Ideas for 2014

[David Leikvold]

It seems like plenty of people have good ideas for ways to improve Speedweek for 2014, the trouble is the contributions are scattered all over this forum. So I've started this thread to try to gather them all into the one place. So far we've had ideas about retrieval of stranded racers, trailers, marking of tracks, better shade and hydration, you name it. All have the potential to make our next event the best ever. Bring it on!

[David Leikvold]

Here's a start. It occurred to me that the biggest wastes of time, and therefore runs, were the unavoidable delays caused by incidents either on the track or close to it. We can't do anything much about crashes but we can certainly improve the way we deal with vehicles that break down or stop too close to the track. When I was discussing licence passes and parachute pulls with individual competitors at the line I asked them what speed they have to maintain to keep the parachute in the air. They usually knew (50mph seemed to be about it) so I suggested to them that when they've pulled the chute and slowed down that they should keep their speed above 50mph until they were well clear of the course and had reached the point where they could stop, throw the chute in the car and then drive back to the pits. I think it helped clear the track in a timely manner. So to make this easier for all concerned I think we should have signs on all the exits saying Keep Going! and then finally have one that says Stop to Retrieve Parachute.

When the 296 Thunderbird crashed and ripped up the salt we weren't immediately ready to go with repairs to the salt. How about we have a trailer with sides that is filled with the salt that the I-beam scrapers lift off the salt. It would be perfect if it was a tipper trailer. If that was hooked to a tow car and waiting ready to go with half a dozen shovels onboard it would speed things up. I know that would mean having people to do the work but with "compulsory volunteering" in 2014 it shouldn't be too hard to make it happen.

I also think the timed track needs more exits. It wouldn't be extravagant to have well marked exits every half a mile from 2.5 miles (for the tiddlers) all the way into the deep end. The exits in the middle of the long course would be for breakdowns so that cars or bikes that had lost drive but still had some speed up could find an exit and coast away from the track. These exits should be at 45 degrees and have a large sweeping radius so they can be taken safely without scrubbing off too much speed. Exits every half a mile in the deep end would still be for cars or bikes that were either broken or had finished and were looking to turn off and return to the pits. I understand that dragging tracks takes a lot of time but if more people could see the value in turning up for the early setup days it wouldn't be too hard to achieve.

[DLRA]

David there is an area for this stuff called Speed Week Organisation.
I've now created a number of sub forums for each area of responsibility.
Check it out, I can move your comments to this area if your happy.
(I've already included some of your comments)
http://www.dlra.org.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=16

[David Leikvold]

Move it as you see fit and delete this thread Greg. It has become unnecessary.

[David Leikvold]

This thread's still here, I might as well use it!
At the start line we seemed to send a competitor off on a very rough average of one every six minutes. It really didn't seem to vary much, but I might be wrong. If I am it wouldn't be by much. Short course competitors were obviously a bit quicker. So let's do the maths again. A 200mph car at Mojave would get to the mile in about 35 seconds, at that speed two more miles would make the total time about 90 to 100 seconds. That's on bitumen but even at El Mirage the times are just a few seconds more. That's still less than two minutes for a full short course run. Add some time for slowing, braking and turning off the track. How much? Another minute seems about all it would take. That's barely three minutes. Where does the other three minutes go?

On the long course the extra two miles would add 30 seconds at 240mph, plus a bit longer for the extra braking from the higher speed but at least they're getting to the exit faster. There's still a couple of minutes missing. Why does it take so long to get the all clear message through to the start line?

[Greg Watters]

David from my logs
it takes me 60 secs to get up to speed 207 mph
i am off the throttle at around 1 min 50 secs at the 5 mile
at 40 mph by 2 min 20 secs then cruising to the exit gaining speed again till about 3 min 20 when i turn out i think at the 6
then back in the pits by 8 min 10 secs cruising at around 45 mph on the return road
time tags are a bit difficult to see , red trace is speed

[David Leikvold]

That's really useful Greg, thanks very much. It sounds like you could be safely off the track at the new angled 5.5 mile exit in about two and a half minutes. If we used that "All Clear Point" idea to get the next go signal we could be almost on a three minute turnaround. That idea alone would DOUBLE the number of runs the long course could deliver. Using the same numbers, a short course run might be close to a minute shorter. That extra minute saved would be the cushion that keeps our run average around three minutes instead of six. Even if it doesn't work out quite that well, it will still be a dramatic improvement in our efficiency.

Just in case people were wondering why I'm asking about this stuff, it all happens over the horizon so I can't see anything useful. Which brings me to a point I've made previously. If we had a "lifeguard tower" about 25ft high at the startline (on the opposite side to the starter's van) and a spotter with headset communication watching, with binoculars, for competitors reaching their All Clear Point we would have complete control of the process and the rescue guys wouldn't need to do it for us, they could just call for the GPS track. If we had another short course we could make really good use of the tower. The shimmering mirage effect might make it hard to see into the end of the long course but if that was a problem Northern Rescue could still do the call.

