USAC Racing Forum

I would like to get the opinions of some of the USAC .25 handlers and drivers on the use of raceceivers for Quarter Midget racing. The QMA publicity director - yeah publicity director has his opinion as does the tech director....see their quotes below. We continue to copy or try to copy most of what USAC is doing...I.E. judging...animal engines...etc. so why must we stop doing that with the raceceivers? I have heard nothing but good things about the use of them.

Rich (Tisone - Publicity Director) said he feels that they take away from a driver’s visual skills. Rusty (Barnard - Tech Director)feels that there are more cons than pros on the use of them.

Haven't seen any cons using them so far.

We have moved on to Bandoleros (more room inside car - bigger track) and Inex uses Raceivers. My son appears to appreciate as do the fans that see the cars line up in one lap versus 20 in a QM race. I do think the "Yellow-Yellow-Yellows out" in their ear is only a good thing.

As soon as QMA figures out how to make a buck off of them they will make them mandatory.  I can not think of any cons to using them, I know they have saved our car and wallet quite a few times by letting my driver know that the yellow is out. These kids are running 6 second laps and do not always have enough time to react when they come around the turn and have only visual reference of an accident. 

they are used at eldora speedway, enough said.

I've heard one con: Driver can't hear a car approaching with the ears plugged up.

But from our experience, I think it's a good idea. We've raced with and without. Raceiver has helped reduce wasted time when lining up, and when the caution is out, the warning is heard immediately. You don't have to rely on kids seeing yellow flags/lights. It also helps when the driver can hear the calls made.

Also great for training. Get a walkie talkie with one of the frequencies, and you can coach your driver. (Don't do this on race days, tho!)

if driver does not like ear plugs i recommend the speakers in the helmet. i think they are around 40.00 dollars, and worth every penny. no more duck tape on ears!!!! you can get these from dale hall (hall electronics). who is at most big events or larry ebert. dale will probably chime in with more info. it should help with hearing the other cars over the plugs.

I didn't realize there were ever any cons to safety!!!

Bottom line is they save time with line ups, they save cars and equipment by allowing kids to be warned of an incident ahead of time, and they make racing safer for the kids.

It's the best money we have ever spent in quarter midget racing.

"Rich (Tisone - Publicity Director) said he feels that they take away from a driver"s visual skills.
Rusty (Barnard - Tech Director) feels that there are more cons than pros on the use of them."

 This is what happens when soccer moms and dads are allowed to make decisions in a racing organization. Maybe if one of them actually had any type of racing (driving) experiance they would understand the benefits of raceivers.

 Before QMA can mandate the use of raceivers first a commitee will be formed to study the use. It will contain a few that no nothing about them and really dont care, and a few that will have an interest, whether themselves or an aquaintance, on making a few dollars on the sale of them. Then if decided they need to use them, a couple paragraph rule will be wrote deeming how someone may get dq'd on the improper wearing, placement, use, etc. etc. etc. that we have all seen before. (example - 120 flywheel key)

 Oh wait, they wont now since they have just read it on the USAC forum. Just like removing the Thai head verbage from their tech manual just days after being brought to attention on here. LMAO!!!!       

Does anyone question having to buy a seat belt???? The raceceiver is a piece of safety equipment. We have raced locally with and without it and would not race without it again!! What other form of racing doesn't have at a minimum one way communication with the driver??? My driver has complained about the earphones and the tape, blah, blah, blah. I bought him one of those earphones that hook over your ear so we no longer have to use the tape. When he can race without the use of seat belts I will allow him to race without a raceceiver. He is too valuable to me!!!!

Personally I could not wait till our club went to the recievers.  As said before its a safety thing how could you not want  your child to be as safe as possible.  I understand the point that was made about taking away from thier visual skills but I dont think sprint cup drivers could race like they do without a spotter.  We also had problems with the I-pod ear buds so I finally got him some molded ear buds and we have not had any discomfort or problems since. 

The raceceiver in .25 Midgets is the best thing since sliced bread.
As far as not hearing the other cars with the earbuds in, my driver just puts one in her right ear and that seems to work.
 

I think the raceivers are one of the best changes to the sport I have seen in our short time involved with it.  It makes the race days go so much faster because it only takes one or two laps to lineup and there is no doubt it makes it much safer for the kids.

As for them hearing the other cars, we recently bought AJ a set of Sony ear buds that hang on his ears and he said now he can hear other cars behind him or next to him.  They were $20 at Walmart over near the Disney complex last week.  Not to mention no more taping them into his ears.

The only issue we had was that the driver initially relied too much on the information and needed to be looking ahead further.   Once that was solved.... they work well..... biggest benefit is line-ups.   I think things happen too fast on the track to have much value for saftey.  There is some, but I would not overstate it.  The driver needs to be alert.

