I would like the penalty for hitting the end wall to be a
percentage of the run time rather than a fixed 5 second penalty. Say, 50%
of the run time. However, rats must make an attempt to stop otherwise they
will be disqualified. My reasons for this are that, at last years
competition, our rat was achieving run times of about 3 seconds and a 5 second
penalty seems huge!! Since the idea of the competition is to encourage
attrocious speeds (and controlled braking), I worry that too harsh a
penalty might suppress the competitors' enthusiasm to go faster.
Of course, I am wholly biased, since our rat did clip
the end wall in the final race and the 5 second penalty pushed us into second
place even though we won the sprint. However, this isn't sour grapes
(honest!!) - I'm just trying to encourage competitors to go faster and
faster...... ;-)
I would welcome anybody's views on this.
Chris Walker.