Daylight Savings Time & Club Start times?

Nelson Ullinskey · Mar 9, 2014

Hello, I am aware the usual start times for club events are 20:00 Greenwich Mean Time and this has translated into a 14:00 star time for me in Central Time Zone United States. I know British Daylight Savings Time begins at the end of March, but for those of us such as myself in the United States it is March 9. How does this affect start time for the events? Will the start time stay at 20:00 GMT which would (I think) equate to 15:00 for me? But I also know Dennis who organizes the events is in the United States too, which leads me to speculate that start time would stay the same for me, but move ahead an hour in GMT. My reasoning tells me it is GMT based and will stay at 20:00 GMT, but I would rather be sure than sorry and miss a race.

Sorry for taking up forum space with this lengthy post, but as I said I would rather be sure than sorry.

Dennis Phelan · Mar 9, 2014

Official practice will continue to start at 2000 UTC [GMT for old timers] until the rest of the world makes the change. I think that means US drivers will be looking to enter the event at 2:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time instead of 3:00pm EST.

Nelson Ullinskey · Mar 9, 2014

Thank you much Dennis.

Are you sure about that though with the start time? We do move the clock forward after all.

Dennis Phelan · Mar 9, 2014

It's always confusing to me too. My iphone indicated that we are currently 4 hours behind UTC not the 5 of last week. 0000 UTC is now at 8:00pm my time, not 7:00pm.

To make this easy, I have a home made dial around the bezel of the small clock that sits in front of my screen and when I set 0000 UTC to match my phone, It shows 2000 UTC as 2:00pm.

I cannot remember ever racing through the dinner hour for most of a month. I would remember my wife getting that mad. It will all catch up at the end of the month!

Yves Larose · Mar 9, 2014

@Dennis Phelan according to this site http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converted.html?iso=20140309T20&p1=0&p2=165 at the moment 20.00 GMT is 16.00 EDT

Dennis Phelan · Mar 9, 2014

Everyone doubt's me, why?
Well, they must have good reason.
I'll stick to picking cars and tracks, you guys can be my timekeepers

Vaughn Stegeman · Mar 10, 2014

Nelson Ullinskey said:
Thank you much Dennis.

Are you sure about that though with the start time? We do move the clock forward after all.

I too am Central Time Zone Nelson. Normally, we are UTC - 6 .... With DST -- I so so hate DST, it's lame and it's usefulness is long passed -- we are now UTC - 5.

Therefore, 20:00 UTC == 15:00 CDT which is indeed 3pm

Being an amateur astronomer, I'm pretty good with time conversions.