Rick, gotta challenge you on this, to a degree. I started racing when transponders didn't exist. I can tell you first-hand from racing from club races, to regionals all across the US, to running races at my buddy's family's track that in the long run, the transponders are much more accurate. (car goes by, you can't read the numbers... two cars tangle in front of you... marshall sprints by....) We did more reviewing of laps than we did anything. Yeah, there's failure with transponders, too. But, you also take the human element out of it. I've watched plenty of bickering and arguments happen 'cause someone feels that the button was pressed a little late, thereby affecting qualifying, or worse, missing the show. Nobody wants to deal with that. Rest assured, you'll hear that sometime.
I've seen, and had, problems scoring on transponders this year. All have been with personal transponders (my son doesn't run a personal, he uses house transponders- with ZERO failures) I had seen where with some systems, the personal can be too close (like was seen at Grand Rapids- why my personal is no longer mounted in the cutout in my CRC... they had the same problem at Cleveland) I seen where a new phone line was installed next to a scoring loop line, causing all sorts of grief. Seen one where the delay was set too high, causing the computer to "skip" laps. But, all were correctable, and had no human element attached to them. Matter of fact, everything from snowmobile racing to NASCAR uses a form of AMB scoring systems. Imagine pressing buttons when Gordon and Jr come across the line at Talladega side-by-side... Now that would be pressure!
I haven't been there (but will be sometime this summer), but it seems you're out for fun (which is cool with me....) If your racing gets "serious", you'll benefit from buying, or better, renting a system (keeping cost down). As your "price of admission" is low, I think it's fine the way it is... But, I do caution that if your racing becomes serious, you'll benefit from the transponders.
:thumbsup:
