As with all handicapping systems the idea is to ‘fairly’ allow boat and driver combinations of different capabilities and speeds to compete on a level playing field. To this end every entry should have an equal chance of winning but in the great scheme of things we all know that is difficult to achieve.

Back in 2000 the driver’s forum agreed that the current computer based system gave too much advantage to the slower boats and in an attempt to fix this situation several different mechanisms were tried. Unfortunately anything the race committee came up with had to work inside the framework of the old computer system as we did not - without spending a shed load of cash - have the ability to change how the computer applied the various handicap ‘rules’.

At the end of the 2001 season a further drivers forum complained that the amended system was still heavily biased and to this end a further adaptation to the existing systems was proposed.

Unfortunately the committee were unable to implement these new methods on the old computer program so Ted Walsh rewrote the system in an open source computer programming language called VBA designed to run under Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

What quickly became obvious was that the reporting and data basing capabilities of this approach allowed a far greater amount of information to be kept, scrutinised and manipulated after racing had finished, giving the timing pier staff a far better understanding of how the ‘numbers’ worked and how drivers could work the system with less need for 20 years of pier experience and handicap juggling.

Very soon after the new system’s inception it became apparent the rules talked about in forum, agreed by committee and implemented by Ted were very aggressive towards the slower boats – to the point that drivers complained their racing was no longer enjoyable. This lead to a change in the way handicap racing was being run from ‘ thou shalt race as fast a humanly possible – and woe betide you if you have even one lap faster than you handicap lap time’ to the more pragmatic stance of ‘choose a time and stick to it , the slower you are the more accurate you must be’.

Essentially this is the basis on which the system  will work.

A list of starting times is then generated with the slowest boat at the top

All the faster boats give away the set amount of time required for all boats to finish at exactly the same time.

E.g.

Giorgio Armani likes to lap at 1 minute 30 seconds – his 10 lap time is 15 minutes.

Marilyn Manson likes to lap at 1 minute ‘dead’ – his 10 lap time is 10 minutes.

Neil Armstrong likes to lap at 30 seconds – his 10 lap time is 5 minutes.

By this we can see that Neil needs to give Giorgio 10 minutes head start otherwise Giorgio doesn’t stand a chance, and needs to give Marilyn a 5 min head start for the same reason.

Marilyn on the other hand gives Giorgio only a 5 min head start and sets off a full five minutes in front of that nutter Armstrong who loves lapping at 120mph.

Due to the miracle of computers having a very hard time of subtracting 0 from something, a start time loading of 5 seconds is added to everyone’s start time. This leads to a start time grid looking like this

At this stage its all dead simple – everyone does their proper lap time, no one gets in anybody’s way and they all finish by crossing the line at the same time, majik!

However we are racing – on water – things change, people get in the way and skill is involved to keep things the right way up and on time.

Oh if it was only down to skill – but in our evil webs we also quickly learned that by asking for a little bit more time of say 2 seconds a lap we can make up for those minor transgressions that would have put us back down the finishing order. On a 10 lap race asking for 2 seconds gives us a nice 20 second window that we can work to our advantage.

Nice but not exactly fair on the next entry that’s breaking every bone in an attempt to make his lap time while you cruise round cup of tea in hand. This is where the concept of ‘Busting’ comes in.

For 2003 the system will use the following to gauge if you have transgressed by going a little too fast.

Drivers of average long lap time around 1:10 and greater will only be allowed to go faster by 0.25% of their posted total race time – other lap times are on a fixed sliding scale that looks similar to this one

This results in a time being generated and your ‘window of opportunity’ being your % allowance seconds

E.g.

This new system will replace the old system of a flat rate 1% bust rule that has given so much cause for complaint in the past. The important thing to remember is that during the course of a race very few drivers get near to their perfect race time – more often it is only a single entry that sticks out from the rest

As a further enhancement for 2003 a slower than average last lap will not be considered when calculating your average race time – this is designed to counteract two things.

