Standing start then 1.75 laps - can I get it to ignore the finish line on the first lap?

Boggissimo

I'm doing a sprint this weekend at Lydden Hill, where we start at the paddock exit, do 1.75 laps and finish near the top hairpin (i.e. the finishing line is not in its normal place). I'm happy moving the finish line but is there a way to get the timer not to stop there the first time I cross it?

Boggissimo

I tried putting the finish line only on one side of the track and then avoiding that side the first time I passed, but it didn't really work, as the GPS error meant that sometimes it counted me crossing the line anyway. So I ended up just using the normal (official) track file and accepting that I would have incomplete laps. When I make the video file I'll just leave out the lap times but keep the other data on the overlay.

aol

I've been aware of this problem for a number of years, but seems like this is Lydden Hill specific problem. It is a very unique track configuration they have there. While I'm willing to look for a solution for it, it's little bit difficult to think of a solution that would be useful for other users too.

Boggissimo

There are a few different things about the setup, but in my head what would be needed is for the split/finish traps to have an option to count when I pass first time only, every time, every 2 times, 3 times, etc. So the standing start only counts once, and then depending on how the course is set you can choose how many times to pass the other traps before counting the 'lap' as finished. Of course I have no idea how difficult that would be to implement into the app...

andylaurence

This is a standard format for sprinting in the UK. It's used this format at a number of tracks in the South-West alone; Castle Combe, Clay Pigeon, Llandow, Pembrey, etc. I'm struggling to think of a sprint venue that doesn't use this format. There is no logger that supports this other than the Xoombox. That's a wired in unit and it's a fair bit more expensive than a GPS dongle on your phone.

aol

@andylaurence all right, I was not aware it's other tracks as well. I will consider this again.

andylaurence

This cropped up in conversation again this morning. I think the feature was first requested 9 years ago. It's a format used by thousands of competitors in the UK at sprints as well as Rallycross.

https://racechrono.com/forum/discussion/742/what-should-i-do-for-1-75-lap-sprint-event

aol

@andylaurence Yes, I know it's a long time. As there's always a constant stream of new feature requests, some are always destined to be at the bottom and never picked up. But I think in this case it's my mistake, as I didn't realise it's actually used in many hill climbs. I thought it's only the one exception, so the priority I gave it was always very low. Now it's properly prioritised (since last year), and will get done eventually. To give you an idea of our turnaround time; we have been working on v8.0.0 since early 2021.

Boggissimo

@aol any progress on this feature? I'm at another event using this format today

aol

No, but we're finally nearing completion of the v8.0, so we can start working on smaller things on our back log.

Boggissimo

@aol_of_RaceChrono your annual nag about this feature, before the start of the speed season this time! Any updates?

aol

Unfortunately no updates on this :disappointed:

Boggissimo

@aol_of_RaceChrono was at another event over the weekend using the 1+ lap standing start format. I now have a Racebox Mini which seems more accurate than the Garmin GLO so for some runs it was possible to use a finish line that only covered half the track so I could avoid it the first time round, but that didn't work every time. I don't know anything about programming but it struck me that it really shouldn't be that hard to implement a solution for this - it is only needed when there is a standing start, so some sort of logic that says 'if the track has a standing start, ask how many times to cross the finish line before stopping the time for this run'. Then stick a dropdown in the track edit menu somewhere that lets you select '1st/2nd/nth' so that you can leave it on 1st time for a hillclimb/sprint where you only pass the finish line once, and select 2nd time for a >1 lap track sprint. I don't know of any events where you cross the finish line more than twice but they may exist.

Boggissimo

Boggissimo @aol did you have a chance to include anything to address multi lap standing start events in the latest version?

aol

Boggissimo No but I have it on the roadmap for next feature release v10.3.