What makes a track faster?

[4wheeldrift]

I heard several folks say the Mid-America track was running fast. Outside of weather/humidity/rotational pull of the earth, what would make one BestTrack run significantly faster than another?

I'm assuming both tracks are clean and the sensor is consistently at the same location.

Can there be variance in the slope? I kind of thought this was consistent from the manufacturer in terms of rise/run.

I think our delta between MA and the nationals was over 3 hundredths. I realize other factors can come into play with our car and it's build. But then I also saw the post where John was suggesting that there'd be a reset of the time to take into account that the times were probably off by .01.

thx

 

[5KidsRacing]

Every little thing makes a difference.... slope, floor/track level down the length and left to right, track polish level, timer brand, starting gate type and brand....

I don't think weather/humidity/rotational pull of the earth make a difference. My track has been in the exact same place for 3 years and I have used it in winter, summer, hot, humid, etc.. and my times are always consistent.

 

[5KidsRacing]

The reality is that if I moved my track to your house the times would be different. I might be able to change the angle of the hill to get them close to at my house, but the track would still be different.

Times don't mean much from track to track, you just have to bring it every time and try to beat every body else to the finish line.

 

[Quicktimederby]

Everything effects the timing on the track. The spring rate on the gate, the position of the micro switch, or laser gate, the start solenoid, the angle of the slope, the angle of the transition, and so on and so on. That is why it is not important the times but the consistency of the track. People get way to caught up in the times when there not all that important, well as long as your time are faster than the other guys you are racing.

 

[5KidsRacing]

You mentioned the MA track, well look at my kids cars in the graphite open kids class.... Their cars ran exactly the same on my track in 2013 as they did in 2012. On the MA track in 2012 they ran around 3.000 in 2013 they ran 2.960.... The track was the same and the timer was the same, but the track was put away and moved to another location.... totally different times.

 

[txchemist]

Is the track perfectly level? Not likely when set up on a mall, wood floor, rug, concrete.. you get the idea. Put a polished mirror on your floor and see what direction a pin ball rolls. You are not able to match another track if you have any non-level part of your track. Now the angle has to be the same to within 0.01 degrees and that is not going to happen without a lot of work. In the end- don't knock yourself out- just get consistency and do a fudge factor to compare with Johns track. I lost buy 1.3 boatloads on the Nationals track. When we get the official difference, I will know I am 1.3 boatloads +0.01 sec or so too slow, and then I will factor that onto my track and see what I need to run to meet my next goal. I was happy to be consistent. Just too slow. That was a big improvement from slow and all over the map.

 

[4wheeldrift]

LOL txchemist.

Ok guys, thanks for the feedback and I now see the variances. Too many assumptions on my part.