The first is that when we looked at the average lap time for the slowest boat they were very consistent even on the last lap. This is because as a slower boat they are often in the lead up right up until the last turn - they very rarely have to pass anyone – while the rest of the field fight for position behind – Giorgio had the luxury of metering his position to cross the finish line just at the right time.

Secondly faster boats can pull out a large lead during the race and then throttle off once they believe that their lead is good enough to win – this approach saves time and prevents the entry from busting by allowing them to massage their race time when strictly speaking they should have bust. This is done on the last 400 meters once you know you are in the lead – normally right in front of the timekeepers – not good.

Your last lap time will therefor be an average of the previous 9 laps or your actual last lap time, whichever is the faster.

Having considered many different systems there is still none better than a human adjudicator. A computer has difficulties in assessing water and weather conditions – the amount of lake traffic and the similarity of boat and driver combinations that make boat racing such a dynamic forum. To make a ‘good’ handicap race all those conditions need to be assessed for without assessment some or all entries would have an unfair race and that’s not the point of handicap racing.

e.g.1

Typically at the end of July about 25% of the field is on holiday and the water and weather conditions are at their best, a fast boat driver sent out with last months 20 boat field stormy interclub time can bust by over 1 lap in the race – he had a handicap of 52 seconds last time, this week he needs a handicap of 47. The timing pier will assess these situations and make changes once confirmed by the driver(s) in question

e.g.2

Consider 3 boats of similar average speed, if the timing pier set them off at the same time the ‘fastest’ quickly nips into the lead and stays there just in front, the others never having a chance. If however the pier manipulates the numbers a little something far more exciting happens and typically a race breaks out

When a driver does bust he is folded back down the results but in front of the early starters. When more than one driver busts his time, the least bust time is placed above the others.

When you do bust you will be reassessed based upon the statistics sheet posted after the race you bust in. You will be retimed based on a time ‘somewhere around’ your fastest lap of the previous race. It is unlikely to be your fastest lap and most certainly will not be your average lap time.

At any point a driver may ask to have his times reassessed for that particular day – you may have as much or as little extra time as you require – typically the drivers of faster boats require their times to be massaged quite aggressively if the conditions are very flat or very rough.

If when you arrive and begin to setup your outfit for the day you feel that you will surely bust the first race it makes sense to come to the timing pier and politely ask for less time or, if there is a hurricane blowing, be given a little more time.

If you bust again – we are sorry but that’s your fault – we will reassess you again before the next race providing there are not more pressing issues and that its feasible.

Likewise if you finish more than half a lap adrift of the rest of the pack then we will endeavour to re handicap you for the next race providing that it’s feasible.

The existing rules state that early starting by even the smallest margin puts you to the back of the field.

The race Committee still considers that there should be no allowable margin for error on an early start. For 2003 however early starters will have their finish position above those who have failed to complete the race or have for whatever circumstance finished but did not complete the full race distance.

E.g. only 9 laps

The system for 2003 will deduct any late start time from your lap average (see above) before using the result to calculate your race time to see if you have bust or not. This prevents an entry from deliberately starting late to massage their race time – difficult but still technically possible.

E.g.

An entry fails to cross the start line at the prescribed time due to engine, fuel, passenger or whatever problem by, say, 30 seconds late. The entry then drives like the devil himself, 3 seconds a lap faster than his handicap lap time to take a win.

Under the old system he would not have bust as his average race time would have included his late start – under the new system he is rightly bust.

On three race days per year there is a scratch race – the individual presenting the prize decides whether or not the points from the scratch race are added to the points for the day prize.

The Race committee have been careful to construct a set of rules that they consider to be both fair and in keeping with the character of racing at WMBRC. However, as with many systems – and as we have found out with previous handicap mechanisms – a certain amount of tweaking may be necessary to ensure that competition is as close as safety permits. To this end an amendments heading exists at the bottom of the ‘Handicap Rules’ that hang in the results display cabinet. When an amendment is required the OOD or one of his officers will explain it as part of the drivers briefing. The change will then be applied to racing results from that point on. The amendments section will then be updated, stating the change and the rule that has been updated. This allows a driver to revisit the update without necessarily reading the entire ‘handicap rules’ document again.