Below is the letter I mailed this morning to Tasha and Howard:
February 20, 2004
Sports Car Club of America
P.O. Box 19400
Topeka, KS 66619
Attn: Tasha Goodale & Howard Duncan
Dear Tasha & Howard:
Just wanted to start by saying it was great to see the SCCA gang at this
weekend's event in Atlanta, unfortunately for us the weather soured the
social aspect of the weekend.
We feel the need to write this letter based on the numerous accounts of
strange timer glitches - for lack of a better description. We witnessed
several instances of what appeared to be in accurate times throughout
the event. From several vantage points, we watched competitor's cars in
relation to when each passed the finish line. The times reflected for
these cars, did not coincide with each respective car's position to one
another when they crossed the finish line. It was our understanding that
several other people witnessed the same thing we observed.
We specifically called this seemingly glaring timer error to your
attention, but were not really given any explanation. On Sunday morning,
Dennis Grant who informed us that he was in part responsible for
programming the new timing system approached us. He felt that for some
reason the timing system was running in "drag race mode" and that the
reaction times were not counted in the total time per run because the
timer was not starting with the green light but was actually starting
when a car broke the starting light beam.
Even if this was the case - why didn't the SCCA personnel make an
announcement to this effect? We all know that reaction times can
determine whether you win or lose a run. Dennis Grant's explanation made
sense to us for awhile, until we witnessed a few pairs of cars come
across the finish line so close it was hard to say who should have had
the faster time - however when the times were announced, one car was
timed ahead by approximately 2 full seconds. That's what made us really
start questioning the validity of times at this event.
When two cars start the timer together, it should not matter how far of
a distance they have to travel to finish, if they both finish and go
thru the timing lights at the same time, the times should be fairly
close. When two cars cross the finish line in almost a dead heat and yet
one car has been timed with a 2 second lead it appears most likely that
there is some form of timer error. If you do the math, based upon the
relative speed of the cars crossing the finish, which for example is 30
mph - in 2 seconds they would have traveled 88 feet. That distance is
certainly noticeable, and was not evident when we witnessed where the
cars finished in relation to one another.
This exact situation happened to Larry and Brian Garfield in the 2nd
round of the Super Challenge. They had very similar dial-in's, both in
the 7's on reaction times and very close at the finish. And yet the
timer tells us they were 2 seconds apart. Clearly there is an error
somewhere that potentially caused an improper result.
In closing, it does seem as though the SCCA has put some time, money,
and thought into the SOLO timing system for this year. However, we feel
that there was a problem at the Atlanta event and no one from the SCCA
staff addressed this to the competitors in any fashion. We hope that
when a logical solution is figured out that the competitors will be
notified.
Respectfully,
Kim & Larry Fine
#19 AS/ASL
P.S. On another subject, is there a reason why the SCCA schedules the
east coast events so early in the year? For one thing, Florida hotel
rates in February are brutal and then you have to wait around until May
for you next SCCA PRO/TOUR. And for the people who gear up to do the
full PRO series, why not start the season out with a TOUR so you can
work the bugs out of your car before going to a points event?
cc: Team.net & SCCA Forums
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