Hope you are providing parachutes for the poor guys when the tower gets hit by an out of control car. . Apart from the high winds experienced at lake gairdner, it will get very messy when one gets cleaned up. Not a real smart idea. I have been in the timing caravan (which was 200 meters from the track) & had vehicles come very close to hitting it. A scaffold will kill someone for sure.
Pete Noy
DLRA #6
SATA #3
Ideas for 2014
Moderator: DLRA
-
David Leikvold
- Posts: 981
- Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
- Location: Brisbane
Re: Ideas for 2014
Pete, your concerns have all been considered and are answered below.
The current idea is that the tower (there's only one) would be somewhere around 400 metres from the course, near the All Clear Point roughly opposite the 4.5 mile marker. That means that no short course car or bike would still be carrying any speed by the time it got anywhere near the tower. That positioning halves its exposure and there's no reason why a long course car would always lose it and go to the right, it could just as easily go left. That halves the risk again. There's also no reason why it couldn't be even further away from the course towards the pits. I know that doesn't guarantee it won't ever be in harm's way but it's a lot further away than 200 metres and every competitor would be made very well aware of where it is. If a long course car was unlucky enough to hit it they would have washed off plenty of speed by then. There's no reason why it couldn't be protected by a large tyre barrier or something similar.
The design of the tower is yet to be finalised but the spotter's floor only needs to be about 6 metres high (which is high enough to put the horizon at a bit over 6 miles) and will not be a shoddy, wobbly or top heavy structure with a narrow base, nor will it collapse if one element is compromised or destroyed by an impact. The winds on the lake only matter if there is a surface for them to play with. There will be no vertical panels on the structure to catch the wind.
The major advantage of the tower is that the spotter will be able to tell the start line that the track is clear much quicker than the current arrangement. This enhancement alone will enable us to get about DOUBLE the number of runs we can currently manage on the timed course. A poorly designed, built and placed tower would increase the risk unnecessarily but this one won't.
The current idea is that the tower (there's only one) would be somewhere around 400 metres from the course, near the All Clear Point roughly opposite the 4.5 mile marker. That means that no short course car or bike would still be carrying any speed by the time it got anywhere near the tower. That positioning halves its exposure and there's no reason why a long course car would always lose it and go to the right, it could just as easily go left. That halves the risk again. There's also no reason why it couldn't be even further away from the course towards the pits. I know that doesn't guarantee it won't ever be in harm's way but it's a lot further away than 200 metres and every competitor would be made very well aware of where it is. If a long course car was unlucky enough to hit it they would have washed off plenty of speed by then. There's no reason why it couldn't be protected by a large tyre barrier or something similar.
The design of the tower is yet to be finalised but the spotter's floor only needs to be about 6 metres high (which is high enough to put the horizon at a bit over 6 miles) and will not be a shoddy, wobbly or top heavy structure with a narrow base, nor will it collapse if one element is compromised or destroyed by an impact. The winds on the lake only matter if there is a surface for them to play with. There will be no vertical panels on the structure to catch the wind.
The major advantage of the tower is that the spotter will be able to tell the start line that the track is clear much quicker than the current arrangement. This enhancement alone will enable us to get about DOUBLE the number of runs we can currently manage on the timed course. A poorly designed, built and placed tower would increase the risk unnecessarily but this one won't.
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!