I need help understanding the math in bracket racing. The following are the actual times from a bracket race ticket. The question is which vette won the race and why? Nobody but the two old guys racing could claim it was an exciting race, so try to be kind when you answer. At least give credit for the reaction times.

Vette A: Dial-in=9.90 RT=.024 I1=2.552 ET=10.403 MPH=71.642

Vette B: Dial-in=9.40 RT=.063 I1=2.724 ET=9.890 MPH=75.806

:steering:

 

This would be a good question in the Drag Racing section too, Rob.

I have heard of several different kinds of bracket racing...closest to dial-in for example. But the two (and emphasis on two, making me no expert) bracket races that I have been involved with still boiled down to who crossed the finish line first without going over their dial-in, was the winner.

This looks like Vette A got a 0.5 second head start off the tree. It "appears" the ET would give Vette B the win based on ET, by maybe as little as .01 of a second (10.40 - 9.89 = .51).

:lurk: Anyone else? If I am going to do this more, I too would like to know more..

 

Vette A - Total time 10.427
Vette B - Total time 9.953

In most bracket races, this assumes that the winnner is the car with the shortest total time, since neither of these cars "Broke out" (ET less than dialin), thus making Vette B the winner.

There is another nuance here though. I am assuming this is not on a pro tree, and therefore a "perfect" reaction time would be .500 seconds (Unless this tree is set up for perfect being .000). In this case, the winner would be Vette B again, as it appears both cars redlighted (Left the starting line before .500) and Vette A did it first, therefore losing the race.

One other general caveat - You break out (Go faster than your dial-in) you lose unless the other guy breaks out worse (Ask ZR-Don about this one :D)

That help?


[Modified by CathDoc, 8:47 PM 6/22/2003]

 

Thanks Ron, I have posted this in the drag racing forum. I overlooked that earlier. :leaving:

I think the answer to my question has to do with reaction times. Hopefully the drag (racing) experts will let me know.

 

I saw tickets with negative reaction times and those resulted in red lighting. The reaction times on the race in my example were positive times with no red lights. I guess that means a .000 reaction time would be "perfect".

The ticket shows Vette A as the winner. The only way I can figure that is to add the reaction times to the ETs. The ticket has a figure of .026 after the heading MOV on Vette A's side of the ticket. I haven't learned what MOV stands for, but it seems the bigger the better.

 

The easiest way to figure out who won a bracket race is by the "Package". The Package is the total amount of error.
Error is broken up into two pieces. 1) Reaction time error 2) Dial-in error

The first thing you look at is, did somebody redlight, and if both redlighted, the 1st one that went red loses the race. Neither of the two cars in your example went red so the race was on.

The next thing you look at is did either of the vehicles break out... if both broke out, the one that broke out by the least amount wins the race. Neither of the two cars in your example broke out, so we know we have a clean race based upon who made it to the finish line 1st.

Vette A: Had a very nice .024 reaction time and ran a poor .503 off its dial in for a total error of .527

Vette B: Also had a respectable .063 reaction time and ran an also poor .490 off its dial in for a total of .553 error.

Thus we have .527 error vs .553 error, telling us that Vette A took the win light by just a few feet based upon the trap speeds you were running at the 1/8th.




[Modified by GHornet, 9:42 AM 6/23/2003]

 

:iagree:

 

Look at the timeslip ans see if it has additional info like "MOV" and a number. MOV is margin of victory and accounts for who crossed the line first. The tree looks like it has been set up for 0 based reaction time. That is new this year at some NHRA tracks.