Sandalwood Drag Way
Racing fans, welcome to Sandalwood dragway! Want the thrill of launching a 1500 HP race car down the strip at over 200 mph? According to an article by Daryl Hier who said “drag racing has
somewhere between 35 and 75 million fans” (Hier, 2011). But even at those numbers let's face it; the cost, time, and the danger involved will keep most fans stuck in the stands. Until now!
Sandalwood dragway provides all the thrill and skills of racing and much more without the drawbacks of real racing. Imagine the challenges of tuning your car for optimal performance then out
thinking your opponent to take the win. Sounds hard doesn't it? It isn't at all hard to learn. Sandalwood dragway has a complete staff to help the novice racer get into the awesome sport of
drag racing.
To get started, all it takes is the purchase of a car (about $6.00 USD) from any of a number of car builders available and a free account with Second life (Linden Labs, 2014). Unlike most
other racing games played online, the cars used at Sandalwood can be modified from the ground up so the racer can fully personalize their favorite ride with parts they purchase, make themselves,
or pulled off other cars. An avid racer with 3-D modeling skills may build their car from scratch utilizing scripts from another car while the diehard racer may even try their hand at writing
their own racing scripts.
Virtual racing at Sandalwood works just like sanctioned drag racing in real life with classes, race rules and formats. Track manager Keith Skinner said in a recent interview “We incorporate
many aspects from the real world … for example our timing light system with what is referred to as Christmas tree, in drag racing terms. Another is the use of different classification of cars
and timed indexes (a timed index is a specific amount of time it takes a car to go from start to finish )”(personal communication, April 12, 2014). Reaction times, which is the time it takes
once the light turns green and the time the car actually moves and breaks the beam of the electronic eye. Coupled with tuning the car to be as close, but not faster than the class index,
reaction times is where races are won or lost.
So it's time to make the first pass. When the RD (Race Director) calls you to the line you drive up behind the RD both and await instructions. The RD will then tell both racers to do their
burnouts (not required to do but adds to the fun) and set their return points. Return points allow the car to return to the start line without the need to drive all the way back from the
end of the track. The next thing the RD will ask will be if both racers are ready, and if they are, the racers will confirm they are ready to race. Last thing the RD will say will be to
stage the cars. This is where the racers actually line up at the start line. This is done in two steps of first pre-staging and then staging. On the Christmas tree, at the top, are two
smaller whit lights. The top one is called the pre-stage light and this light is to tell the racer they are almost (within inches) of being lined up to race. The second white light is called
the stage light. This is where the cars are actually lined up at the start line. This is where reaction times come into play. Once staged, there is a 10 second delay before the lights are
said to drop. Using a sportsman light, there are 3 amber lights that turn on in sequence of 0.5 seconds of each other before turning on the green light. On a pro tree, all three amber lights
turn on at once then there is a 0.4 second delay before the green turns on. Be careful though. Leaving before the light turns green means the bottom red light will come on and you just lost.
The trick is to reach the finish line before your opponent does without going faster than your index (class top speed).
Getting a good reaction time is just a matter of practicing to find when is the best time to leave on the lights without getting the dreaded red light. Most try to leave when they see the
last yellow light turn on utilizing the lag between the commands from their computer being sent to the car actually moving to get the best reaction time. Tuning the car for the index is just
a matter of changing the number of the gear settings in the configuration card in the car. Keep in mind, that to be competitive one must keep track of current conditions of the simulator
statistics to decide if the gear needs to be adjusted up or down during a race. This is no different then what real racers do if there is a weather change or even sun angle on the track.The
staff at Sandalwood dragway is not just computer geeks trying their hand at a virtual racing game we have a real life racing background. K. Skinner said “I have been an active racer in both
oval and drag racing competition for most of my life. I also have a varied background in the different skills that it takes to build and maintain the equipment used. Such as designing and building
the car from scratch to doing the art work that will placed on the finished car”(personal communication, April 12, 2014). This allows us to bring the most realistic virtual drag racing
experience possible. Staff is ready to offer free classes and answer any questions the novice racer may have. Grab a Second Life (Linden Labs, 2014) account and contact either Killian
Sandalwood or MB Robonaught to get your new virtual drag racing career started!
References:
Hier, D. (2011, March 8). Surprise! drag racing is one of the top 3 sports in the u.s. Retrieved from
http://voices.yahoo.com/surprise-drag-racing-one-top-3-sports-in-7822636.html?cat=14
Linden Labs. (2014). Your world. your imagination. Retrieved from
http://secondlife.com/