Okay - I'm back at the office and can talk a minute. Here's some information.
First of all, Mike has a very valid point and all I can do is apologise. As far as I'm concerned, my first duty is to give each racer the information he wants -- his speeds. That is paramount. No questions. I yield the point. You're right. I'm sorry I missed that most important run of the event, Mike. No matter the speed, the racer wants to know HIS numbers and NOW!
The data we see on the screens in front of us is simply the timing slip for each run. That's all. And we don't see it 'til the tower clicks "print" or whatever. Sometimes that's not until the next vehicle has been announced - might be a minute, might be a few seconds.
We understand that Glen Barrett gave you lots more information. That's because he was sitting in the timing tower, where all information goes first. The starter radios the tower with the next vehicle number, and if we don't hear and understand it in the announce trailer - whether because of scratchy radio system noise or because we were reading another racer's numbers or whatever -- we won't know who's running 'til either we hear it on the radio or we see the vehicle a mile or two away and try to guess who it is.
We are located in a location that is chosen by SCTA/BNI - and I don't question it. The trailer we use is also the Course 1 timing slip trailer. If we were to be at the line, as has been suggested -- we'd be able to see what vehicle is up next - but only on the course it's near. If the announce trailer were to be located between 1 and 2, as it used to be -- we'd have a chance to use binoculars to see who's up next - you're right.
Of course we'd have to hope that there aren't spectators and crew and others blocking the view, so we might have to wait a minute to identify the vehicle. Remember that when there's another long pause because we're trying to see and therefore not looking a the screen to give you some other information. By the way, in case you want to compare, the trailer is going to be at the line for WoS and it used to be at the line for SCTA/BNI events, too. Ron likes the trailer being there, so do your best to hear what you think. I won't be on the salt for WoS.
Back to announcing from the line: and then there are courses 3 and 4. There's no way we can see those, and who's to tell a racer that his numbers aren't important just 'cause he's way over there? Or, worse -- just imagine when you were a rookie - how bummed you would be if everyone else's speeds were announced but yours - your very first time running on the salt - weren't? No frickin' fair!
We missed some announcements because we had visitors in the trailer. They ask for help - we try, and yes, sometimes we miss something on the race track. Is Ron SanGiovanni glad I took the time to try to find some gears for him a year ago? And the guys from the 636 car this year - should I have shooed them away? Of course not - but maybe I wouldn't have missed calling out Mike's speeds if I had. The Kiwi lady that kept coming in with pretty good information, not too much blather - if I'd asked her to stay out of the trailer I might have managed a bit fewer missed speeds - but I made the decision to add her comments to help everyone not just know what the NZ team was doing, but to share the international excitement of SpeedWeek.
Okay - I could go on, but I hope you understand a bit better some of the issues we faced. Don't get me wrong - I had a ball. I'll do it again, even if it'll take my eyes a week to get over staring at a dark screen with bright white salt reflecting the sun into my eyes - 8 or 10 hours a day.
Now - some of what we did during the week last week to make it better next time.
First of all, we have lousy reception on the FM radios - so we often can't hear what we need to hear to tell you. SCTA/BNI has visited us in the trailer a bunch of times - now understands better the radio situation ("Maybe we cold install a base station/antenna so we'd have better reception. Let's consider that"). The data that's on the screen in the tower could be displayed in our trailer -- if the entire data system gets expanded to send the stuff to us. Radio infrastructure on the salt is a weird game, so I'll step back and let Manghelli and his crews know what we'd like - and hope the time and money budgets include more stuff for Ron and me soon. It's all pretty good now - I'm not gonna crab about how good it should be. I'll do what I can with what I have.
Second, we don't always get the right paperwork the next morning. This hassle was dissected and chewed over and we think we've got it figured out. All of the data from each day is entered and crunched overnight, and getting what we needed selected, printed, and into the announcer's slot at the motel for me to fetch the next morning - isn't as easy as it sounds. And without those summaries - well, we're left to give you return run information, for instance, without being sure of yesterday's speeds. We scrawl speeds as they come in and tomorrow morning we hope to find those scratchy notes, and that leads to confusing talk from us. Hey - now we know what we need, and you betcha we'll have it next year.
There's more, more subtle stuff that I try to do to make the broadcast more informative and enjoyable, more hassles that we work around. We do what we can.
Mike, I'm sorry I missed your numbers.