THE RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
by Eric Arnold
Social Media Manager and Track Historian
As one of Knoxville Raceway’s Track Historians and keeper of records, one of the most important statistics we keep track of is the clock on race nights. Time management has been something Knoxville Raceway has strived to improve, so that events are completed at a decent time. Race Director, John McCoy, continuously reviews the track’s performance and how we can ensure that fans of all ages have an enjoyable experience at Knoxville.
In 2015 our average time of the final checkered flag for weekly events was 11:07 p.m. Our goal in 2016 was to improve that number to 10:30 p.m.
We made a huge stride in 2016 with the average finish of our weekly events being 10:16 p.m -- an improvement of 51 minutes this season for the final checkered flag.
To accomplish time savings takes a lot of work from a lot of people. From our track preparation crew, to our push truck drivers to the drivers and teams, we are thankful for the cooperation every one showed this year. Having a great track surface ready by 6:40 p.m. each Saturday with drivers already in staging is the first step in having a well-run event.
Group qualifying in time trials has been a huge time savings. Single-car time trials at our World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series and Nationals events averages 46 seconds per car. We, during a weekly Saturday program, qualify our 410 cars at 28 seconds per car. When there are no delays, we are able to complete time trials in seven to eight minutes on most Saturdays.
Throughout the night, we obviously are unable to control the amount of cautions and red-flag periods. However, our safety crew, scorers and push truck drivers were prepared for each of these situations throughout the season. This efficiency also saves time and made hitting an earlier ending time a reality. In the past few seasons, our safety team has sped up their work on red flag clean up from six minutes to three or four minutes, typically.
Also, this year, all classes decreased their number of caution periods during their respective features. In 2015 we averaged 7.5 stoppages per night. This season that number was reduced to 5.3.
In 2015 the average intermission was 16 minutes. This year we cut that number down to eight minutes on the nights we had intermission. Three events excluded an intermission altogether to make up time.
We are grateful for Craig Ford supplying our Pella Motors two-seater each weekend. While the two-seater rides do take a minimal amount of time, they are advantageous to Knoxville Raceway providing a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our sponsors who continue to invest in our track and events to keep our program running.
This season, victory lane was altered slightly as the 305 and 360 winners no longer take individual or team photographs until the conclusion of all events. This change helped specifically when winning drivers were competing in both 410 and 360 classes.
Our latest-ending Saturday show of the season featured a new addition: the children’s Candy Dash sponsored by Casey’s General Stores. The event took 25 minutes and we have researched ways to make this more time-effective in the future. However, we didn’t receive any complaints and most children stayed awake through the 410 feature event due to the candy rush we may have given them! The smiles were worth the extra time.
We don’t just watch the clock during our weekly program, but also during the 5-hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores. During this event, we begin the nightly shows at 7:15 p.m., local time, to allow the sun to go down. This helps the track condition stay consistent throughout time trials. With the later start time, we were still able to conclude all racing by 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Thursday, with extreme weather approaching, we started at 6:45 p.m. and concluded at at 9:31 p.m. Friday we started at 7:15 and finished at 11:11 p.m., which was an improvement from the 11:57 ending time in 2015. Our goal for 2017 is to improve this to a 10:45 p.m. end time. Saturday we were done at 11:01 p.m., ahead of last year’s 11:36 p.m. end time, and we will continue to work to improve that as well.
You may remember that we began all of our April events 30 minutes earlier this season at 6:15 p.m. With the sun not up as long in the daytime and cooler temps typically that time of year the racing surface can be ready by that time. We have decided to continue with that time frame for the 2017 season.
Saving time has a lot of components and moving parts. Educating everyone to understand how they affect the show has been the largest part in efficiency the past few seasons.
During the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series events in June, WoO officials actually asked us to slow down, because they were not ready. At that moment it dawned on me, and the rest of the Knoxville Raceway officials, that we had changed our culture for the betterment of our fans.
If you ever have any ideas on how we can continue to improve in our race against the clock we are always open to suggestions. Please email me at erica@knoxvilleraceway.com with those ideas. Thank you for a great 2016 season and we hope to see you again in 2017!
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