To many bigger races this year not club racing .
08-19-2014, 05:35 PM
#31
Whatever you do..... SHORTEN the day. LESS quals and mains. Club or big races.
edit: fwiw I hate IFMAR quals. Especially at the local level where you could run 100 quals and the same guys will always be on top. MULTI mains ? geez, I don;t need that either. I get 2nd no big deal my ego does not need another hour added to my day thank you.
edit: fwiw I hate IFMAR quals. Especially at the local level where you could run 100 quals and the same guys will always be on top. MULTI mains ? geez, I don;t need that either. I get 2nd no big deal my ego does not need another hour added to my day thank you.
08-19-2014, 05:49 PM
#32
Blue Diamond did a practice day, true.
Trains and Lanes was in the middle of a track rebuild
Mushroom Bowl had a cash race
Family Hobbies had a club race (OMG A CLUB RACE)
Tiltyard had the ROAR Region 2 points race
Hobby Hut had a club race (OMG 2 CLUB RACES)
seriously... you are complaining with 2 club races and 2 trophy races in our region on the same weekend. And that's not counting the Barn, G's, LCRC, Wolcott, MRRC....
Trains and Lanes was in the middle of a track rebuild
Mushroom Bowl had a cash race
Family Hobbies had a club race (OMG A CLUB RACE)
Tiltyard had the ROAR Region 2 points race
Hobby Hut had a club race (OMG 2 CLUB RACES)
seriously... you are complaining with 2 club races and 2 trophy races in our region on the same weekend. And that's not counting the Barn, G's, LCRC, Wolcott, MRRC....
Other than that Bob nailed it
08-19-2014, 06:51 PM
#33
Tech Prophet
Thread Starter
08-19-2014, 07:42 PM
#34
I like the bigger races. Since I have such a long distance to drive to my nearest tracks, having a "big race" guarantees that there will be a big turnout, making the drive more worth while. Unfortunately that means the only practice I get is the morning of the race.
08-19-2014, 08:00 PM
#35
Tech Prophet
Thread Starter
That's understandle in your case .
08-20-2014, 12:18 AM
#36
Like anything money, competition and technology mess with the roots of the reason something started. I started back in RC in 84 at 11 and most will say that was a unique time in RC. But back then you saw a lot of father and sons racing. Kids sports werent 24/7 the home video game console didnt dominate a kids life.
What i have seen is everything is over complicated. Longer run times lengthed the races day if you want 2 or 3 quals at 7 minutes versus 4 minutes; do the math it adds up. We want more because technology has allowed for us to have more. Thats great but come race day just because the cars run longer does mean we should.
A sprinter can run longer than 100 meters but you dont see them complaining that the race was to short for time invested for that event. We possibly lost site of what racing is and thats a can of worms in itself on the whole qualifing and multiple mains process.
I like a sorting system to put equal talent together but who said it must be this long. Go to a 4 minute format and you get 3 quals in less time than a 2 qual at 7 minutes. So time versus quantity you cant have both and be happy.
What i have seen is everything is over complicated. Longer run times lengthed the races day if you want 2 or 3 quals at 7 minutes versus 4 minutes; do the math it adds up. We want more because technology has allowed for us to have more. Thats great but come race day just because the cars run longer does mean we should.
A sprinter can run longer than 100 meters but you dont see them complaining that the race was to short for time invested for that event. We possibly lost site of what racing is and thats a can of worms in itself on the whole qualifing and multiple mains process.
I like a sorting system to put equal talent together but who said it must be this long. Go to a 4 minute format and you get 3 quals in less time than a 2 qual at 7 minutes. So time versus quantity you cant have both and be happy.
08-20-2014, 09:27 AM
#37
I made the mistake of getting out my stop watch at the last race I helped run. The length of the mains has little to do with the length of the race day at our track. Delay's between rounds and heats are most of the day by far.
I see no problem with longer 1/10th scale mains, if the race isn't already a blow out after 10min. It would only increase our day a few minutes for 2wd, and 2wd SCT. Even the nitro Amain only eats up an extra 30min if nitros show up. Delays, can be longer than that easy.
