In a message dated 10/13/2006 7:21:21 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
Flowbench@aol.com writes:
Doug your not counting the time it takes for that car to get to 180. But
your
right it's really at the starting line or if the vehicle will "clean out"
I saw delays at the starting line too. It's hectic when you get to the
starting line. You have to wait for the crew in front of you to clear then push
up
to the line and get ready to go. Sometimes crews have a hard time if
something goes wrong at the last minute. Belts are stubborn, engine dies, etc.
There is a simple solution. Increase the number of staging lanes from two to
three or even four. This way the starter can choose from four lanes instead
of two. If the next row in line isn't ready, skip them and go to the next line
that's ready. Has to be faster. It would also make it less hectic for
drivers and crew as they would have more time at the line to get ready. I for
one
would love to have more time at the line.
I can also see moving the "pre-stage area" right behind the "stage area". I
assume the pre-stage is to have a cutoff for who runs that day. If you make
it to staging at 5pm, you run that day. If you're still in the dreaded
pre-stage, you don't run. Why does there have to be a physical distance between
pre-stage and stage? What if there was the 5pm cutoff cone say 5 or 6 cars back
from the starting line that designated the cutoff. At 5pm we block off the
staging lanes at the cone and everybody in front runs that day. Exactly what we
do now except today there is room between pre-stage and stage and people are
manning the pre-stage lines making tough decisions constantly all day long on
who goes on to staging. If you think about it, the only time it becomes
"critical" is at 5pm anyway.
It would eliminate the need for volunteers at the per-stage line and you
would have a fairly consistent number of cars to run each day after cutoff.
Also
if someone in pre-stage wanted to link up with someone in stage, they
wouldn't have so far to go.
With four staging lines and no distance between pre and stage, we'd all be
one big happy family!
Otto
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