Week 5: Track position

Add fixed other-car traces to the race and watch the fastest isolated stop lose when it rejoins in traffic

22 March 2027

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Week 4 gave one car the whole track. It chose the stop after lap 12 because 2804.500 seconds was the smallest clean-air finishing time in the supplied panel. This week puts three other cars on fixed synthetic traces. A stop now chooses two things at once: a tyre sequence and the gap into which SlopU rejoins.

Track position is a car’s place among the field at a point on the track. We price it with a deliberately bounded traffic rule. At a common reference line, we identify the cars that crossed just before SlopU and sit inside the supplied one-second packet. The scenario adds one traffic charge to SlopU’s clean-air total. We keep that original clock beside the adjusted finishing time, because the difference between them is the evidence that changes the call.

The result overturns Week 4. One candidate gives away a little clean-air time, but avoids the supplied traffic packet, improves the adjusted clock and moves SlopU higher in the field. It does not take the race lead. A place and a time margin remain separate quantities: positions cannot be added to a clock.

The other cars do not notice SlopU and do not change their strategies. Their traces are fixtures, not rivals. The deck derives the traffic charge on a six-lap example, classifies all three full-race candidates and shows the failure produced by charging traffic twice. The lab implements the same position-aware comparison in a standalone supplied codebase.

Assignment 1 asks whether a bought recommendation treats its rival as responding rather than as a fixture. This week establishes why adding a field can change the answer. Week 6 makes one member of that field answer back.