Time drop off question

[Tony_in_NYC]

Hey guys, we had our district races last weekend and my son placed first for the wolves. A friend of mine in the pack noticed that the four cars in our race had a big drop off in time from heat one to the next three heats. We lost an average of .11 seconds. That is a big drop off and we can't figure out why. My first run was 2.39 seconds and the next three runs were 2.50. It is a supertrack, the kind with edge guides, not a center guide. The over sized hot wheels track. The other 100 or so cars gained an average of .02 seconds from heat 1 to heat 4.
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas why only our 4 cars, which were the second race of the day (4 cars raced before us) were the only ones to experience such a drop off in time. Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks,
Tony

 

[Quicktimederby]

Having raced on that type of track I would bet money that your car got knocked around in the crash (stop) box. We had the same thing happen to us, 1st pass blew everyone away the next barely made it to the finish line. The stop box bent one of the front axles to a 45.

I hate those tracks!!

 

[Tony_in_NYC]

I should add that my tune is the same as before the race so it didn't get messed up by the crash box. But why only the 4 cars in my race? Why not any of the other 100plus cars? Could something have happened to the track?

 

[Crash Enburn]

What were the average times in the race? Could it be that instead of races 2-4 being slower, that race #1 was simply faster?

I have seen races in which the timer screws up majorly. One year at districts, my sons car was consistently running something like 3.1xxx, with nothing else even close; like second fastest was turning 3.2xxx. Suddenly, one heat ran and the timer showed 2.1xxx. /images/boards/smilies/eek.gif

A full second faster???!

I ran over to the officials table to point out the error. They conferenced for a bit, then told me "the time stands."

I insisted that the timer errored, and that if they keep this bad run, that they would be awarding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to the boys in that heat, as there was no way that a car could overcome that kind of deficit. After a lot of back and forth, they relented. My son did end up winning District again that year.

I have had it pop up in my races. I keep an eye on things and if there is an aberration, I'll re-run the heat.

TL;DR: It could be that the timer errored on the first run.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

I have also seen where the person tripping a manual gate can greatly influence the heat times.
we had a similar event where my son's heat was a full second slower, it was brought to the attention of the officials and the heat was rerun.

 

[Tony_in_NYC]

The track uses a SuperTimer and has an automatic release.

The here are the times for the 4 cars I am talking about:
Car 1 times: 2.3534 2.4702 2.4637 2.4738
Car 2 2.3986 2.5088 2.5084 2.4981
Car 3 2.3872 2.5210 2.5286 2.5056
Car 4 2.4182 2.5777 2.5225 2.5308

The average times for each lane over 106 races:1/106: 2.7301 2/106: 2.7378 3/106: 2.7120 4/106: 2.7174

This is driving me and another guy nuts.

On another note, thanks for the sweet avatar! It even has an apple for NYC!

 

[Kinser Racing]

Sabotage?

 

[Tony_in_NYC]

I doubt it. My friend had a car in that heat and he was helping with the races and taking pics. His sons car was the fastest of the 4 I listed.

 

[67 Rally Sport]

Hello all. I am the other guy that Tony is referring to. I will say that the cars hit into the crash box pretty hard. When they bounced out of the crash box, two or three of the cars knocked into each other. Now Tony mentions that his setup still looks good after the race. I haven't checked the two cars I had in the race to see if the allignment is off, but they still tracked pretty straight in the next few runs.

Could the hard stop / crash at the bottom of the track have had an impact on the wheels or the graphite in the wheels?

 

[ngyoung]

So the set of 4 that ran first never showed a reduction in speed? If they weren't that fast to begin with I don't think a change in the track would show as much. If you were pretty much pushing the top speeds on the track I think any shift to the track will be that much more noticeable.

 

[Crash Enburn]

Let me make sure I'm understanding the problem:

• All four cars in one heat posted their fastest times.
• Their next three heats were all pretty consistent, albeit slower than that first heat.
• No other cars displayed the same trait.
• A check of alignment after the race of one of the fast cars showed no alignment change.

This sounds very much to me like the timer hiccuped, and not that there was any damage done to your cars or track.

 

[67 Rally Sport]

NG Young, the 4 cars that ran in the race before us were slower on average by .03 seconds in their second races as compared to our average slow down of .13

As much as I hate to say it, I am leaning towards the likelihood that there was a hiccup with the timer.

Thanks!

 

[Tony_in_NYC]

Its kind of a bummer if it was the timer. There is nothing I can do about that!

 

[DerbyDad4Hire]

Looks like you actually lucked out! Got 1 fast one!