Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Randy so are you trying to tell us that Denver is the home of Smoking weed then knitting blankets. What a country!! LOL

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

apparently so..... the weed tourism for sure is thriving right now.:p

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

And Oreo sales are booming! Unfortunately, productivity is down.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

cheetos and doritos.......LOL! superweedbowl in less than 2weeks colorado VS. washington..

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Come on now...

Not everyone is all Potted out!

We still have "On-Track Performance" on Santa Fe...

Better then nothing.:eek:

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

What will they do about the hash marks ???? :)

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I was just at my local speed shop this morning. Yes, he will price match Jeg's or Summit, and no handling charges at all.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Ya your right but it makes for some
good yuks...

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

make edables...

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

:DYeah, he's OK......;););););)

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I don't really look for results from the other organizations but seriously why can't the NHRA website offer timely, almost live, NHRA national and divisional results to anybody with a membership? Why are DRC/Summit "responsible" for posting results and scolded when they don't post them 5 minutes after the runs are made?

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I think this is a great point and food for thought...

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

NHRA would have to have someone at every track to to take care of handling the data. At some tracks, results for divisional races have to be input manually -- either by typing as it happens by reading the announcer's screen or entering the results from the run logs after each round. In addition, before the first qualifying sessions are reported, someone has to compare the tech cards to the information on the computer to make sure that the driver has not changed cars or changed classes. Then, the results have to be sent to the website.

Since DRC already had someone doing just that at every divisional race, it made more sense for NHRA to use DRC's reports than duplicate the effort. There is no magical way for the results to just appear on NHRA's website.

Jim

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Drag Race Central is definitely our lifeline for drag racing results. Hope it keeps going for many more years.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I would think that NHRA would have someone doing that as well, afterall, it's their race.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Very legitimate line of thought. However, I don't think that any of us are holding our breaths. After all, we are MEMBERS!

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

At the National Events NHRA already has audiocast and live timing so why do you think they would do more?

Emailed the Summit Communications contact provided on an earlier thread and trying to get a phone number of others to try and convey my concerns about them curtailing their support of DRC and this great service. I'm not giving up on them, I really do value their service and support of other programs plus great parts delivery and prices.


ARebescher@SummitRacing.com

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I don't see DRC as "responsible" to report. They saw an opportunity because of a need and market interest. The problem is how to make it financially practical. NHRA would say the same thing, and in their case would look at different options (maybe raising the membership fee to cover the expense, looking for corporate sponsors, etc.). If DRC chooses to charge a fee for their service, then each one of us would have to make the decision whether it was worth it. Remember that DRC reports a lot besides just NHRA. Possibly the revenue from a service charge would allow them to offer expanded services. Information is not free, nor is it a right.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Dead-on. Another thing to consider is the staffing pool. Larry might actually want to retire sometime in the next 15-20 years. :cool:

Add up any kind of hourly wage and travel expenses times the number of events they cover, and I think you'll find the cost to maintain DRC is pretty astronomical.

While there are other services out there like 1320go (which you pay for and isn't available everywhere), and fully produced live video like we'll have at the Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals through MotorManiaTV.com (which you know NHRA wouldn't have at a National event competing with ESPN, and wouldn't pay for it for a Divisional). DRC really has its own niche, not only for live results, but also as an amazing repository of archived research material. I use it extensively when writing race coverage for events.

Regardless of what happens, a heartfelt thanks to the whole crew for all their hard work over the years.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Amen to that!

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I find it sad that it is such a manual process in the information age that we live in. In this day with so much technology and a computerized timing system, why would someone need to be at the track entering in all the information from the logs. Perhaps some tracks don't have CompuLink but those that do should be able to provide an export of the qualifying and eliminations files at the very least.

There is a magical way to get instant data. It's called Live Timing. Yes it costs a lot but that's because NHRA is probably getting a cut.

Question: Do we sign our right to our data away when we enter a race. Why do I have to pay extra to get my data in electronic form (i.e. live timing). The data wouldn't even exist if we don't show up. Also, did I sign away my right to restrict who sees my run data and who can make money off of it. I am getting tired of others making money off of my information whether it be search engines, social media outlets or what have you.

BTW, thanks to Summit for providing the data all these years with relatively no cost to me.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

DRC not going anywhere.....
http://bangshift.com/blog/great-news...-not-dead.html

Posted by Brian Lohnes

Rumors of Drag Race Central’s demise were apparently greatly exaggerated, which is great news for fans of straight line action all over the world. We have received confirmation from DRC’s Rick Green that there will be live, round by round reporting from all NHRA national events in 2014 and the group is looking for sponsors to get involved with their coverage of divisional racing all over the country. Yes, there is some bad news here in the fact that it does not appear that the newly altered and revitalized IHRA program is not currently on the docket for coverage and that the guys are still trying to get backing for their coverage of divisional events, but we’re positive guys here and the fact that the crew will be at national events from sea-to-sea in 2014 is awesome.

As we told you the other day, the rumors were swirling that DRC was not going to be covering anything in 2014 and we were lamenting the fact that the site was not going to be providing the invaluable service of keeping the world up to date (nearly to the minute) of the results at races across the country. Green was on vacation and he got back to us the other day, altering the BS staff that the rumors we had heard were exaggerated. We were buoyed by the response around the interwebs after we dropped the (not so) bad news last week. Drag racing message boards lit up with pleas and well wishes for the DRC operation. It was a shot heard ’round the drag racing globe, literally. Lots of guys in Europe emailed to tell us that DRC served as their lifeline to keeping up with NHRA action.

