Lap timer finish line a bad idea?

redlinederby Saturday, 6/4/2011
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I was happy to receive a electronic finish line kit via donation (thanks!). It is 2-lanes with timers that mark the time taken to reach the finish line. This is very cool and it's going to be fun to put together but I started thinking about it and wonder if lap times is really a good idea...specifically for the Fantasy League.

Since the Fantasy League uses the same track week after week, I think a time would actually hurt game play. In theory, if a car gets a 2 second time it will always hit that time, or really close so it. So after a few runs there would be an average time and that would be known. So then in the future if Car A raced against Car B and A had a better time, there wouldn't be much mystery to the whole thing, right?

This isn't to say a lap time couldn't be incorporated for some fun but I'm not sure it would be the right thing to use all the time.


Discussion

steady times every week would be bad. It would really kill game play.

On the other hand, it would be a ton of fun for mail in match races and special events. It would also rock for the national short track challenge.

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slash288 6/4/11

Definitely bad for the league, but awesome to see possibly a retired racer match and see what car is the fastest on the track. Being retired it wouldn't matter as much to see the time. Maybe only show the winners lap time of that retired match so your not giving out too much information.

also good for testing track fairness. same car on each lane to see if its even or not.

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markkaz 6/4/11

Agreed. It just becomes a research game if you post the times
but if you change the length or the slope of the track, then
the times will change.

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Bandeezee 6/6/11

I like it for ties. You would only have to race the cars once in each lane (two races) and if they each win one, then whichever one had the fastest time wins. You don't necessarily have to post the times of the cars on the website. Although, this would give you an unfair advantage if you logged the times for yourself

I believe this is a fairer way to break the tie than flipping a coin and having the winning car not be the fastest car, but the one that happens to win lane choice. This is why I want to get a lap timer for my project.

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