Time killers:
-house transponders and the newbs that use them
-someone forgot to clear the computer the previous raceday so during qualifying the computer kept having house transponder conflicts and I had to reset the drivers and transponders, even if they didn't screw up getting the right house transponder
-waiting for turnmarshals. A non-issue mostly. Just new racers being new racers, they'll get the hang of it.
-adding late entries
-repairing computer errors. With 3 Q's, it startle's me how miffed racers get when one of their Q's gets messed up due to a Microsoft issue. Race day would go smoother, if a driver would just be cool with his other two Q's.
The cool thing about multi-mains. If someone isn't into more than one main, they can just leave after the first.
I wish the bigger races would get better lights and gens. Then run practice on Friday all night. So that late shows from people that had to work, can still get practice. And no lines. The huge crowds and lines for practice at the beginning of the day will most likely be toast by midnight. And you have time to fix what you broke in your 1st practice.
And so that late practice on Saturday can be skipped.
Then Saturday is just Q's, and Sunday is just mains. Run the Q's all the way into the night if need be. Sleepy?, just skip Q3, no big deal.
Would also be nice if more tracks had their races broadcast on FM radio so we can hear clearly in the pits, or our tents, what race is next. Assuming that RD's ever get the hang of actually announcing what race is next. "Race 14 Ebuggy", not just "Ebuggy". Heck, read off the list the names of the racers up next.
No vacation time needed, shorter event, but a longer day. Usually though, I'm only in 2 classes at huge events. So I have plenty of time off between runs to sleep or eat. My team will wake me up as needed, if I miss a Q, so what.
I see no problem with longer 1/10th scale mains, if the race isn't already a blow out after 10min. It would only increase our day a few minutes for 2wd, and 2wd SCT. Even the nitro Amain only eats up an extra 30min if nitros show up. Delays, can be longer than that easy.
Time killers:
-house transponders and the newbs that use them
-someone forgot to clear the computer the previous raceday so during qualifying the computer kept having house transponder conflicts and I had to reset the drivers and transponders, even if they didn't screw up getting the right house transponder
-waiting for turnmarshals. A non-issue mostly. Just new racers being new racers, they'll get the hang of it.
-adding late entries
-repairing computer errors. With 3 Q's, it startle's me how miffed racers get when one of their Q's gets messed up due to a Microsoft issue. Race day would go smoother, if a driver would just be cool with his other two Q's.
The cool thing about multi-mains. If someone isn't into more than one main, they can just leave after the first.
I wish the bigger races would get better lights and gens. Then run practice on Friday all night. So that late shows from people that had to work, can still get practice. And no lines. The huge crowds and lines for practice at the beginning of the day will most likely be toast by midnight. And you have time to fix what you broke in your 1st practice.
And so that late practice on Saturday can be skipped.
Then Saturday is just Q's, and Sunday is just mains. Run the Q's all the way into the night if need be. Sleepy?, just skip Q3, no big deal.
Would also be nice if more tracks had their races broadcast on FM radio so we can hear clearly in the pits, or our tents, what race is next. Assuming that RD's ever get the hang of actually announcing what race is next. "Race 14 Ebuggy", not just "Ebuggy". Heck, read off the list the names of the racers up next.
No vacation time needed, shorter event, but a longer day. Usually though, I'm only in 2 classes at huge events. So I have plenty of time off between runs to sleep or eat. My team will wake me up as needed, if I miss a Q, so what.
Last edited by Zerodefect; 08-20-2014 at 09:40 AM.
08-20-2014, 09:55 AM
#38
At the local track in Aus the day is run by the computer. 2 minutes between heats and 5 minutes between rounds. 5 min qual, 5 min mains were the formats. A Club friday night of 100 entries, 12 heats, 4 rounds would take 5 hours. All of the tracks ran the same software with the same rules, so everywhere you went it was the same experience and really easy.
No waiting on marshalls - you just get docked laps - no waiting on slow pokes to fix cars, you miss a round, tough. It ran like clockwork.
