Quote:
Originally Posted by JST
Clyde, remind me how the timing lights work in pro solo. Do they have two sets of lights? Or are they staging them 60 feet back from the lights to capture a 60 foot time?
Regardless, judging from the video that car is already going 40-50 mph by the time it crosses those lights.
|
Pro Solo lights
The start line area has three sets of lights sitting about nine inches above the ground, two of them are pictured above:
1. Pre stage. This lights up as you approach the start line. It's seven inches before the stage light. The only purpose of the light to alert the driver that s/he is close to the stage light.
2. Stage. When this lights, you are "staged" and good to go for start as far as the computers and event are concerned. This light must on when the starter activates the tree and stay on for the full duration of the start sequence.
XX. Start light (not pictured). This light is 17 inches forward of the stage light. If this light beam is broken during the start sequence before it completes, the red light (5) will illuminate and the run will be scored as a "RL" (red light). The 17" between the stage and start lights allows a driver to "shallow" or "deep" stage which, depending on the car/driver combination can be an effective tool for getting a jump on the start or adding a little safety margin against red lighting.
3. Yellow lights. After the starter begins the start sequence, the top yellow light will illuminate after a random few seconds, the middle one 0.5 seconds later, and the third yellow 0.5 after that.
4. Green light. 0.5 seconds after the third yellow light illuminates, the green light should illuminate and is the earliest point where the car can break the start light without penalty.
5. Red light. If the start light is broken before the green light illuminates, the red light is supposed to turn on. This immediately lets the driver know that they red lit and the run will not get a time. (At least, it's supposed to come on like that. The club got a new light setup over the winter and this was hte second event. They're having issues dialing it in and the red light is delayed for some reason.)
6. Shot clock. This is a countdown timer from 15 seconds to 0. It begins a few seconds after cars leave the line and displays the time the next pair of drivers have to stage their cars. If cars are past a certain point in the staging area (not shown) when the clock starts and are not fully staged by the time the clock gets to 0, the driver's run will be scored a DNF. When the clock reaches zero, a (way too fucking loud) horn sounds.
7. Reaction time (RT). This is a display showing the most recent starting driver's reaction time. The reaction time is how much time elapsed between the third yellow light illuminating and the start light beam breaking. A perfect RT is 0.500. Anything shorter gets you a red light, but will still be shown. People are usually pretty happy to consistently cut 0.700s. This light is supposed to show your time immediately. It is also have trouble with the new setup. (Traditionally, there is an immediate cash award (between $20-$100...I can't remember) given to drivers that get a .500 in practice starts before the event and during competition itself. Sometimes, it's only the first person to do it for the event, sometimes everyone that does it, although it's pretty rare to see more than 1 or 2 in a weekend).
8. 60 Foot lights. The thing JST was asking about. These lights are set up at 60 feet from the start light. Exactness in the 60 foot measurement is best left to other pursuits, but it's usually pretty close and stays the same throughout the event. The display for this time is not shown on any of the displays. The real time event scoring usually shows it (but sometimes not) and sometimes there is a final result PDF posting with them. The announcer usually calls them out, but not always. In the old days, there was a printer that would print them out, but I don't think they've done that in about 10 years.
Kevin and I normally cut 2.1xx in the turbo Camaro. The V8s usually do about the same. I was usually somewhere around 2.6xx in the FoST. My RX-8 on r comps was usually in the 2.3xx range IIRC. JV's Boxster on r comps was often around 1.7xx. GT3s rarely did anything better than mid 1.6xx.
Those are all dry times. The 3 Performance does 1.3s all day, all night, rain or shine no matter what tires.