The easiest approach may be to deactivate the event handlers then ( DefaultTrackableEventHandler ) - so the augmentations don't respond to tracking events.

I'm just trying to manage when QCAR tries to search the video image for a track. I am starting the scene and wanting to do other things before the camera locks on to a track.

This thread discusses various approaches - http://ar.qualcomm.at/node/2002017

Are you trying to stop the augmentation (e.g. 3D model ) from following the target?