Did we land on the Moon?
 

No, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I do believe we landed on the moon but I’m not sure about aliens at Area 51. But one thing which troubles me is our timing systems.

https://dragracingedge.com/the-blog/...d-on-the-moon/

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

Suggest everyone who hasn’t heard Aaron Allison’s Podcast with Jeff Taylor listen especially to his views on Indy and the rerun (or not) issue.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I remember that Aquasco Speedway had a separate RED LIGHT button in the tower and it was discovered back in the middle to late 1960's. It seems that if someone won to often or someone that the tower people did not like and that person was in the final he would get the RED LIGHT thrown on him. It created quite a "STINK" when it became known. True story ! Maybe that is why it went out of business sometime after this was discovered. TRUST NO ONE !

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

You bring up good points. DC systems are very sensitive to noise and voltage drop issues. I often wonder how old some of the wiring and connections are.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

This is a very interesting article especially in regards to the timing system at Norwalk for the make up race. My car normally runs 121-123 and it has been low 124 only on 1 occasion. First round in the right lane my car goes 126+ and I lifted about 10' before the MPH lights. My car wouldn't run that with a tailwind going downhill. All of the other incrementals were off a tick but not enough to justify 3-4 mph off the loud pedal. I subsequently broke out by .009 which was extremely odd because I was dialed honest and lifted way early. I talked to a couple racers in Columbus 2 weeks later and they thought the front fascia may have have tripped the beams. That's plausible but the lowest point forward of the front wheels is around 10". Norwalk is my home track and they run the best show in the business. Maybe Sheldon was correct about the popcorn popper....

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I remember one year at the D3 ET bracket finals. The day before I had been runner up in the Race of Champions. First round of regular eliminations comes around, I'm staged, my first yellow comes on and then my red light. I hadn't moved (foot firmly on the brake pedal) and both my stage lights were still on. Needles to say I protested, and got no where. It's made me wonder ever since.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

In the beginning of August I was at a Pontiac only race in Norwalk and in a run off between winners my 60' picked up more than .08 from the previous run, which was about 15 minutes prior, and I broke out by almost a tenth while killing more than 20 mph. Lady in tower ( who did not know what she was talking about ) said track must have got better.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I've been hearing rumblings like this at our track. But given the cited example one easy fix would be a back-up battery supply with the voltage filters set pretty tight that supply the computer. Another would be building a big enough computer that runs the program for the track with way too much memory and processing capacity that a hiccup would be minimized. BUT, that will not cure why one lane is consistently different than the other.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

John I would suggest you seek out Bob Brockmeyer (Compulink) for a interview. He could answer a lot of these questions

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

As a 45 year IT professional and geek - this thread is fake news.

Drag racers never want to accept responsibility.

The cars are excellent examples of precision but can have a rare blip or hiccup.

Pop corn machines causing electrical lows - electrical surges do not effect the out come.

All current day computers and software have built in fault tolerances and protections against such things especially where accurate outcomes are vital.

Look no father than an occasional fly in the ointment.

More than my 2 cents worth.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

If so how do you explain NHRA reruns at Indy for some .90 cars?

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I don't need it explained - you do. Ask them.

Enough bitching wins sometimes.

It is a lot more likely that something in all of the myriad of electronics in today's cars there is an issue.


Ron

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

The timing control hardware is totally independent of the pc used to interface with it and where they enter the dials and see the display of the results. The pc running slow would only delay getting the run ready or displaying the run. The timing computer is separate, uses solid state oscillator for calculating the timing and has no variance with voltage.

The Symth family from portatree also can also clear this up.

Now, the heights of the beams is indeed critical and could explain lane to lane differences as well as “missing” a very skinny dragster wheel.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

Perhaps you’re right, Jeff Taylor doesn’t know jack... (ref. the podcast I mentioned earlier).

I’ll admit I don’t know much about the geek equation, hope you and Andy aren’t the victim of karma in the upcoming west coast races.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

Hello Ron,
I think you are a good guy and we have spoken on a number of occasions. I do however think you are being naïve, guys like Johnny D, Dan Fletcher and Peter Biondo who have made thousands of runs can spot an erroneous time slip from a mile away.
Bob Brockmeyer will defend his timing system to the death, he has to.
I have seen first hand a situation where the M.O.V. should have been .0000 each and every run, where in actuality the time slips indicated up to an .008 difference on the time slips that I saw. This was at the U.S. Nationals and yes they re-ran the entire round.
Here's an interesting test from a few years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ztIJ4Atgs

See you at the races,
Wayne Kerr

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I never said anybody does not know jack - I am not naive - I have been doing this a while as well.

I commented on people thinking it was cause by low voltage.

But as usual on here everybody knows a whole lot more than me.

I had abandoned posting on here for that reason but when it came to computers I am sure I am one of he smartest guys around.

Sorry to interrupt -- I will return to my silent own opinions.

Peace

Have a very nice day
.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

Ron, you’re kinda like 1320Racer, good opinions, delivery not so much. Have a blessed silence.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I won't be too offended - people just are not be able to handle when a thread changes direction.

I am breaking my own silence

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

No offense intended Ron. When people stop contributing we all lose, heck after talking to the “Mad Hawaiian, aka Marshall’s son, at the BabyGators I really like him. We share a passion that binds us all.

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I have seen this happen, and to one guy it happened twice on different weekends. Something was strange about his car. I had it on camera, car never moved, stage light was still on when his side went red.........

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I took a look at this video and it is a little unsettling - this is not a computer issue it is an electrical engineering issue which is likely different at every single track.

It is not just the aiming of the beams either.

Very difficult to solve given the topical diversity - lay of the land and landscape of all of the nationwide tracks.

IMHO

I should not have had opinion. There is way more to the sacred ground of timing slips than the computer.

I stand corrected.



Ron

Re: Did we land on the Moon?
 

I will add a personal experience to this thread. About 5 years ago at the U.S. Nationals, during class run offs, I left the line and my ET quickly popped up on the scoreboard at .865 seconds. My competitor and i finished the run, with me winning by about a car length, but his win light came on. We went to the tower and they couldn't explain what happened. We did get to rerun. I was in the right lane.