Joey,
I didn't know there was a problem until just recently, and I want to know the Official way the contest people SHOULD calculate our speeds. Then I will be ready to raise an argument if the Official AMA method, whatever it is, is not used.
I know that the 1/2 Mile Speed Chart is not used any more for 1/2A or A or FIA, and that Constants divided by Average Watch Times are used in these classes. Maybe the problem is that AMA does not tell us how to compute this average watch time. I would think the average should be rounded to two decimal places. Bill has mentioned truncating the number- which means simply dropping off everything after the second decimal place. As I showed in my last message, these methods can result in different average times. Bill can tell us which way is the OFFICIAL method, instead of using the 1799.28 Constant for B,D, Jet etc. Just do it before the next contest, so Joey won't have to miss it.
I also believe that the next Speed Rule book should take into account what is in general use in electronic stop watches and hand calculators and allow the average as computed to be directly divided by 1/Constant to calculate speed. The speed read-out can then be rounded to the usual two decimal places. This will eliminate entry errors and rounding errors, as well as misreading the chart, which I've seen happen. (Also, the 0.2 Sec tolerance on watch readings is too large, since we now have 1/100 Sec watches. Maybe 0.1 Sec.)
Again, how do we get the two decimal places? Let me know and I'll make sure we do it that way.
Will