As an announcer, I was bummed because the site rules to check in on and keep racing fans abreast of what’s happening when they are at tracks participating in other races. Thankfully we’ll continue to deliver spoiler alerts to eagle eared drag fans while calling other races after the NHRA season kicks up. We’re holding out hope that Green and his guys can rustle up the dough to continue their tireless coverage of the divisional series races as well because sportsman competitors thrive on that information.

Bottom line? Drag Racing Central ain’t dead and you’ll be able to “tune in” to their coverage through 2014 starting at the NHRA Winternationals in a couple weeks!

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I have a better idea. How about we fire Tom Compton and put his astronomical salary towards efficient and timely race reporting? Hell, his beer tab alone would pay for the yearly upkeep of DRC! Jim


.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Summit increases its commitment to IHRA sportsman racers bringing you live broadcast of all Summit Pro-Am Tour races in 2014

http://www.ihra.com/pro-am-tour-news...-races-in-2014

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Nice!

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Fantastic! Hopefully our campaign to get Summit to step up again this year made a difference.

Thanks Summit and DRC for your continued support of Sporstman racing!

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

"Live broadcast" of the Pro-Am actually means live *broadcast*, not DRC. It will be fully produced live video on MotorManiaTV.com, just as we are going to have at the Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Failed to read thoroughly obviously. Oh well, as much as I like the concept of live reporting I really valued the DRC concise reporting even more.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Live Timing has nothing to do with NHRA or the CompuLink timing system. It is a completely separate deal.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

The "live broadcast" is great to see what's going on, probably the next best thing to being there. Can be good for sponsors on the car as well. But DRC has had unbeatable, timely reference material during the actual race as well as being able to look back to see who, what, when, where, etc. It would be nice to have both for both sanctions.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

a. Unless the track does not have CompuLink, we do not manually enter data from logs. The "notes" reports are posted within minutes of the last pair for each round and the numbers in those reports come directly from the timing computer, on a data feed that 1320go and NHRA's Live Timing have started using in the past couple years. We have been using that data feed since the last century. We also automatically capture data from some other timing systems, but that hookup is more difficult to achieve without screwing up the timing system and it's on a track-by-track basis.

b. Live timing is great, but it's not filtered and often doesn't even show what category is running, let alone whether or not a particular run is valid or was disqualified for some reason. That's why we need reporters at the track - to do the most accurate job. That's why we do not post qualifying results until we get the official qualifying sheet, even though we have the raw numbers well before the sheets are distributed.

c. We have the capability to get end-of-day files from CompuLink systems and produce accurate reports from those files. However, unless somebody tells us what happened, we can't tell you much other than the numbers. Those numbers are more accurate than live timing because they come from the edited and validated times, not the raw runs. Bear in mind, no matter what system you use, without human eyeballs
reviewing the reports, there's a strong GIGO effect.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Not quite. There are at least two "live timing" sources out there - 1320go and NHRA's Live Timing. NHRA's Live Timing comes from the CompuLink timing system data feed, the same feed that goes to the TV production truck at national events. 1320go also uses that same data feed at CompuLink tracks. In addition, 1320go taps into the timeslip printer feed at non-CompuLink tracks. The data available in that latter case is limited to whatever appears on the track's timeslips.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Larry,

How difficult is it to show the actual qualifiing session results rather than the "Official" list? Don't need all the text like for the Pro cars but it is interesting to see a car ran .001 slower for two sessions or .3 slower when the official postion time remains the same.

Thanks

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

It's possible, but it would be a very long report and we wouldn't be able to validate the numbers. The timing system is pretty good and the clock operators are pretty good, but you'd be surprised at how often the raw numbers are bogus.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

I'd be all for paying a subscription if that would allow LODRS live reporting to continue.

Having said that, if given enough interest and support, and DRC were to present a goal amount of what they need, would a crowd sourced sponsorship through a site like Fund Anything, be an option? That, or perhaps a PayPal type donation program to meet the required cost?

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Just for a very low ballpark, you could probably figure on a minimum of $1,500 per event * 44 events = $66,000, not counting server expenses and a whooole lot more. For every $500/event my lowball guestimate is off, add another $22,000....

...Larry Sullivan: priceless. (But you dare PM me what it would actually cost to book you for the Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals. Might have a side project for you if you're interested as well.)

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Larry Sullivan: ... Thanks for all you do.
Michael... you are correct.... this can't be cheap to do (let alone finding good reliable help to be there for three and four day weekends).

Larry.... thanks again

ps... anyone remember the Compuserve days?.... lol

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

Thanks Larry for cluing us in to how you go about reporting the data. I knew about the various data feeds and wondered if you utilized them to get the data as opposed to manually recording runs.

Sounds like it is necessary to have someone at each race and helps me understand the costs involved.

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

That's where most, if not all of us, at DRC got started in this.

Jim

Re: Drag Race Central closing???
 

DRC has been a stable group. Last year was my 13th season and I am the new guy!

Jim