The software runs the night instead of a director. It doesn't take a dedicated person to run the night, it calls position every lap, it calls the next round half way through the run, it calls marshalls. It is the race director and it doesn't wait for you. You learn to be on time, keep an eye out for the race before yours, etc. It is miles faster once you get used to it.
In contrast, every race night I've been to here they've had 5 minutes between heats, and then spend 5 minutes waiting for 'that one guy' who couldn't fix his car in an hour and then another 10-15 minutes between rounds. The result is 60 entries, 7 heats, 3 rounds in 5 hours. It's way too inefficient.
Last edited by whittie; 08-20-2014 at 01:28 PM.
08-20-2014, 10:00 AM
#39
Tech Prophet
Thread Starter
Just to add even exprience guys don't go out to Marshall for some reason it's the Nitro guys who seem to do it not all though .
08-20-2014, 10:44 AM
#41
Having just moved from Australia to Texas I can say this is by far the biggest issue. Race directors in general seem to slow it all down.
At the local track in Aus the day is run by the computer. 2 minutes between heats and 5 minutes between rounds. 5 min qual, 5 min mains were the formats. A Club friday night of 100 entries, 12 heats, 4 rounds would take 5 hours.
No waiting on marshalls - you just get docked laps - no waiting on slow pokes to fix cars, you miss a round, tough. It ran like clockwork.
The software runs the night instead of a director. It doesn't take a dedicated person to run the night, it calls position every lap, it calls the next round half way through the run, it calls marshalls. It is the race director and it doesn't wait for you. You learn to be on time, keep an eye out for the race before yours, etc. It is miles faster once you get used to it.
In contrast, every race night I've been to here they've had 5 minutes between heats, and then spend 5 minutes waiting for 'that one guy' who couldn't fix his car in an hour and then another 10-15 minutes between rounds. The result is 60 entries, 7 heats, 3 rounds in 5 hours. It's way too inefficient.
At the local track in Aus the day is run by the computer. 2 minutes between heats and 5 minutes between rounds. 5 min qual, 5 min mains were the formats. A Club friday night of 100 entries, 12 heats, 4 rounds would take 5 hours.
No waiting on marshalls - you just get docked laps - no waiting on slow pokes to fix cars, you miss a round, tough. It ran like clockwork.
The software runs the night instead of a director. It doesn't take a dedicated person to run the night, it calls position every lap, it calls the next round half way through the run, it calls marshalls. It is the race director and it doesn't wait for you. You learn to be on time, keep an eye out for the race before yours, etc. It is miles faster once you get used to it.
In contrast, every race night I've been to here they've had 5 minutes between heats, and then spend 5 minutes waiting for 'that one guy' who couldn't fix his car in an hour and then another 10-15 minutes between rounds. The result is 60 entries, 7 heats, 3 rounds in 5 hours. It's way too inefficient.
5 hours, 1:00-6:00 is about what we prefer as well. Maybe 7-8 hours for a bigger than normal turnout. Sometimes we slow down on purpose. No sense in going too fast sometimes.
08-20-2014, 01:25 PM
#42
I don't know how many club transponders you have, but the club I used in my example has 20 - split in to 2 banks of 10, colour coded, which avoided the borrowed transponder swap issue. One colour for one race, another colour for another race.
Ie, person clips transponder on to car during race before his own, runs race, immediately removes transponder after race and puts back on charge. Rinse, repeat.
The attitude at the club was always that loaner transponders really are for newbies only. If you've been loaning one for 2-3 months you should be told to stop, which reduces demand on how many you need and allows flexibility like above. A small fee on loaning if required would also help reduce demand on the loaners as well as bring some income in to cover the cost of purchase.
Ie, person clips transponder on to car during race before his own, runs race, immediately removes transponder after race and puts back on charge. Rinse, repeat.
The attitude at the club was always that loaner transponders really are for newbies only. If you've been loaning one for 2-3 months you should be told to stop, which reduces demand on how many you need and allows flexibility like above. A small fee on loaning if required would also help reduce demand on the loaners as well as bring some income in to cover the cost of purchase.
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