Red Light Answer

[Mike Gray]

Remember this debate?
Looks like it happened again at pomona.

"This will be the second attempt to run the final round, as it's reported that a photographer's flash created a red light in DeFrank's lane, as the tree came down right before the Professional final rounds. They were given time to cool off and are back to finish the racing for today."

[Don Kennedy]

In My opinion that when this happens The driver thinks he knows what happened , The crew Chief thinks he knows what happened , The Starting line crew is a little concerned but thinks they may know what happened , all this is emotions now > but the $50,000.00 timing system knows what happened it was a red light no emotion there

Now since no other racer has gotten a rerun when this has happened the rerun that happened to Mike Cotten was the wrong decision made based on the pass decisions > now we have a whole new Problem that "will " come up when this happens again ????

[billy leber]

After sitting at a race track for the better part of a damn week , I feel if the car has not moved and the red light comes on it should ALWAYS be a re - run .... Obviously there is a problem with the system , or flashes or whatever.

[FINESPLINE]

Maybe far fetched but food for thought. Has this problem only surfaced since the beginning of LED prestage and stage lights. Regular bulbs have a filament that that takes time to cool off and can be relit and not not be noticed by the human eye. Not so with a LED . much faster on/off. Example - LED brake lights and why they use them today. Could be a tie in with the electronics ?

[Jody Lang]

Originally Posted by FINESPLINE

Maybe far fetched but food for thought. Has this problem only surfaced since the beginning of LED prestage and stage lights. Regular bulbs have a filament that that takes time to cool off and can be relit and not not be noticed by the human eye. Not so with a LED . much faster on/off. Example - LED brake lights and why they use them today. Could be a tie in with the electronics ?

The one that happened 2 years ago was the old style stage lights.

[Chuck Beach]

The Defrank car has smaller tires on the front. And the way these cars are built today they sit very low to the ground so the pre-stage and staging beam have to be fairly low so the front end does not trip it. (not sure what the standard height is). With that in mind when shallow staging there is less circumference of the tire blocking the beam. When setting the trans brake most feel that your car won't and can't move. When staging you set the trans brake, during that time you are waiting to release the button. If that car with small tire moves .030 or .050 or .100 for what ever reason, more back up pressure applied than forward, wind, etc ... do you think anyone would be able to actually see that movement, but that may be all it takes to light the red light by allowing enough of the beam to make contact to the outside cell.

So what you have is a 900 hp car that is relying on a trans brake to keep it from moving in either direction ..

just a crazy thought ...

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Chuck Beach

The Defrank car has smaller tires on the front. And the way these cars are built today they sit very low to the ground so the pre-stage and staging beam have to be fairly low so the front end does not trip it. (not sure what the standard height is). With that in mind when shallow staging there is less circumference of the tire blocking the beam. When setting the trans brake most feel that your car won't and can't move. When staging you set the trans brake, during that time you are waiting to release the button. If that car with small tire moves .030 or .050 or .100 for what ever reason, more back up pressure applied than forward, wind, etc ... do you think anyone would be able to actually see that movement, but that may be all it takes to light the red light by allowing enough of the beam to make contact to the outside cell.

just a crazy thought ...

Right, Chuck. ...and on top of that, the car shakes from being on the rev limiter.

[Mike Brogniez]

Originally Posted by Chuck Beach

The Defrank car has smaller tires on the front. And the way these cars are built today they sit very low to the ground so the pre-stage and staging beam have to be fairly low so the front end does not trip it. (not sure what the standard height is). With that in mind when shallow staging there is less circumference of the tire blocking the beam. When setting the trans brake most feel that your car won't and can't move. When staging you set the trans brake, during that time you are waiting to release the button. If that car with small tire moves .030 or .050 or .100 for what ever reason, more back up pressure applied than forward, wind, etc ... do you think anyone would be able to actually see that movement, but that may be all it takes to light the red light by allowing enough of the beam to make contact to the outside cell.

just a crazy thought ...

Makes more sense to me than a camera flash....every posibilities should be examined and a solution found to eliminate this type of red eye.

[Michael Beard]

And the way these cars are built today they sit very low to the ground so the pre-stage and staging beam have to be fairly low so the front end does not trip it. (not sure what the standard height is).

Ground clearance is required to be a minimum of 3". Stage beams are roughly 1-5/8". Yes, transbrake cars can back out of the beams. It happened in Super Comp at Gainesville last weekend, and it was recognized for what it was. That is a different animal. Again, all of these videos of similar incidents show the red-light coming on BEFORE the pre-stage and stage lights go out. Additionally, one of the examples of this phenomenon was with a footbrake car that staged at a low rpm and then came up on the converter, which results in the car moving forward slightly in the beams. While red lights are possible by rocking back out of the beams is possible on systems not utilizing Stagelock, this is demonstrably a separate issue.

[Rich Biebel]

It is and was common practice for many people running doorcars with trans brakes to apply your line loc along with the trans brake. It will help to stop any movement once the brake is set and your staged.

The Defranks could not win as much as they have unless they had all their ducks in a row as the saying goes.

In 1970 at Atco in the first round of stock my partner was redlighted for this exact scenario.....slight movement backwards but it was a stick car and the starting line probably had a slight dip in it....and we did use a line lock to try and hold the car.....it didnt prevent that one......