Full Version: Keeping time at open road events?
How does everyone keep time at open road events? Are handheld GPS units legal, or do they have to be bolted down?
Thinking about the BBORR? Nothing is keeping me from the race in 05! I hope I have it sorted out by then. Nothing sounds more fun than going wide open for 120 miles with a navigator guiding the way. Reminds me of the old Love Bug movie.
Chuck,
There are MANY different ways to keep track of your time/speed/distance in open road racing.
For me the easiest way is to take to milage covered and do the math averaging your target speed.
ex: target speed 60mph, distance 90 miles. total time required 90 minutes. you should be crossing mile marker "wp15" (white pine county...silver state classic run) at EXACTLY 15 minutes. If you get there before 15 minutes you need to back out of the throttle a bit (or alot depending on how earlier you are) or spped up if you get there after 15 min. How much you need to speed up or slow down is totally dependant on when you arrive at the mile marker.
For runs like the SSCC IMHO the Nav's job for the first 50 miles is to do nothing but keep the driver pumped full of information about what is comng up on the road, monitor engine criticals, make sure sure your watches are still in sync, AND WATCH YOUR TECH SPEED (speed that you can NOT exceed). After the narrows the navs job is to watch the time at mile markers and tell the driver to speed up/slow down as wells as all of the other stuff mentioned.
We only monitor the last 20-30 miles of mile markers. The last 5 miles are the most critical and the last 2 are down to flat out luck. But if you have done your math right you can REALLY come close to averaging perfect speed. I think at the SSCC they are out to 5 or 6 points past the decimal in some classes to decide the winner. In May of 02 they were at only 4 points past. In that run we were .002mph off our target speed and won the 145mph target. Now in some classes that would only be good enough for 3rd or 4th.
Here is what one of our mile marker check look like on the way we do it. Using 130mph as an example target speed. Assuming there are only 20 miles left to the finish line. Right at the moent I hit the "split" button on the ole ROBIC watch and it will pause the time for about 10 seconds. I look at the watch and then look for the closest corresponding time on my spreadsheet. When I find the closest time I will tell the driver to get to the speed associated with the time. The speed listed is the speed you will need to maintain to make the average of 130mph to the finish.
WP24 MPH
28.15.04 127
28.15.05 128
28.15.06 129
28.15.07 130
28.15.08 131
28.15.09 132
28.15.10 133
WP24 =specifc mile marker
xx.xx.xx = minutes/seconds/miliseconds
Over the course of about 20 miles you can REALLY get yourself dialed in.
Couple things to remember
1)speed/time/distance ARE NOT liniar (60mph, 1 mile in 1 mintue / 120mph 1 mile in 30 seconds/ 180mph IS NOT 15 seconds, more like 17 or 18 and some change)
2)Cruise control is your friend. On a new Y body and F body one press on ACCEL will net you 1mph. you can also use it to decrease by 1mph.
3)GPS IS YOUR FRIEND!!!!!!!! We used a Garmin Street pilot 3. The only thin you use it for is to monitor your speed. Some speedos have error in them a GPS doesnt. And it seems the faster you go the more accurate they are. Placement of you reciever is important.
As far as mounting the GPS, it must FIRMLY be affixed to something and not in your path of travel in the event of an offroad excursion. Same goes for laptops.
I hope this kind of helped you out. This was a VERY bare bones explanation. At every event they will usually have a "navigators meeting" for all new navs to get a better handle on how to do it. You could also check out the message boards at www.silverstateclassic.com (you have to be a member to post there 25.00 fee) or www.openroadracing.com. I think that one is free and ask questions there.
Boyce
There are MANY different ways to keep track of your time/speed/distance in open road racing.
For me the easiest way is to take to milage covered and do the math averaging your target speed.
ex: target speed 60mph, distance 90 miles. total time required 90 minutes. you should be crossing mile marker "wp15" (white pine county...silver state classic run) at EXACTLY 15 minutes. If you get there before 15 minutes you need to back out of the throttle a bit (or alot depending on how earlier you are) or spped up if you get there after 15 min. How much you need to speed up or slow down is totally dependant on when you arrive at the mile marker.
For runs like the SSCC IMHO the Nav's job for the first 50 miles is to do nothing but keep the driver pumped full of information about what is comng up on the road, monitor engine criticals, make sure sure your watches are still in sync, AND WATCH YOUR TECH SPEED (speed that you can NOT exceed). After the narrows the navs job is to watch the time at mile markers and tell the driver to speed up/slow down as wells as all of the other stuff mentioned.
We only monitor the last 20-30 miles of mile markers. The last 5 miles are the most critical and the last 2 are down to flat out luck. But if you have done your math right you can REALLY come close to averaging perfect speed. I think at the SSCC they are out to 5 or 6 points past the decimal in some classes to decide the winner. In May of 02 they were at only 4 points past. In that run we were .002mph off our target speed and won the 145mph target. Now in some classes that would only be good enough for 3rd or 4th.
Here is what one of our mile marker check look like on the way we do it. Using 130mph as an example target speed. Assuming there are only 20 miles left to the finish line. Right at the moent I hit the "split" button on the ole ROBIC watch and it will pause the time for about 10 seconds. I look at the watch and then look for the closest corresponding time on my spreadsheet. When I find the closest time I will tell the driver to get to the speed associated with the time. The speed listed is the speed you will need to maintain to make the average of 130mph to the finish.
WP24 MPH
28.15.04 127
28.15.05 128
28.15.06 129
28.15.07 130
28.15.08 131
28.15.09 132
28.15.10 133
WP24 =specifc mile marker
xx.xx.xx = minutes/seconds/miliseconds
Over the course of about 20 miles you can REALLY get yourself dialed in.
Couple things to remember
1)speed/time/distance ARE NOT liniar (60mph, 1 mile in 1 mintue / 120mph 1 mile in 30 seconds/ 180mph IS NOT 15 seconds, more like 17 or 18 and some change)
2)Cruise control is your friend. On a new Y body and F body one press on ACCEL will net you 1mph. you can also use it to decrease by 1mph.
3)GPS IS YOUR FRIEND!!!!!!!! We used a Garmin Street pilot 3. The only thin you use it for is to monitor your speed. Some speedos have error in them a GPS doesnt. And it seems the faster you go the more accurate they are. Placement of you reciever is important.
As far as mounting the GPS, it must FIRMLY be affixed to something and not in your path of travel in the event of an offroad excursion. Same goes for laptops.
I hope this kind of helped you out. This was a VERY bare bones explanation. At every event they will usually have a "navigators meeting" for all new navs to get a better handle on how to do it. You could also check out the message boards at www.silverstateclassic.com (you have to be a member to post there 25.00 fee) or www.openroadracing.com. I think that one is free and ask questions there.
Boyce
I use one of these euro rally computers with builtin GPS . works pretty good . I have not used anything so I donot not what is good one or bad one.
I velcro-ed a lap-timer style stopwatch to my dash above the radio with the "lap" button facing me. After a few laps I figured out where I wasn't really doing anything other than holding it to the floor and chose that as my "lap" spot. When doing any manual system like this, keep in mind the error that you can introduce in consecutive laps. For instance, a blazing time surrounded by two slow times could mean that you were late/early on banging the button on those surrounding laps.
A better way is to get someone who is not driving to do this for you.
A better way is to get someone who is not driving to do this for you.
QUOTE
How does everyone keep time at open road events? Are handheld GPS units legal, or do they have to be bolted down?
Buy a BMW with an on board computer.
Jason
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