect the timing system. I mean serious the computer in your house "slows" down when uploading and downloading files and you equate that to a timing system. The article is a total mountain of garbage info that anyone that works in the IT industry or timing system or even electrical certainly got a good laugh out of it.

Maybe you did it on purpose to draw attention to dragracingedge.com especially with the title and its doing exactly that, but whatever pills you are taking or smoking you need to get better ones or get off them.

I've been to tracks that have to have a fan blowing on the circuit breaker box to keep the system working.

Been to tracks where the entire facility is ran off of one BIG diesel generator...

I can see where John is going here. Lots of areas, can have “sketchy” power. That might be minimized, at some of the newer facilities, and newer transformers, both on the power line side, and if they have transformers in the tracks electrical system.
I know it wouldn’t be exactly cheap, but having a power conditioning transformer, installed prior to the facilities distribution panels, would help “clean up” that flow, ultimately to the computers running the timing. It would definitely be a help to minimize the number of funky runs.

Known John for probably 50+ years or more and if you can comprehend he never verified any of it just supposed that it was possible. And every bit of it is possible,so lets not disrespect him for giving us something to think about. And after all lots of this equipment is older than dirt, not maintained very well, and most of those in charge in the tower know very little about its operation.

Ok so explain this one he stated below. Just proves my point has no clue or does not understand modern timing systems.

"A timing system is not much different than your home computer. How many times has your computer slowed down after uploading and downloading numerous other programs and files?"


And another example of not understanding modern timing systems or how MPH works BUT back in the day''' a friend of a friend of my cousin Larry told my uncle who told me..
"Of course, we don’t know if any of this is true but a number of years ago, we had a friend – still a friend who no longer races - whose third-gen Camaro only at Atco Raceway in New Jersey would run two different mphs depending on what lane he ran. And by two different, I mean a ten mph difference despite the ET being the same! This even after the place was ground smooth and was as flat as a billiard table, so you couldn’t surmise the car was hitting a bump in the lights.

All this article was about some crazy thoughts he had and with just enough doubt by things that have happened that you could remotely connect together. So next time you lose a race and something strange happened i dare you to find the track manager and state someone flushed the toilet or turned the popcorn machine on heck even turned the office lights on caused you to lose the run. Post the outcome....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Turk,

BIG money race earlier this year...seen power supply down to 94 volts on multiple occasions...that was power supply to pits...tower and timing system possibly seeing same low power being supplied during race?

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
Been to tracks where the entire facility is ran off of one BIG diesel generator...

This would be very “Clean” power as long as it has the capacity to run everything.

JD just say it. The cars have become better than the timing systems.

SL...

Yeah, what a bunch of crap. Low voltage in the tower won't have any more affect on reaction times than low voltage in the car.