QUOTE(Wood @ Oct 25 2007, 09:52 AM) [snapback]103466[/snapback]
I 100% agree. In this day and age, every track local, national, etc., needs transponders with hand scorers as back up.
In this day and age, a lot of local tracks are happy with just being able to open the gate on a week to week basis. Transponders are a VERY expensive investment. And it doesn't end there. Once you have purchased everything you need to put in a transponder system, you then have to have the proper computer program to run it, and a computer savvy person to run that, and get everything out of it that it will do. To this day, there are still things that our transponder system can do that we haven't used. And then once you do have everything in place to use this system, then you have to make sure they are always charged, and that you have enough of them, and that all the drivers care about them, and take of them, because if one gets lost, or broken, they are a couple hundred dollars to replace, yes, that is each single transponder. And that number is low, I think Jim said it is over 300 dollars to replace just one of them!!!!
I love them, it makes many people's job much easier, and can provide many different informational values. But there just aren't many local short track promoters out there that can afford to invest thousands of dollars into a system like this. There isn't really a financial return here, it is just a tool that will make things much easier for many people involved with the track. And that is a good thing, just hard for many to justify spending that kind of money.