I heard from James Rice (one of the SCTA's timing volunteer's and timing
computer expert) on Monday that the SCTA's new weather station pretty much
saved the day Sunday at El Mirage. At 8:00 am the wind was 25 mph and
causing a potentially dangerous crosswind down by the timing lights, so
they decided to wait until 9:30 to see if it would die down enough to start
racing. At 9:30 the wind speed was still to high to run, but from looking
at the history graphs from the weather station they could see that the
average wind speed was decreasing, not what anyone was expecting and not
what had been predicted for the day. At 10 am it was still too fast, but
still slowing down and at 10:30 am they were able to start racing. James
said that without the extra info from the weather station they might have
gone ahead called the race at 9:30. I also got a very nice email from Glen
Barret on Monday praising the station. I'm glad it's working out so well
for the club. I just think it's so cool.
BTW, this is a weather station from Davis Instruments, my employer, that
the SCTA got this past winter in trade for some advertising space in the
2002 SCTA Rulebook and the 2002 Bonneville Program.
The weather station isn't fully integrated into the SCTA timing system yet,
but I think by the next race in July that James plans on being able to
print weather data onto the timing slips. I was in the timing trailer on
Saturday evening and helped set up the software a little, and gave James a
quick tour of some of it's features. But I ended up leaving fairly early on
Sunday after I got the feedback I wanted from the motorcycle tech
inspectors on my bike project. I had the bare frame with me last weekend.
In July I'll be back with a roller, and hope have it ready to race at Speed
Week.
About the wind at El Mirage - Saturday late in the afternoon when I got
there the wind was blowing so much that inside the timing trailer it felt
like you were on a bus or train, the way it was gently rocking from one
side the other. Outside the wind was howling and threatening the
porta-potties and blowing away anything that wasn't tied and staked down.
None of the regulars at El Mirage mentioned the wind, but I guess they're
used to it.
Henry Deaton
SF, CA
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