2015 Willow Springs Drags

[Tetge]

................Seems like some got downloaded a little early today.......

It's 12 o'clock somewhere..............

[Tetge]

So, it is the morning of the Willow Springs season opener, and, I am feeling tired and worn out, and so, I am wondering if I should change my tires, or if I should just go to bed early and forget the event? I need some motivation it seems. Perhaps if I were sure that there would be some easy kill, aka, victim, there, I might be able to muster some energy and attempt to brave the searing temperatures and howling winds? But, where could such a chump possibly come from? It seems that there are no quasi drag racers left, as I still think that Willow Springs should not make any claims of being an actual drag strip. It is more like punching off from any stop light, side by side, on the with cheating by getting the jump documented, and with no risk of a nasty ticket for engaging in a speed contest.

So, one needs a victim in the other lane to make things interesting.

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

Spinning aint winning

[Tetge]

Spinning aint winning

The video is not exciting other than the Hero4 shoots much better in low light. But, let's just say that a Coyote can bite a Cobra but the Cobra can not strike the wily Coyote. And the time slips indeed show that car #25, a base model lowly auto trans Mustang that can't even do a burnout, was the victor. Slips don't lie.

But, it was too crowded tonight as the heat sinked second passes demonstrated..... But they did have a new tree and no wires to drive over and a digital display of the results that the spectators could see. Still, they are too inefficient at the start line and it takes too long to get a run in with lots of starting and stopping the vehicle as the cars slowly move up. Tons of people tonight and Willow can't handle the crowd. The pits were even full with no parking available.

phpBB [video]

[Tetge]

I had to go out to the garage today and brush the bits of snake out of the coyotes teeth. I also felt remorse that I went to Willow with a full tank of fuel and my tool box and spare tire in the car. I gave away several MPH and 1.5 tenths running heavy and that was a shame as there were cars running 8's there and 9's were common place. I don't mind any ET in the 10's, considering, and I managed to squeak into the 100+ trap speed club, but, there were some very serious people using chutes to stop and running well over 120. There even was a rail.

I may make a documentary video to show the new action at the Willow Drags. I can positively say that they need to do some efficiency engineering or they need to limit the number of entries as they take too long per run due to the way in which they stage the cars. They also give the fast, non street racers, preferential treatment, which I am not a fan of, since we all pay the same to get in. In fact, I think that I will not be going back since it has turned into a major zoo. If I make a video, it will clearly show what I am talking about as I did discover that my new GoPro4 is vastly better in low light, so I got a fair amount of shots of the scene. And, as we were leaving, at 8:45 to go get some chow and a soft drink or two, there were lots of cars at the gate, paying to get in, and many obvious ones still heading to the track.

Willow has an apparent hit on their hands, but, they are not running an efficient show, so, who knows what will happen down the line? The way it was last night, if you showed at 8:30 you might get one pass in as you have to register and go through tech and spend a long time in line, and, at some point they switch to bracket racing, although I have no idea how they get that finished by their published 11 PM closing time.

Of course, perhaps I simply don't get it, and it is the scene that is important, not the racing. Willow just might be the new Irwindale.

[Tetge]

I looked at some video to see how long it took Willow to stage vehicles in comparison to other places and they were not as slow as I expected, partly because there is no burnout and also they never have to touch up the prep. But, Famoso was quicker even with a full 1/4, and burnouts. It seems that Willow wastes time because the person who enters your numbers waits until the prior cars have completely left the track before he waves you up to the pre stage and enters your numbers. He then motions you forward to stage and, even when the staging lights are properly lighted, he asks both drivers if they are ready before he activates the tree. All this may not sound like much, but, per my analysis, they could run an extra set of cars every 6-8 cars if they waved the next set up while the other cars were still going down the track and then entered the next numbers ASAP, and moved the waiting cars up to stage. By then the cars that just ran would be off the track, and, if for some reason they weren't, they could do what other tracks do and back you up and reset. Also, when both staging lights are lighted the cars should be sent off without asking if the drivers were ready since the cars are staged as shown by the lights. It may not seem like much, but, saving even 10 seconds per pair, would add up to at least 10%-15% more cars run per hour, without changing the basic system, and that is significant. They might even consider adding another person to the start line to call out the car numbers so that they can be entered more quickly and to tell the starter when the track is clear. They have plenty of people and the start line is the bottle neck for sure.

In short, when they have put numbers on 150 cars, or more, it can be a very long wait to run, and there also is zero parking in the pits due to the large number of cars. In fact it is very difficult to even drive around the pits looking for a place to park. And, to make things even worse, they make you wear a helmet while you sit in the endless line, and it can get hot out there, even at night. But, who am I to argue with success? They apparently know more than I do since the place was packed.

I was going to create a video but, it seems that it would be too much work to demonstrate what I already know. I just left my MT DR's on my car and I will wear them out street driving since it is really nice to not to go up in smoke and sideways if I gas it. And, I am done with drag racing so I don't need to keep those old MT's around at this point.

[jhwalker]

I think you should put a little more thought into this problem and provide additional detail.

[Tetge]

I think you should put a little more thought into this problem and provide additional detail.

By using a vast raw video library and advanced analytics, we were able to produce the above results. We would be happy to engineer a solution, but, of course, there would have to be a fee and thus far Willow has not approached us with an offer.

[jhwalker]

I think you should put a little more thought into this problem and provide additional detail.

By using a vast raw video library and advanced analytics, we were able to produce the above results. We would be happy to engineer a solution, but, of course, there would have to be a fee and thus far Willow has not approached us with an offer.

Do I have your permission to act on your behalf to get that offer? Would you be willing to act as senior advisor/consultant for Willow? Didn't you tee off on Bernie back in the day?

one might ask why I am still up, but I was invited to attend a party tonight to take on some of the young bucks of San Miguel in table tennis. The proceedings lasted longer than I expected. None of them were a challenge, but there were more of them than I expected, and each one thought that by studying the game underway, his chances were better.
Having taken a whipping in Colorado from a couple of folks, I have no delusions about the level of my game, but these punks had no chance...

[Tetge]

As you might recall, Bernie tossed me out and banned me, and, no, I never really had it out with him, as that was a losing proposition, as he didn't give a damn.

As for Willow? They, at the moment at least, are still counting their money and patting themselves on the back for such a great success. It had to be their best gate ever, by a long shot and they also ran other events during the day. I no doubt would be in the minority for wanting to make changes to speed things up as this apparently is not what the event is actually about.

One can not argue with success.

As for table tennis? It must be nice to still have game, even if there are better players out there. It is sort of like being a pro tennis player ranked 101 in the world. You are still one hell of a player but, you are unlikely to win a major as there are too many higher rated players around. But, if you go to a small enough tournament, you would be a big fish in a small pond. So, if you want to win, stay in the small pond................

This bit of wisdom was provided free of charge by analytics are us.