How long do you it take?

[Watch-out-for-that-frog]

Having 8 races this season so far I have noticed we run about a minute a heat no matter what format the pack wants me to use for a grid.

We run a 48' six lane track with a Micro Wizzard timer and GPRM software. I have tried all sorts of formats and I have not seen any faster or slower charts. Just putting this out there.

Last weekend we had a pack from St. Bede's use the track (I come with it ) 65 boys a little over 65 minutes start to end! Went back and checked the data from the other 7 races this season I have done and wow they are all almost the same from race to race.

[Mr. Slick]

I have gotten very similiar results. I provide a track setup that is 64' long and 6 lanes with Micro Wizard timer and GPRM software. The biggest factor is if the group decides to have a youth announce each of the heats and the heat results. When the kids are doing the announcing for each heat the times slip to 1:30 to 1:45 per heat, which still is a fairly quick race for a 40 car group. From the racer's view, they are in a heat every 9 to 10 minutes so they seem to stay glued to the event. . . allowing the parents to get involved too!

[Watch-out-for-that-frog]

You touched on a big factor for me is keeping the Boys involved and excited / involved.

One thing I have started doing is having them "clean" the track before we have the flage ceremony. That gets them all wound up looking for inperfections

[Stan Pope]

Running 3-lane multiple elimination with boys staging and retrieving their own cars, I ask each track chairman to work toward 34 second cycle times, i.e. a heat released every 34 seconds. 34 second cycle time is about as good as they could get, making best use of all overlapping functions. What they actually accomplish is usually closer to 45 or 50 seconds! For some reason, the starter always wants to watch the race he just started instead of calling forward the next three racers! The person handling the draw doesn't stay one heat+ ahead. And, some of the boys are really meticulous about staging their cars! Every year, it seems that 5 totally new chairmen and staffs need to be trained in operation.

Add on the start-up and finals times, the average approximates the 1 minute per heat reports from others.

[mossk]

We ran our pack race this past Saturday. It was with our new 2-lane BestTrack, Microwizard finish line and GPRM software. We setup "On Deck" chairs close to the starting line and pit area so the next boys could retrieve their cars and be ready to place their cars at the gate. According to GPRM stats we had an average time between races of 43 seconds. If you want to speed things up having an "On Deck" area will do it. I personally thought things moved too quickly at times.

This is on another topic but the stopping section of our BestTrack worked great. However, I noticed at the beginning of the race cars were stopping within the first 1-2 feet but by the end of the race the fastest cars were not stopping until the end of the stop section. I don't know if this was because of graphite being dumped on the rubber or the surface wearing down.

[DerbyAddict]

According to GPRM stats we had an average time between races of 43 seconds. If you want to speed things up having an "On Deck" area will do it. I personally thought things moved too quickly at times.

This was our turnaround time also - 43 seconds. We ran a 3 lane with GPRM and had an On Deck area. The MC called the boys who were On Deck so they were ready as soon as the current race was started.

This is on another topic but the stopping section of our BestTrack worked great. However, I noticed at the beginning of the race cars were stopping within the first 1-2 feet but by the end of the race the fastest cars were not stopping until the end of the stop section. I don't know if this was because of graphite being dumped on the rubber or the surface wearing down.

I did notice this on our track but not to this extent but another thing to check - the cars started to get "broke in" so the speeds were getting faster, more momentum at the end of the track as racing progressed. Look at the speeds/times of the cars that were going the furthest, see if they were much faster by the end of racing. Just a thought.

[mossk]

I did notice this on our track but not to this extent but another thing to check - the cars started to get "broke in" so the speeds were getting faster, more momentum at the end of the track as racing progressed. Look at the speeds/times of the cars that were going the furthest, see if they were much faster by the end of racing. Just a thought.

Yes, the cars I noticed did increase in speed during the race. I have to wonder if it would help to brush the stopping section off a couple of times during the race.