[Greg Watters]

Probably do better to have observers at each mile , at least there close in case of an emergency
only need to be about 300m off the track , on the edge of the safety crew track , US has the "service road" about 200m from the track

exit roads every 1/4 mile , if you think about those that ran to the 4 mile then cruised to the 6 to get off is 2 min wasted if they maintained 60 mph

i roughly figured we lost at least 25% of the run time during the week to not enough turn outs

[RGV]

Dave, I think the person giving the all clear needs to be at the point of being all clear or very close to it. I can see problems with accurate vehicle ID at that distance. One bike stops in the all clear area, is there 1 or 2 small bikes together there? Did the next small bike make it to the all clear point or did they keep going down the long course. Bit hard to explain but I hope you see what im getting at. Small-low vehicles viewed from the back would be hard to see.

Dave

[David Leikvold]

Greg,

It would be good to have well prepared observers at each mile but, yet again, finding the 5 or 6 trained people and the equipment might make it difficult, especially as the rescue crews are already well trained, well equipped and itching to go. At least the tower idea is a one man show.

Exits every quarter mile? I originally thought that too, because it would be easier to roll along to the next exit, but that's more than twenty of them and we may not have the time during the setup days to scrape that much road. Maybe aim to do the half miles and if there's time start adding quarters where it makes the most sense. Maybe more people could turn up with small dragging I-beams that their tow cars can pull. Please bring rated chains and D shackles !

If the service road / rescue road was reasonably wide everyone could share it, it's never going to have much traffic and the rescue guys have right of way. If the road was about 400 metres from the track and parallel the angled exit road would be about half a mile long so people who had already slowed a fair bit to take the angled exit should be able to finish stopping in another half a mile. The idea is for people to choose an exit that suits their speed and braking performance.

The intersection of each exit and the service road would be the ideal spot for the All Clear Points (ACP).

Dave,

Yeah, I get what you mean, but with binoculars and a slight angle (the All Clear Points would be a bit east of the tower) so if there was a competitor at every ACP it would look a bit like a line from a distance. That's never going to happen because we'll never have track density issues so it would be very unlikely that any competitor could obscure another. if the spotter kept a quick note on his clipboard of who was on a run and put a line through their number when he saw them being towed away or driving away themselves it wouldn't be hard to keep track of what was happening. Don't forget these exits are for the timed course so at the most there might be a competitor still waiting for his hopeless crew to come get him (I'm kidding), another being hooked up for a tow and one more on the course. It's never going to get busier than that. If the spotter tracked every competitor with the binoculars until they stopped the problem would cease to exist. Compared to herding the cats at the start line this year , the spotter's job would be a doddle.

[Stayt`ie]

its a no brainer really, look at the elevation the timers/observers work at Bonneville, , theres a reason for that. ,,

[Clarebrothers]

I like were the thinking is but how soon & what budjet. Timer fires the gun the rest is observation unless problem ocuures. Oberservation at Control centre (might be a 40' pan with observation deck ) timers - race director - spoters all at the same place. We have very good rescue team. Seems we lack comunication along with growing pains of new systems. Given that ideas can be sent in & or tabeled May19th I would hope our elected few can idetify budget so as to put forward options for 2014 & beyound. I am not sure we can get it right in 1 year of change but there are plenty of ideas. I would love our next news letter lay out a direction so as we can start working in a more cohesvie direction

[David Leikvold]

Ignoring the big dollar stuff for a moment, I was in Bunnings this morning on another mission and found their range of plastic conduit. They have orange 4m lengths of reasonably rigid 25mm diameter tube for $5.10 each. Cut it in half and it's still 2m high and would make excellent trackside marking for the 300, 200, 100 and EXIT signs. They also sell corflute panels in various sizes and it's cheap as chips too, although specialist suppliers have a much better variety and are cheaper still. At 2m the orange conduit poles and black corflute signs would enable every special construction vehicle to see where the track was and know where they are.

The cost of materials, including some white spray cans, some nylon rope and roofing screws, for each exit would probably be less than $40 plus the minor cost of maybe another $20 for the 3 or 4 signs leading to the All Clear Points. With the planned exits every half a mile from the 4 mile to maybe 8 miles that's 9 exits so that's still less than $600. That's pretty good value for significantly reducing the time between runs.

[hawkwind]

The club has a few sparkies ........ that orange conduit can be had fron 16 mm dia upwards..... and much cheaper, bundles of 10/20 with trade discount

[David Leikvold]

The only reason I mentioned the 25mm was because it seemed to be reasonably rigid, even the 20mm stuff wobbled all over the place and would be more trouble than it was worth trying to get it to stay up when it was windy, especially when the evening cyclone rolls through.

Forgive this nit-picking detail but my first thoughts about designing the sign were this: Have the two 2m conduit poles with a black corflute panel hung at the top by a couple of zip ties off a conduit cross bar and not held at the bottom, so the panel can swing in the wind, rather than unduly strain the whole thing. The corflute panel could be 900 wide by 600 high so the stencilled numbers are BIG and therefore visible at speed. Then have two pairs of ropes in V formation pegging the whole show to the ground. On the salt have two small, flat metal tabs with a hole for another zip tie so the bottom of the conduit (with a hole drilled in it) can be held securely to the salt. The tabs mean that the zip tie can be tensioned after the screw is driven into the salt and can be replaced without fiddling with the screw. If the poles still wobbled too much, have another cross bar below the corflute panel to hold the poles together better.