TFT
Motor Sports Timing
Telephone:- 01546 510355
How to stage on the National Sprint
Association System
Once the
start line marshal signals you forward, edge slowly to the start line until the
white stage light comes on. Since either, or both start beams can be broken, to
illuminate the stage light, your position can be to within approximately 4
inches of either side of the centre of the two beams. This is a very wide
staging area (8 inches in total). This was made larger, as when the traditional
4 inch wide staging area was used, many bikes, especially British singles and
twins, had great difficulty in staging without pulling a red light. This was
mainly due to factors such as clutch drag and vibration of the forks.
This wide
staging area can be used to the riders advantage. Tests using data logging
equipment show that even 8 second bikes take 0.2 of a second to cover the first
4 inches of track. The second 4 inches takes only 0.1 of a second. If a rider
were to stage “shallow”, which means he is only just breaking the first beam,
he can then move forward almost 8 inches before the clock actually starts. A
rider staging “deep” (a rider who has rolled forward as far as possible without
the stage light going out) barley has to move at all without the clock
starting. On this system with an 8 inch staging area, the difference between
staging deep and shallow can be 0.1 of a second for fast bikes and up to 0.5
second for slow bikes.
Staging
shallow has a big advantage, but comes at a price. If you are so shallow the
beam is barely broken, you could quite easily role back slightly before the
green and get a red. A worse problem, which is particularly bad for riders who
linger on the start line after the green, is that if you role back after the
green the clock starts, even though you have not. Many a time I have seen
riders do this, taking great care (and time!) to get a good start, completely
oblivious to the fact they have triggered the clock several seconds before they
have launched.
It should
be noted that staging shallow has no advantage in a drag race, where the first
person to cross the finish is the winner regardless of the time. In this
situation, in makes sense to stage deep, so you are 8 inches closer to the
finish. A very small advantage, but could well make a difference in a close
final or elimination round.
Hanging
around on the start line after the green is bad practice and achieves nothing.
All the rider knows for certain on the start is that the clock cannot start
until the green light is showing, but the clock could start at any time after the green if he or she
has momentarily come out of stage. Unless the rider gets a team mate to watch
the clock as he starts, he will never know if this is happening or not. Even
with a team mate watching the clock, it is very difficult to judge if a
premature triggering of the start line beam has occurred. Time and money spent
on tuning the bike to squeeze another few tenths of a second off the time is
wasted if the clock has been running for 2 seconds before you start. Be ready
to launch as soon as you see the green light, there is plenty of time to get
ready before hand. Should you ever take up drag racing, you will need to do
this anyway. I remember watching one competitor at an NSA event, who would not
even put the bike in gear until he saw the green. When the green light come on
he would put the bike in gear, with an almighty clunk and the bike would shoot
forward about six inches (triggering the clock), he then began his starting
procedure, which took about 5 seconds and then finally launched only to
consistently get times 5 seconds slower than he should have.
If you
must hang around on the start line make sure you are staged in the middle, i.e.
not shallow or deep. This way, at least if you can keep fairly still after the
green, before you launch, you have the best chance of not prematurely
triggering the clocks.
Finally,
once under way, keep the throttle fully open and stay in the prone position
until you are sure you are well past the finish. Almost every meeting I go to,
if I stand at the top end, I can always see riders shutting off too early.
If you are
in a lane that has to turn across the other lane at the end of the track, never
turn across if the other rider has yet to pass you. If in doubt, go to the end
of the track before turning. This is a problem made worse by competitors
lingering on the line and is another reason not to do so. Its also easy to turn
early if your engine fails, when often your mind is thinking about the engine
failure and not the hazard of a faster rider who is still behind you because he
hung about on the start line.
To sum up:-
- When sprinting, stage shallow.
- When drag racing, stage deep.
- Don’t hang about on the start line. if you must, stage
in the middle and watch for riders ahead of you turning across your path.
