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Keeping Track of Who's Fast

Aug. 7 - There's a new look to racers' helmets at the AMA Amateur Motocross Championships this year, and that's not a AA battery or a tube of lipstick taped to their lids.

It's an experiment in timing. Trackside Software has its equipment set up at the Loretta Lynn's track this year. The company has done timing for everything from marathon foot races to dirt-track races. If the timing goes well, it could eventually replace the old-style hand scoring that remains the official scoring system.

The advantage for racers is that they can see in hard numbers exactly how long it's taking them to get around the track, whether they're speeding up or fading as the moto goes on, and how much time they have to make up to be competitive. It also replaces bench-racing bragging with hard numbers that can't be faked.

Davi Millsaps

So who's fastest? On the first day of racing, it wasn't former national pro champ Jeff Emig, or some wily veteran on a four-stroke, or a fast guy on a 250cc machine. Instead, 14-year-old Davi Millsaps of Cairo, Georgia, on a 125cc Suzuki, set the pace with a fast lap of 2:00.2.

On day two, however, the 2-minute barrier was broken as Troy Adams pushed his Yamaha to a lap of 1:58.6 in the 250/Open A/Pro Sport class.

Watch this site for a list of the fastest laps as recorded by Trackside Software, updated daily.

John Dains, with Trackside Software, says the equipment was previously used with marathon runners -- that's why the transponders are so small. But where the marathoners simply ran over the receiver, motocross knobbies would tear it up. So the receiver is elevated and racers ride underneath.