Times of races

[2MinsToPost]

Tim I made my living in the Auto Racing Industry as a Timing and Scoring specialist. I have installed electonic AMB Timing Systems at tracks such as Toledo, Memphis Motorsports Park (which currently still uses my original installation, and they run some fairly big races their), Concord Motorsports Park, shoot I could list at least a dozen but I will not bore the Horse Racing fans with that. I was responsible, with the series ASA which was a major stepping stone to NASCAR until its untimely demise, for their live Timing and Scoring which was updated constanly for the viewer at home watching on television. I should get to my point.

I have serious doubts as to the accuracy of the times, always have. Matter of fact, the very first day I was at the track for live racing I asked myself this very question, how can they be that close? You got me thinking that this will be a fun project for me to study and learn more about, how they time these races.

I will 100% promise you one thing, if clockers use like I think they do a handheld watch, no way no how can you take that for a grain of salt the majority of the time. The margain of error in autombile racing using a handheld stopwatch is plus or minus 20-30% the majority of the time, and even the most experienced scorers will tell ya that. Hence, 99% of the major touring series use electronic scoring.

You got me thinking, I gotta look into the way they time the races as they unfold. What part of the horses body is used as the point where they time. What system(s) do they use. Man, you got me excited thinking about this.