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ELECTRONIC TIMING

The New Brighton Trotting Club's Anzac Meeting on Monday will mark the introduction of electronic film timimg at Addington Raceway. The system has been developed in Invercargill by Jim Rogers and Bruce Gavin and is a refinement of the original equipment, which NZ Trotting Conference Secretary John Rowley presented a paper on at the World Trotting Conference in Rome two years ago.

The Invercargill Trotting Club was the first to use the system, but improvements over the years have seen the original equipment become virtually obsolete. The significant feature of Rogers and Gavin's equipment is that it enables them to record the time of every horse in the race, unlike other electronic systems in use throughout the world, which stop as soon as the winner's nose crosses the line. However, the system is nothing new to electronics, a similar one having been used at the Olympics for some 15 or 20 years. Indeed, it seems only a matter of time before electronic film timing is as widely accepted as manual timers have been for the last century.

The interest has been such that Rogers and Gavin have formed Race Finish Services, aside from their usual occupations. Rogers designs the cameras and generally look after the optics and developing of films, while Gavin specialises in the electronics. The system is basically a combination of photo finish filming and timing. For instance, in standing start events when the starter hits the lever, a high frequency signal is transmitted to a recording device in the photo finish box which triggers the electronic timer. The reflection of a digital timer is transposed on to the photofinish film and as each horse crosses the line, his individual time can be easily obtained.

For mobile events, a specially developed device throws a beam across the track at chest height at the starting point. The beam is light sensitive so as not to be triggered by the car or mobile barrier, and when broken by the horse's chest again activates the device in the same manner that pertains to the standing start, a signal is transmitted to commence the timing. Gavin initially discovered problems when using this device at night, the bright lights on the track causing irregularities, but this has since been solved.

Obviously, the main advantage of the system is its accuracy, a horse's time can be recorded down to 100th of a second, or less if necessary. In the past, where two horses have crossed the line within a nose of each other, in reality their time is the same down to one tenth of a second, but not to 100th of a second. The other main advantage is, of course, the accuracy of the placed horses' times as well. The equipment is easily portable and is available for rent rather than being purchased.

The possibilities for further improvements and variations are endless, depending on the needs of individual clubs. Added features, like a display board with the time progressing as the race in run, which would be of considerable interest in mobile mile, or time-trial events, would be pretty straightforward to install. Then that could be taken another step to display sectional times for the final 800 and 400 metres, etc. Similar systems are already widely used in Australia, America and Europe. At Harold Park in Sydney they've gone to the extent of setting up flashing lights at each quarter pole, a popular attraction for time-trial events. For example, if a horse is trailing to better 1:56, the lights flash at 29 second intervals.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 19Apr83

ELECTRONIC TIMING

In July 1978 Mr R G Kennard presented his method of electronic timing to the NZ Trotting Conference and in April 1979 experiments on electronic timing were completed and a request made to operate a system on a trial basis under race day conditions at the Inter Dominion Championships. The question of costs to be clarified with the NZ Trotting Conference. In September 1982 Race Finishes Services Ltd quoted $160 per race, excluding operators fees, for the provision of electronic timing in conjunction with photo finish equipment provided it was used 70 times a year. This was approved in principle by the Committee and a demonstration of the equipment was held at the Trials on the 8th December 1982.

In March 1983 it was reported that the reliability of one camera was not entirely satisfactory and it was decided that two timekeepers should continue to be employed until the system was proved to be satisfactory. In July Mr A F McDonald of the New Brighton Trotting Club advised that an alternative method of incorporating the electronic timing with the photo finish was being investigated by Mr Brian Nairn. In August the Secretary stated that the photo finish electronic timing equipment was in operation and apart from the need to rule in the finish line on the photograph the system was working satisfactorily. In May 1984 it was reported that Messrs Gavin and Rogers would be trying out their new coloured photofinish camera in combination with the electronic timing equipment in late May. In October of that year it was reported that due to a delay in completing the new system to be operated by the Judge it could not be installed it was hoped until just prior to the Cup Meeting.

Credit: NZMTC: Historical Notes Compiled by D C Parker