RaceAmerica Brings Racetrack Equipment Into The 21st Century - Introducing The New DTSS Drag Tree

Dec. 8, 2009 - PRLog -- Santa Clara, California  -  RaceAmerica Corporation announced today details of several new products that will launch at the this week’s Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Orlando Florida,  including a new state-of-the–art drag timing tree, next generation corner safety lights and black flag display.

The new generation timing tree will incorporate over 1300 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of incandescent filaments, providing an environmentally cleaner and Lower Energy Demand product.  The new tree was purposely designed for the latest technology. Instead of just replacing the current system with retrofitted bulbs, the new tree was designed from the ground up in order to take advantage of the positive characteristics of LEDs, including a 98% reduction in energy consumption.  

“RaceAmerica could have taken the easy road and just offered retrofitted LED bulbs for the current tree, however, as an industry leader, our customers expect more from us,” said Dennis Laczny, President and co-owner at RaceAmerica. “We also know the current LED retrofit bulbs are expensive for customers to replace and use more energy than our DTSS  tree.  Additionally, the power requirements for trees made for standard bulbs cause the benefit of extended lamp life of LED floodlights to be lost, therefore, we needed to move the drag tree technology forward.”  

The new timing tree will be the first of its kind planned to operate totally with solid-state materials.  The modern design provides the finished product with a sleek look that naturally shields the driver from the opposing lane’s signals.  The well thought out construction provides for a lightweight tree that is easily transported. The tree operates on a 12-volt DC power system with converters to adapt to 110 and 220 volt power supplies. Unlike traditional trees, the DTSS also contains a microprocessor that helps the tree communicate with RaceAmerica’s industry leading race management software and the industry’s most advanced sensors/emitters, the Race America Quick-Lock High-Speed Sensors, through a wired or wireless (T-Link) connection. The microprocessor will also allow operators the choice to slow down the LED’s illumination to match the lighting profile of traditional incandescent bulbs. The DTSS specifications anticipate changes in government standards and set the benchmark for the industry. The new tree will make its first public appearance, December 10th,  at PRI along with RaceAmerica’s new corner safety lights and black flag LED displays.  

The introduction of updated corner safety light and black flag displays are additional examples of RaceAmerica working closely with customers to produce products that meet specific requests.  The new corner safety lights will be larger, brighter and lighter and come with individual position selectable controls.  The lights will be available in both wired and wireless formats and be housed in an ultra-thin 24” enclosure with triple-illumination ultra-bright LED clusters. “Our customers asked for a corner safety device with visibility for even greater distances than the current model. We tested several formats, in several conditions, including direct sunlight and decided that the triple-illumination was the best solution,” said Wes McPheeters, Vice-President and co-owner for Race America.

The corner safety lights will ship standard with red, yellow and green signals with options for blue and white. They will also be available with RaceAmerica’s exclusive T-link wireless technology allowing for easy and time saving set-up/tear down as well as operational flexibility.  The devices can be controlled locally or from a central location that continually monitors each device’s status.  Light selections from continuous illumination to flashing modes allow for greater options in communicating with drivers and ensuring safer conditions for both racers and corner workers.   The new corner safety lights can also be paired with the new three-digit black flag displays.   No longer will racers have the excuse that they did not see their number being flagged.  The ultra-bright displays allow for up to a three-digit number to be shown, increasing by ten-fold the number of participants that can be directly identified.

The new and current RaceAmerica products will be on displayed at the PRI show, booth # 1514, December 10-12 in Orlando, Fla.  Product will be available the first quarter of 2010 and pricing programs will be announced in the coming weeks. Please visit the RaceAmerica website starting December 10, 2009 for additional information.

For more details about RaceAmerica equipment please visit www.RaceAmerica.com or contact RaceAmerica at (408) 988-6188

For information regarding this release contact:

Jim Viola
Marketing and Public Relations
RaceAmerica Corporation
(408) 988-6188
press@raceamerica.com

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Founded in 1991, RaceAmerica is the industry leader in advanced event critical timing electronics. The Company designs and manufactures a complete line of portable timing systems, software, and LED-based scoreboards and displays for use in both single and multi-lane snowmobile, autocross, mud bog, soap box derby, ATV, and drag racing. RaceAmerica also provides a variety of customized timing solutions for private, commercial, and industrial applications. RaceAmerica is recognized worldwide for their innovativeness, reliability, speed, and accuracy. The Company produces the world's only state-of-the-art, fully wireless drag racing timing system and continues to innovate with flexibility to match unique customer needs. RaceAmerica also supports the thousands of systems that it has operating in over 40 countries with unrivaled customer and technical assistance. Learn more about RaceAmerica at www.RaceAmerica.com.