Here in Tampa we have the flagger and lights at the start finish line and a set of lights near the end of the back stretch.  A driver that is at the start finish line when a car spins on the back stretch has to wait until they are coming out of turn two to see the yellow light, which means they are pretty much on top of the spun car at that point.  Now with Raceivers they hear, "Yellow, Yellow, Yellow" in their ears and are already slowed down before they get to the back stretch.  That isn't overstated and there is no arguing it is much safer now with the Raceivers.

race recievers are a good thing to have line ups are fast , it helps with cautions,allin all it makes the day go faster and saves money buy letting the drivers no the caution is out so they look for the wreaks and slow down . at are tracks they also tell the driver green,green ,green so no one car gets a jump. the down side is when they talk to your driver under green ,(yes this does happen)when it happened to us we went from third to last .dont tell my driver where to run on the track he knows were his car is handling  best

 Average lap time on an average track we'll say 6 seconds, some lots faster. Driver can actually see the flagman for about 1/4 to 1/3rd of the track. That equals to 1.5 to 2 seconds of time the driver has to recognise a yellow flag. Throw in passing cars, a little bumping, reaction time of flagman, etc. cuts into that time. How can a raceiver not help? If a raceiver takes away from visual skills then the driver and handler need to do some work.
 I have heard one of the reasons some of the QMA big shots dont like raceivers is because the line ups after a caution are faster. Doesnt give them enough time in the hot chute to work on their junk.

  Personal agenda > commom sence

 Most tracks and racing organizations across the US mandate the use of raceivers.

 QMA will have them mandatory next year.     

Thanks everyone for all your advice and replies. I will forward this to Rich and see what can be done to get him to understand.

With everything that USAC has done to make quarter midget racing so much better I can only hope the club really looks at USAC for the 2011 season and beyond. Many at the club feel that we were mislead by many of the older members with personal agendas.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Just curious. Why don't you run USAC instead of trying to fix other sanctioning bodies?

Sounds like they wanted to, but others in power at the club didn't want to.

My driver has been in 2 wrecks since the racievers.  The yellow, yellow yellow voice came in after my driver had relied on the voice ...... The voice came in a full 1/2 lao after t he wreck.  My point is you cannot count on that.  Drivers need to be alert and should NOT count on the voice for letting them know whats ahead.  So while there may be some advantage for wrecks, the drivers need to be alert and taught to look ahead , react , avoid.   Maybe wrong words, but you get the idea.

Receiver is great, but drivers have to remember to still pay attention to the flag/lights.

We've found that the raceiver sometimes resets itself to "0000" when it's bumped or jostled. And the driver won't have any warning that's happened. Clipping it on the car is probably not a good idea because of this. Try velcro-ing it to the helmet.

Lyra,   I would assume that you have the yellow raceceiver? The blue model always defaults to the USAC channel. We also find that it is best to put a new battery in each weekend so that we never have a battery going dead.

It is also a good idea to remove the battery at the end of the weekend. I have seen some cheap batteries go bad and cause problems to the raceceiver.

Just a few things we have learned.
Eric

Hey Eric, thanks for tips.

We do have the yellow, two of them. New "brand name" batteries every race day. But we'll have to make sure we take the batteries out when we're done.

We even sent them back to Raceiver to have them check them out, and all was normal, so we concluded the bumps somehow reset them.

We'll have to look at the blue one if we keep on having problems, but so far (knock on wood) we've been ok since we started to keep them off the cars.

"The voice came in a full 1/2 lao after t he wreck" - This sounds more like a problem with your race director and/or race officials than with the Raceivers.  Earlier this year, my driver was in turn two when two cars crashed in turn 4 and the race officials never threw the yellow flag, never turned on the lights and didn't announce the caution over the radio.  The car right in front of my son piled into the wreck and collected AJ in the mess with him and then they threw the caution.  Was the Yellow Flag and lights at fault for that happening?  No, and as handlers and fathers, several of us made our feelings crystal clear to the flagger and race director about how their lack of reaction put children at more risk than needed to be!  I also talked to my driver about what happened and how he might avoid it in the future.

"Drivers need to be alert and should NOT count on the voice for letting them know whats ahead...the drivers need to be alert and taught to look ahead , react , avoid." - Has anyone proposed going to Raceivers and then stop teaching our kids to be alert and to react?  These are basic things that need taught to any drivers regardless of whether they have Raceivers or not.  If a driver isn't reacting to accidents in time because of the Raceivers then is that really a problem with the Raceiver?  No, it is a problem with the driver that the handler should resolve it ASAP.

Just my two cents...  

It's an extra. If someone condones their driver relying solely on the raceciever that is wrong. It's not going to save everything. It's not going to be the catch all. It's an extra way to alert wrecks. I would say it's biggest purpose is lineups.

Throughout the year we've seen a lot of instances where they come unplugged or the batteries die and most times you don't even notice because the driver adjusts accordingly. On top of telling the drivers where they need to be on the radio the flagman still signals with the flags as usual.

It's an extra route to make racing more safe and efficient and while I usually will hear anyone's point of view and consider what they say anyone who argues that this device makes racing less safe is just plain wrong. If you feel your driver relies on it too much work to make him more observant.

Freitas ... Not sure if you just like to argue or what.... but we are agreeing.... that's basically what I meant.  After reading some other comments and watching some kids race, including my own, we all must make sure that the drivers (and handlers) don't get a false sense of security in the device.  The radio is just another way of trying to help make the sport safer...