Live from Lebanon Valley-NHRA Lucas Oil Series

[Bryan Worner]

I don't know what would possess anyone to want to set a record at Lebanon Valley! You would think you would try it at Atco or Maple Grove. Congrats, you definitely earned it doing it there!

Glad to hear Marc didn't mess up his truck too bad!

[Ultimate Converter Concepts]

Way to go Jack, congrats on the record and all your hard work!

[ItsyBitsySpider]

Ed (the Flying Monkey) and I are heading over to the Valley to spectate today. Looking forward to seeing all of you.
(we think it's hysterically funny that you're complaining about the heat- )

[Ken Miele]

The in car cam is in Gene Monahan's J/SA 86 Firebird. Gene's car leaves like a A car. I have been trying to get the in car cam in his Firebird for the last few races. Thanks Gene, enjoy.

[Danny Ashley]

Quick story about Gene Monahan. Two years ago I finally got around to having decals made for my quadrajet business. I also had tee shirts made to give to all my customers that were going to attend Indy. Jim Marshall wasn't going to make it and asked if I would drop off the stuff to Gene. Gene liked the shirt and asked what do you have to do to get one and I said have one of my carburetors. But that couldn't happen because he runs fuel injection. He said he would put my decal on for one of the shirts. I thought my decal on a F.I. car would be really cool so I gave him one and he did as he said. Think it's still on the car. Thanks Gene and good to you and Jim this weekend.

[Toby Lang]

Jim Samuel, Larry Sullivan or any other person from DRC, I've been meaning to ask this question for a long time now:

How come you don't post the eliminations from the early rounds at the divisionals?

I could understand why you didn't do it before at any races because you had to type them in by hand. Now with you being hooked up directly to the Compulink computer, I don't see any reason why you can't post all elimination rounds for every event.

Anyway, does anybody know what happened in the heads-up race between Kenny Richard and Kelly MacKay in Stock?


-Toby

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by Toby Lang

I could understand why you didn't do it before at any races because you had to type them in by hand. Now with you being hooked up directly to the Compulink computer, I don't see any reason why you can't post all elimination rounds for every event.

We are not hooked in at every division race. For example, I am doing everything manually here at Lebanon Valley because the track does not run a Compulink system.

Jim

[Jack Matyas]

With Stock and SuperStock both having their first rounds completed the fans are milling around with not much to do .........most of us just sat around watching them .

[Toby Lang]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

We are not hooked in at every division race. For example, I am doing everything manually here at Lebanon Valley because the track does not run a Compulink system.

Jim

Ok, I can understand that, but how about Las Vegas and all the other tracks that do have a Compulink system?

Thanks a lot for all you guys do.


-Toby

[BobOrme]

Originally Posted by Toby Lang

How come you don't post the eliminations from the early rounds at the divisionals?

I could understand why you didn't do it before at any races because you had to type them in by hand. Now with you being hooked up directly to the Compulink computer, I don't see any reason why you can't post all elimination rounds for every event.

-Toby

I'll expand a little on what Jim wrote. Not all tracks have Compulink timing systems, and even then, sometimes the Compulink systems and our data capture software are talking slightly different languages, and we still have to put all the numbers in by hand (that has happened to me twice - once in Bradenton several years ago, and at Ashcroft this year).

We are working on getting a usable data feed from other track timing systems. That process is still in a somewhat beta testing phase. We've had some success with Accutime and TSI systems, but every timing system is set up a little different at each track. The Compulink data feed can and usually does come right out of the timing system wiring punch block - that board under the counter with about 500 wires running in and out of it. The Accutime and TSI feeds that we've been trying to get to work utilize a tap into the timeslip printer feed. That involves figuring out which port is the timeslip printer feed (they aren't always marked on the track computer), what type of 9-pin Y-splitter you need (they aren't all the same gender), what the baud rate, parity, data bits, and stop bits the timeslip printer port is set at (they aren't all the same), and lastly, if we get all of that stuff figured out, hooked up and working, it is possible that our tap will draw enough power from the serial feed to the timeslip printers that they'll stop working. That's not a good thing!

A perfect world would have Compulink fiber optic timing systems installed at every drag strip. Those are plug and play for us. Entering the numbers by hand is done after each round is completed from the run logs. Not only is that tedious, we spend more of our time looking at run logs and our laptop screens than watching what is actually happening on the track. That takes some of the fun out of the job. It also limits our ability to provide extra info like incrementals.