Mallala and State Race Series Meetings

[RaceTime]

For anyone that was at Mallala last Saturday, maybe they can shed some light on the following 2 questions:

1. Why does it take Mallala so long to publish results from the meeting? 6 days this time (admittedly, quicker than some of the events held at the track - some don't even get published!)

2. Why is Mallala the ONLY race track in Australia that is still using manual timing at State Level? I have heard the 'cutting cost' excuses before - but 10 years AFTER everyother track in the country has gone electronic for virtually everything (including sprint meetings these days) why are they still using manual (ie 1/100th second) timing together with all its inherent inaccuracies??

[Matt H]

im not sure if your talking bout this one, but the topic leads to the question, why has mallala have a round of the victoria state series, and how can u justify it as a victorian state series as such.

no disrespect to s.a fans, or vic fans, or anyone on the cams/aasa dedbate, but to me it makes a mockery (sp) of a supposedly state series.

thoughts ?

back to rt's post, what would happen if it was close, is there any standard either cams/aasa regarding to timing and to what extent it is recorded to ? could a competitor appeal a decision if it was a close finish between two or more cars ???

cheers

[RaceTime]

This wasn't posted to get into the Vic series (my thoughts on that are inanother thread) - merely the lax attitude, as it appears, emanating from Mallala.

First - yes there IS a standard for CAMS and, by de facto, AASA. The standard is, as per the CAMS manual, for timing to the 4th decimal ie 1/10,000th for all State level and above by the year 1995. Mallala - or more correctly the timing crew - have well and truly missed the boat.

As to whether anyone could appeal - interesting point. A judge of facts decision is non-appealable (don;t get me started on that one!) so I would hazard a guess and say the only thing that could be appealed is the use of non-approved equipment if it could be shown the electronic timing gear has failed.

Mallala is quite often being discussed with some senior CAMS Officials because of their refusal to a) electrnically time and b) fail to publish results (it costs money to make a phone call and publish them!)

I would say, on this topic however, that the Vic series being run there needs to check exactly what they will be receiving and exactly what, when and how results will be published...

[Matt H]

when u say publish results, are you talking bout on the web as such, or even just on the day for competitors ? i wouldnt have thoguht the latter, coz then how would they do grids ???

[just a racer]

RaceTime, I remember when I came up to Wakefield Park last year with some Victorian Sports Sedan competitors, and one of our cars disappeared from the timing for a couple of laps when it was racing side by side with another competitor.
I am not sure who or what system they use, but at least the problem was fixed up before the next race on that day.

[RaceTime]

Matt - on the web - Mallala for some reason publish on paper at the track and then, sometimes a week later, on the web. so for anyone trying to follow a compeetitor or series - makes it hard.

just a racer - I don't recall the problem but sounds like we had a problem with a transmitter either failing or, as happened at Wakefield last year, a transmitter came off the car. Can sometimes take a lap or two to work out exactly who has the problem but is usually fixed reasonably quick...and certainly by the end of the race. Next time you are at Wakefield - come in and say hi! (In fact we have Wakefield down nice and pat now - the Web actually gets results before the printed copy gets outside!)

[reddy]

ok i think i can answer some of your questions. When dorians were introduced years ago there was a decision made by cams state office not to use them in club level competition, as they are a $500 waste of space in my opion. The timing system by the way is manual in that a light beam is broken by the vehicle and then the car numbers are entered into the computer system. In my exerience, ive never had a problem with this kind of system. On the note of dorians, when i was in Nz racing, they had a different smaller lighter, system that was velcroed to the car, there was no risk of having the batteries run flat.....

anyway thats just my 2c worth

[Kerri]

RT apparently the issue with Mallala Re- Results, is that a couple of years ago someone misused the phone line at a race meeting & clocked up a huge bill in the hundreds. (This is what I was told by one of the timing people from Mallala) As such the lines were disconnected and only reconnected at National events. A lot of us have questioned why we cannot view results from every meeting & we are told that if we want them published we have to pay for it to be done.

