7.45 Dial for Bill O'Connor

[BG56]

Originally Posted by 442OLDS

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."

Exactly!

[tommy d]

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?

[Jim Wahl]

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


.

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by 442OLDS

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."

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.

[GTS340]

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

[442OLDS]

Originally Posted by Dan Bennett

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.

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?

[Dan Bennett]

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.

[BG56]

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!

[Floyd Staggs]

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.

[Rory McNeil]

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?