About a month ago, we announced that Sweepstakes and the Buggy Alumni Association had teamed up to select and fund a new and improved timing system for buggy.  We are renting the system for an extended period this year so that we have time to thoroughly test it in the buggy context and make sure that it is better than the old system.

The system arrived over spring break, and yesterday evening, we learned how to assemble the hardware and operate the software.  The results were an excellent start. Both the hardware and software have a definite learning curve, but in a couple of hours we had the whole system unpacked, set up, and recording timed photo-finishes. The picture at right shows my dog Ruby edging BAA president Carsen Kline at the finish by 0.28 seconds after a 43 second race around the back yard. The quality of the images will improve in our real implementation as we learn which lens is most appropriate, and do things when it’s not getting dark out.

We are planning on doing our next test (this time with real buggy finishes) at freerolls on the weekend of March 27th and 28th. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed financially to the Buggy Alumni Association in our first 18 months. Being able to materially improve the buggy experience for both current students and alumni is really exciting.

One of the BAA’s biggest goals this year was to use our human and financial resources to improve on the timing system we use in buggy.  After all the work that teams put into buggy, there is nothing more important than accurately and reliably recording their time (ok, safety is always more important … blah blah blah).  We’re running a race against the clock here, we’ve gotta be able to trust the clock.

Last year, the company sweepstakes has paid to do the timing for 20 years showed up to raceday short on staff so the BAA helped out and filled in.  What we got was a close look at the system in use and a big list of things we’d like to see improved.

What we are improving on

Technology weaknesses

• Starter gun failures : as we’ve all witnessed, the starter gun has a failure rate of 2 -5 times per year.  This results in confusion and inequitable starting conditions for the teams that are affected.
• Starter gun – timer synchronization : the current system relies on someone pressing “start” on a timer box when the gun goes off.  This introduces unnecessary human error on one end of the timed period.
• Finish signal failures : the system buggy has relied on for the past 10+ years uses an RF transponder in each buggy and a wire loop (in a mat on the road) that detects those transponders when they pass by.   If a buggy crosses the line and no signal is detected, there is no recourse other than using the manual stopwatch backup times.  Some buggies are more prone to missed signals than others depending on material choice and thickness and transponder location.  Nobody deserves to have their time missed.
• Transponders are inconvenient : Sweepstakes has to orchestrate the distribution to every team.  Teams have to find a place to secure it that doesn’t interfere with the driver or the steering.  Raceday is no time to add parts to a buggy.
• Inaccuracy of the crowd-facing clock : the big black and yellow clock is manually matched to the official time as it is running, usually a minute or so into each heat.  This means that the time people see when the buggy crosses the line is highly unofficial, and has been off by large margins in the past.
• Delay in reporting official times : because it is somewhat time consuming to recall official times from the current system, the times posted on the leader board are usually the backup manual stopwatch times.  In very close races, this could result in a reversal of rankings once the official times are known.

Personnel weaknesses

• Rotating staff : because the company previously contracted often has other races on the same weekend, the same timers are not always available for prelims and finals.  This discontinuity introduces opportunities for error when it matters most, on finals.
• False start enforcement : outside timing professionals have not in our experience been sufficiently knowledgeable about the rules and procedures of a buggy race start.  Because none of the sweepstakes committee is in the immediate vicinity of the start line, the starter must be able to manage false start and restart situations in accordance with the rules.

The new solution

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