Pointless Race Analysis (Page 1 of 2)

Introducing the IoDSR
I like to try to mine the numbers to see if I can discover some new relationship between winning or just finishing and other factors, or just find numbers that back up the popular wisdom. In an earlier post I introduced the RTOT, relative time on track, and it correlated well with finishing position. It also showed how the field fell into four groups, the leaders, the determined, the ever hopeful, and the seriously struggling. But more on that later, because I now have the IoDSR.

IoDSR = Index of Doing Something Right. It's mathematically very simple. Rank each car by best lap time then divide that by the team's finishing position. Ideally everyone would get a 100%, the fastest car finishing first, the slowest last, and so on. And yes, Eyesore turned the fastest lap (2:03) and took first place, grabbing an IoDSR of 100%. And sure enough, the slowest car, the Lloyd, with a best lap of 3:26, 169th, finished 167th, scoring an IoDSR of 101%. (I love that car. I'm not picking on you guys. I swear.)

Here's the chart.

And here is what I see in that chart. The peak is at 100%, meaning that a relatively high proportion of cars were scoring close to the 100% mark, more of less meeting expectations. But also note that the groups that fall below this are also pretty strong. In fact, 43% of the field failed to meet expectations.

Just past 100% the distribution drops off quickly, tailing out to around 400% before it dissipates into groups of one. The Tinyvette comes in at around 180%, not bad, but we also had a bad weekend. If we had finished in the 20-30th range as we have been recently we'd have a score of around 400-500%, territory occupied in this race by B210 Racing, the Hasselhoffs, Bernal Dads, and Eco Challenged, while up around 700-800% is the Oldsmobile and Clueless Viking territory. We generally do a lot better than our lap times would indicate.  Maybe next time.

Then there is that one datum out there at 1460%. !!!! It was the Crown Vic (Sierra Auto Recycling) that finished in fifth place with a best lap time of 2:14, a lap time ranking of 73rd. I'm guessing astronaut diapers and mid-air refueling. However they did it, great job!

We found that out too. Once you get into the top 30 small mistakes can cost you a bunch of positions. A fast pit stop can set you back 10 positions!

I'm going to analyze the time slip numbers for that Crown Vic, along with ours, to see what they were doing. I've done that in the past for other cars to see if there was anything we could do to close the gap on them. That led us to try three drivers per day at BW, which would get us 11 laps over the weekend, plus we found nearly a minute we could cut off our pit stops. In the end, mistakes and bad luck on track killed up, but we still got 25th overall.

We don't do the 3-driver rotation anymore. We'd rather that everyone get to drive. Chasing a win is one thing, but having fun is more important. That said, we define having fun as doing everything well. If we do that then a good finish is a bonus.

I'll see if I can clean up the spreadsheet enough that others can figure it out, then I'll make it available for downloads.

Billy Beer, 153rd fastest with a 2:28, 63rd overall, IoDSR= 248%

We were 134th fastest with a 2:22, finished 73rd, IoDSR = 183%

But I think the most impressive statistic is that combined we raced enough miles to circle the Earth over 3 times.

Edit: Here's a printout. It's a PDF file so you can zoom in to see the small text.

Link: http://www.kstreetstudio.com/files/tiny … /IoDSR.pdf

The data from Specialty Timing did not include distance or best lap speeds. They'd need to know the distance to be able to get the speed.

I'm doing the same for our team and a few others, just to see how all this shakes out. It is well worth doing at least once. You get to see what matters most.

I just finished Eyesore's data. Their actual RTOT is 94%, and they run a really long first stint, almost 5 hours on Saturday and about 3:20 on Sunday, only 5 pit stops all weekend.  Their first pit stop was fairly long, for them, but normally they were in the 9-10 minute range. They spent a total of 50 minutes in the pits, which for them would be equal to 20 of their average laps.

I should really write an app for this.

Huh, that's weird.  I have 69.58 mph as a best for Eyesore, but now I have no idea where I got it.  I must have grabbed it from the wrong race or something because I sure don't see it now.

EDIT: Lol, it was from your original post, which I'm guessing is based on your estimated distance and not from the timecards:

Wow this is great information see the things Opel owners are able to come up with. We are genius in our own world most of the time but you seem to be an actual genius. HAHA

Very cool data, thanks for putting it together.  I feel okay about our 211%, and I know our 45 minute repair on day one hurt us pretty bad. 

-Matt

Just out of curiousity, how did you extract the data from the pdf?

I've decided that the spreadsheet will never be done/perfect, and even if it was, it might not be as easy for others to use as it is for me. So I went ahead and uploaded what I have now.

You can get my spreadsheet here: http://www.kstreetstudio.com/files/tiny … tless2012/

I use Quattro Pro and that file is there, but I also exported it to the Excel format for the rest of the world. Try both to see which works better for you. I checked the Excel version in OpenOffice and it imports OK, the numbers are there but the charts and some formatting are not right. But you are going to make your own charts anyway, right?

The raw and parsed data that were imported are in the last couple of pages, the EOR_Import (end of race) and MyLaps_Import. The "Whole Field" page contains the hourly data for the whole race.

Enjoy.

Lets see if I can get this graphic up right...
our Head of Rooster Juice Racing Dynamic Data Analysis publishes a piece of data that we like to review
Its the laps "behind the leader" chart whereby he charts how many laps we trail the race leader.
So it nearly always trends up, except in the case where the leader is in the pits and we're on track.
Basically the goal is to lose as little ground (keep it flat) as possible - we chart where our pits stops are and you can see clearly the number of laps lost due to each broken car part, driver with weak bladder, fogged up windshield, or black flag

yeah - he's a good driver, but even our quick drivers (and certainly not the car) can't honestly keep up with Eyesore, so I'm guessing there must have been a quick eyesore pitstop or two in there and probably a fair amount of yellow flag - keeping the field even