Wakefield Track Day (October)

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:17 am

MX-5 club uses a sophisticated form of stopwatch timing. Check out RTM Lap Timing Software for details. It's very reliable timing. Though they use a start/finish line positioned at the exit of the fish-hook rather than the traditional one on the main straight.

Fuzzlet · Postby **Fuzzlet** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:03 am

Come on, watching me spin out cant be that entertaining can it? As for timing, the club just uses an advanced form of hand timing. I've only seen it contested once, but that was cos the club's timing said a car did a 1' 5.1" lap, and the in car timer said 1' 4.9"....

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:23 pm

That's interesting. Is that the one where you stick the number on the side of the car and it like takes a photo or something? I think I've used it at a ferrari track day once. Well anything's better than hand timing I guess. I also like how its at the exit of fishhook, you get more full speed timed laps in because you can warmup half lap before and cooldown half lap after fishhook.

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:34 pm

No the lap timing is nothing that fancy, Sasso. Every car does have a number on each door, but there is no automated character recognition thing involved. I've not been in the timing room when they are working since it's not a good idea to interrupt their concentration, but I think it works something like this:

They have three people in the room. One is using binoculars to watch the next car in line as they approach the fish-hook and probably announces the number of the car that is next in line. Another probably watches the next car behind, just in case the first one has an "off" before the line, or if they're close together (I imagine it gets very hectic if there are a few cars close together!). And the third person has binoculars locked onto the start/finish line, as soon as the car crosses, they click the button on the computer for that car number to mark a split time. The rest of the software manages the logging of the times and printing/displaying of the results via classes or outright, etc. Anyone who's played with a digital stopwatch could tell you that with a bit of practice, you can reproducably get within a few hundredths of a second.

So, like Fuzzlet and I said, it's a sophisticated version for stopwatch timing. It's a very neat system and provides real-time updates of lap times for display on a PC screen that they have sitting next door in the control tower. You just wander in after your track session and can see your lap times straight away. I've also checked my times against those collected with my GPS PerformanceBox and they are within +/- 0.1s which is the precision level of the box. And given that I'm only estimating the position of the start/finish line, I reckon the system is pretty reliable for what it is. Just don't pester the timing staff! :lol:

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:48 pm

ah K, yeah should be accurate enough for club level. Transponders rock though, cc use them.

Fuzzlet wrote:Come on, watching me spin out cant be that entertaining can it? As for timing, the club just uses an advanced form of hand timing. I've only seen it contested once, but that was cos the club's timing said a car did a 1' 5.1" lap, and the in car timer said 1' 4.9"....

Ummmm yehhh lol. What was more entertaining was the drift inducing truckloads of mud you put on the apex of the second corner.