Can one of you "computer literate" guys with experience in the vagaries of NHRA's computer system AT THE TRACK tell me why NHRA doesn't just initiate a "live feed" of the on-site computer system that would (FOR A FEE) give us poor barstuds sitting at home, "live" access to the incremental times, reaction times, speeds and e.t.'s, etc.,. as they happen?
It seems a simple thing to do (but, what do I know???), and they could charge an annual "membership fee"for the service, or sell it on a race-by-race basis; or, whatever they could dream up....
It looks to me to be one of those situations wherein, since it's happening anyway, and would cost virtually NOTHING to allow access to it, that profits from the sales of memberships to the service would be considerable, since there would be no inventory, overhead, or much in the way of maintenance personell (beyond the maintenance personell they already are paying for the satisfactory performance of the extant system.)
It's like there's a bus going to Chicago... how much does it cost the bus company if I climb aboard and ride in one of the empty seats?
I am NOT advocating anything surreptitious; this should be a service that we could BUY for a reasonable price (whatever that is), and would have a few advantages over current setups; specifically, you'd get incremental times for every run, and it would be in real time. I appreciate FAST NEWS as much (or, probably MORE) than the next guy, but I have waited sometimes an hour or more for posting of results that I heard on the online broadcast. I realize that that was most likely not the fault of the Fast News poster, but it happens, nonetheless.
It shouldn't, with this "live feed."
Since they have never done it, there are probably good, legitimate, reasons why.... I just don't know what they are.
It seems that NHRA needs every nickel they can scrape up these days; this would seem to be a way they could make some extra cash....
I know I'd cough up a significant amount of money for such a service. And, I'm POOR!!!
Can somebody who understands this stuff a lot better than I do explain why this isn't a viable scenario?
Thanks for any information....
Bill