7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

That is what it showed on Live Timing. I sure hope its wrong. How could anybody with any idea of drag racing input such a error. Yes I know its the racers responsibility to check but putting up a time 10 seconds to quick is just unforgiveable.
Like I said I hope its wrong.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

DRR shows it the same way in results.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Bill did get his head start though.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

They paused them before they raced. 17.45 is Bill's index. Did he forget to put a dial in on the window. It is up to Bill to see the dial in on the board.

Paul

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Maybe there was a tail wind and he was a afraid me might
Break out.

Lol

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Seems he should get a rerun but probably not. He sitll would have broke out

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Actually I watched the race. Bill was at the half track timers before Larry left. So it was correct

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Well, we can't see the dial in on the scoreboards on .TV. Only the stats on screen after the run where there was a 7.45 dial in. There was microphone silence after the run, they knew something was wrong. O'Connor dialed 16.90 in first round, ran 16.91. Was he actually handicapped off of the 7.45? Ran 17.04 in second. That should be a re-run!

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Whoever's job it is to input dial ins maybe should have a better understanding of NHRA racing.

I'm willing to guess the cage would not certify, belts and other safety stull were not good for a sub 7.50 dial.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

I didn't see the race.For the first time,I did not buy NHRA.TV.

But I highly doubt he was dialed in at 7.45.
If so,the other guy was pretty lucky running dead on 8 taking almost 10 seconds of stripe.
And whoever writes the comments on Drag Race Central should just stop.

"Nice nine light for O'Connor, but he slows down track."

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Exactly!

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

At the guaranteed million race last night a guy plowed all the timing blocks because they wouldn't fix his dial after he pre staged.😁 He showed em'...I guess?

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

This is BS! It's extremely hard to compete in a FWD combo without being burdened with a moron behind the dial in computer! I have lots of experience with this kind of stupidity after running FWD cars in Stock for over 20 years. His dial was very clear on the car! It was 17.05. Jim


.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

This starts and remains with the clock operator. They are the ones who will pick up the dial in, either as the car rolls by their window or if it's just sitting waiting to go into the water. And it doesn't look like it's the case here, but you'd be surprised at how many are almost impossible to read. That always makes me wonder, since it is so critically important.

Whatever is in the DRC report comes directly from the timing system, the reporter has not entered that info for years.

I agree that Dave did not describe the run correctly. He's been around for a very long time, mostly working the west coast races. All I can say is that we're all human and sometimes things go wrong.

I think it's important to understand what's going on when you're covering a race. Your gaze is constantly shifting from the clocks, to the track, to your computer - repeat and repeat and repeat. And quite often, while that's going on, someone will come up to you and ask "what did Joe Blow run?" for an earlier race in the session. There is a lot of info coming at you in a very short period of time.

I have never met a single DRC reporter who was not an experienced racer or fan and knew how important it is to get things right. In a perfect world, Dave would have caught the ridiculous dial in. But he didn't, as it was just one of hundreds and hundreds of dials that had been on his screen.

Look, I'm not trying to be a "XXXX is pure and honest and always right" cheerleader like I see on another board. I just thought some might be unaware of the information. I realize it doesn't change a thing, and the racer got screwed.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

If they had Bill dialed 7.45 Larry would have left first. Again Bill was at the 660' mark before Larry left. Bill could work on his shoe polish work just a hair. If that is suppose to be 17.05 good luck! The person in the tower has to read that.

Paul

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

I thought maybe it was a reporter that was brand new.Check out this comment from the same round:


Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET-- Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET-- Speed
9 Gary Emmons 244 Jeff Taylor
E2 0.005 9.206 153.11 ****WINNER**** 0.032 9.274 133.61
FS/A Dial: 8.96 (+/-): 0.246 FS/B Dial: 9.22 (+/-): 0.054
Prior rounds:
E1 (B McClanahan) 0.005 8.936 0.026 (L Peterson ) 0.012 9.204 0.034
Qualified: #48 9.048 -0.652 #34 9.166 -0.834
Another five light for Emmons, but he slows to take the 201 Stock Championship.
Taylor goes on to round three tomorrow.

Wrong Emmons to begin with,and then they said he slowed to take the championship?

Huh?

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

That's a great shot that helps to understand what went on.

I don't know if it's a problem with the software that Larry Sullivan wrote or the way that the clocks work, but I can think of why the numbers say one thing and what happened on the track was something else.

When the operator loads the car numbers in and then the dial in, the clock program "completes" the pair and it's sent to the box that DRC had to buy to interface with the system. I've gotten tripped up when the operator goes back into the data entry to change something and then doesn't refresh their screen. When that happens, nothing changes on the DRC computer.

Dave would have had to know that a change had been made so he could manually (enter it as a new pair and then edit the wrong info out later) load the new info. And it's been a while since I worked Pomona, but I seem to remember that Control (where the race director and the clock operator sit) is a different room than the media center where DRC is set up. That's not always the case for a lot of tracks and it depends on where each track tells the reporter to be.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

I would be confident in saying this- forget the 7.45. If O'Connor was dialed at 17.05 as on the window, he broke out (took way too much stripe w/RT of .009 to Gilley's .081) Gilley ran dead on 8. Tough judging the stripe with those slower cars!

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Quit picking on who entered the dial. They can only enter what they can see. The computer can screw up. It has in the past.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Not at Pomona, so I never saw the run in question, but it sounds like the 7.45 was NOT on the scoreboard, rather seems to have just been a typo on DRC. But even if the dial on the score board WAS wrong by 10 seconds, is it not still the drivers responsibility to check and ensure the correct dial is displayed before putting the 2nd stage light on?

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Technically you need to check this before lighting the first stage bulb per the rule book, but your general point is correct.

Incorrect dials don’t happen often, in my experience, but they do happen and it’s part of your job as a driver to verify it. My car doesn’t go in low gear after the burnout until the dial-in is up and correct.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

As an NHRA announcer and worked at Pomona for seven years until the new bunch took over and hired "whatevers," catch me in the pits sometime and I'll tell you what goes on. I can't write it here.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

So maybe some insight here... The computer operator may have put in 7.45 instead of 17.45 and hit the key to advance the pair to the active state. THAT is the number that Live Timing and the NHRA timing screen sees. When the operator corrected the dial, that does not always push to Live Timing or the timing screen. It's a quirk / bug / ??? of the data capture programs that NHRA built and happens more often than you think. The important part is that the Compulink got and processed the corrected number. Now, if it should have been 17.45 or 17.05, that is a shoe polish issue.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Thanks Warren!

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

My time slip showed a 17.45 dial for the round 2 race. I don't know where the 7.45 came from. I broke out by a bunch but thats a whole other story.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Started in the semis for us , Dial in board had a mind of its own. They assured us it was correct . Same thing in the final.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Isn't your dial-in on the scoreboard at the end of the track also before the run?:confused:

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Yes, that was the issue. Finish line board/ boards were wrong.

Re: 7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor
 

Oh, Got'cha!

I just assumed that there was also another board with your dial-in on it when you pulled into the water box you could glance up at in the center of the lanes to check your dial-in besides the scoreboard at the far end...