I know this can be a sensitive subject for some people, especially when it was brought up last winter, so I figured I'd get in my $.02 when the race season is still fresh on our minds.
Anyway... it seems as if the only argument against a mylaps system tends to be the $$ investment involved and the potential racers it would discourage from gridding up, which is an important one... yet it seems like there are SO many advantages. First of all, lets take a look at what we've got right now - and by no means am I suggesting that I don't appreciate the efforts that are currently being made to get our laptimes online. However, it's very clear to me there's a problem with the CCS data consistently translating onto the myracingbio site. It also seems like there's not much of an effort to fix it, and even if there was, it's simply not working. This might not seem like a huge deal, but this is information that can be very useful in lots of ways. For example, I jumped onto the site to see what would be an ideal laptime to target before heading to HPT this year by researching riders I'm familiar with, but the laptimes listed were all 7:00+ and obviously way too screwy to give me any good info. It's also fun to go back and take a look at your buddy's old laptimes - or even your own.
We know that every racer on the grid works their asses off for every result they earn. It doesn't matter if it's for an expert win or a finish towards the back of the AM pack. We also know that getting help or sponsorship is just as hard as anything else in this sport. Having a reliable timing system and an organized resource to display our results would make it so much easier to share them with potential sponsors... With the current system, there are way too many bugs with each rider's profile and any inconsistent spelling or formatting of your name doesn't even group those results together. Hell, a couple of my best finishes/laps at Heartland were recorded by CCS but they're not even showing up on myracingbio. It's like I wasn't even there on Sat - a couple of emails with absolutely no response and I've given up. I've had problems like this in the past as well. Again, it's not the end of the world, but it's something that's clearly avoidable with other timing systems.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the mylaps website, I suggest you go and take a look at what they have to offer. Results are posted immediately and there's never any problems with formatting considering that's exactly what the system is designed to do. Everything is connected to your personal transponder, so there's no mix ups or inconsistencies with your results or profile. I'm sure it's also has it's benefits on CCS's end and I'm pretty sure it's very simple for them to upload the data online themselves.
Again, I appreciate myracingbio's effort, but there are simply much better options out there that could benefit everyone. The transponders are even compatible with WERA and AMA races. I wish I could have made my argument a little better, but when you're typing with one hand, it's a little tough to think that much faster than you're typing.
So, whaddya guys think?
