In 1984, Bob Brockmeyer introduced CompuLink Timing Systems at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.
Now, 38 years later, Brockmeyer will be honored where it all started for his world-famous timing system.
On July 16, during the Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, Brockmeyer is being inducted into NHRA’s Division 5 Hall of Fame.
“This is going to be special,” Brockmeyer told CompetitionPlus.com. “We were racing there at Bandimere. I was a Super Pro racer there in 1977 and 1978. We raced a 1970 Maverick with a 351 Cleveland in it. Yeah, it was a nice car. It was brutally accurate, repeatable. That thing was a brutal bracket car. It was good. So, Bandimere knew what I did for my profession. So, I said, ‘Why don’t we build a computer system?’ We started playing with it. Wednesday night, Friday night stuff, whatever. Just kind of messing around with it.
“It all started there (at Bandimere Speedway). We raced there. It all started there. Probably our favorite track.”
NHRA Division 5 Director Darrell Zimmerman saw Brockmeyer’s timing system, and liked what what he saw.
“At that time, they’re going, ‘Man, we kind of need this deal,’” Brockmeyer said. “So, they told Steve Gibbs about it, who was the competition director at that time. And then they wanted to run a Mile-High Nationals. I think it was the 1985 Mile-High Nationals.
“We took it there. Then we took it to Phoenix for the fall nationals in Phoenix. It kind of just progressed from that point.”
Brockmeyer said all of the NHRA’s national event tracks use his CompuLink Timing Systems except for the Texas Motorplex in Dallas.
“We never built it to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to build something and sell it to all these racetracks,'” Brockmeyer said. We were just kind of messing with it. And just kind of happened as it happened. It is the timing system, all the outputs that go to live timing, obviously FOX, with people now. And other people that collect data off it to do things.”
Brockmeyer lives in Silverthorne, Colo., which is an hour from Bandimere Speedway.
“Actually, we went from a play, see what we can do thing, to running it (the CompuLink Timing Systems) in national events in only one year … But it’s been modified and changed a million times since that point,” Brockmeyer said.
