I was at my local track practicing the other day and noticed a weird issue with my transponder. I was following another truck around the track (only us on the track) and crossing the line only a foot or two behind him but yet my lap times were being reported as 2-3 seconds slower than his (9-10 seconds vs 12-13 for me). The only thing I noticed was his truck was reporting weak transponder signal and mine wasn't. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Even the kids dad noticed so it wasn't just me lol.

You're asking about the practice mode where an quasi-electronic voice reads the lap times? And if you are, did you look at the monitor (if they have one) and see what the actual lap time was? It's common for the voice part of that system to get tripped up when a pack or even just a couple cars cross the line very close together but if it was a real race, the actual times would have been recorded correctly.

Yes it was practice mode and the announced times were the same as what was being displayed.

I would say, there may be a disconnect in the loop. I have seen this happen only if the loop is broken. We make our own loops, and I had just made one, and had put it in. Within 1 week, it started acting up, and I was convinced it wasn't that. I took a look, and yes.. it was broken.. The loop will still function, just wont be accurate.