[RaceTime]

Reddy - so what do you do if you want to go interstate and find 'No transmitter - pack up and go home'?

Sorry - but I can't accept this $500 waste of space - it is a once only purchase and guarantees you accurate timing. But then I guess some race drivers won't think twice about spending $100 a meeteing on tyres, will they?

I will say, however, that this makes SA the *only* state in the country to have this medieval attitude.

Kerri - I haven't heard this one nefore (about the phone line) - however I have heard about wanting money to post them on the web - the last time I heard it, it was 'justified' because of all the extra work they had to do (which, btw involves nothing more than connecting a modem to the computer and telling it to publish the results - everything is done automatically....)

[Kerri]

Both categories that I have been involved with for the last 10 years have been required to run Dorian systems. It has always been noted in the supp & further regs for the meeting (club level also) that the use of Dorians is mandatory for these categories, so unless it has changed recently i.e since October 2003 or they just put it in the regs but time manually I am of the understanding that the system is used at every meeting.

[RaceTime]

It is stipulated in the NCR's Kerri...it is just that SA, for their own archaic reasoning, don;t believe they should conform to the rest of Australia...or the world it push comes to shove....

[Kerri]

hmmm yes I do remember when we decided to run them, which was a request by the track owner, or should I say run them or don't run, we did the right thing, so I have no idea why some are still thinking back in the 80's, did I say that, maybe I will need to change my name

[reddy]

Racetime as a competitor, I can tell you that at the time when we had to fork out $500 there were alot of people jumping up and down at the expense. At the time I was running FVee and I can assure you that when I was 16 and paying myh own bills to go racing that was a huge ask... Now I do own a dorian because I race in a national series but after racing overseas at a few different tracks, these dorians appear to be archaic... The expense seemed unnesesary to the compeititors at the time. $500 doesn't even pay for 2 tyres now but as a young student it seemed like a huge waste of money.

[Kerri]

Fair comment Reddy, and I agree with you, I do remember asking Fvee & CC If they wished to do a bulk purchase at a discount price but back them 500 was a lot to add to the racing budget. I think from memory we just gave in to ensure we were allowed to continue racing at National events. But thats history now. We just buy them & run them, it is just a part of our cars now like fire extinguishers & window nets. We have no other option.

[reddy]

exactly, remember when FIA suits came in.... window nets, I cant get one for a reynard

[Kerri]

Yes I can still remember a certain Tech person from cams running around at first clipsal telling everyone they would have to go out & buy new race suits cause they were all out of date, Yeah Right, 36 drivers running off to RPM at 6pm on a Thursday. Been there.

[reddy]

just be glad saloon cars don't have fire bombs and fuel cells.......
I remember that well. I think a few people rang up and borrowed my suit...
next they'll all want snell (Fia) helmets)...

[Kerri]

Back at the first one it was HQ's, some of the guys had their race suits maybe 10 years, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.
Did some homework on me did you hehe. I don't need to hide who I am like some of them that come onto this forum. Some from our area come on & start rumours which end up in MSN or AA. Silly people.
We are getting of the real topic aren't we, sorry guys.

[reddy]

and some of them hadn't even washed them in that period

[RaceTime]

Hey watch your language puhlease!

Rumours from here get printed in AA, MSN researches the rumours first.

How do we know?

Ahhh the nose knows....let's just say AA have been caught out more than once from posts made here!

[Kerri]

Oh yuk what a thought Reddy.

[Kerri]

Language, what language????
Surely these mags don't take everything seriously, I mean come on I only came on to this forum a week ago & I think it is great if not also interesting & sometimes PMP funny. but reality must prevail ????

[RaceTime]

You would be surprised what AA takes seriously....

Mr MSN Editor lurks in these pastures btw - so treat PB kindly!

[reddy]

What Autofiction getting the facts right..... I thought you would have been already on here kerry.

oops is that baad language..

[Kerri]

U funny guy RT