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I'd be interested in learning the timing software. I know there were a few events where we had to juggle a bunch of things around in order to have somebody working the timing in the bus, and having more members who understand how it works can only be a good thing.

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2004 Subaru Forester XT
1992 Sunburst Mazda Miata
1990 Mazda RX-7 (work in progress)
2000 Xterra SE

This has been asked for by several people. After the mess at VIR (keeping up with 4 cars on course is tricky) and the snafu of everyone taking fun runs with no one in the bus at wilson... It really is needed. As I keep telling Charlie, don't worry about Axware, and keep the paper record accurate. (paper doesn't crash, and is much faster/easier to correct.)

Axware is a serious pain in the ass. But as a time data logger, it does get the job done without much headache. The headaches (software crashes) come from having to mess with it with a live course... don't stage the wrong car(s), everyone must be registered correctly before staging, and no chit-chat with the people in the bus.

That said, I'm happy to sit down with anyone who wants to learn the (old) axware system.

I moved us over to AXWare when I was a rallyx VP in order to have something that was currently supported, AND could handle the new timing display. The reality, though is that its a Visual Basic program, which any programmer is prejudiced against for a huge range of reasons, the most obvious of which is it normally leads to poorly designed programs like AXWare. The problems that AXWare solves better than paper are running large races with 75+ entries, and then tracking race results over time for season points, problems that the rallyx program doesn't have.

The time tracking we need to do, which is 20-30 entries most of the time would be easier to take care of in a spreadsheet, but AXWare *does* automatically type in the times, and handle the display, so in my opinion its worth sticking with despite its, well, *unique* design. In the season I was working the timing and many races since I've never seen it crash, but its a possibility given an old laptop running virtual basic on Windows. That being said, there are workarounds for its problems, and it automatically generates results and once you get used it can manage a race well enough.

I was running the timing at the 1st VIR race, and it started off badly, but not because of the software. The main problem was we couldn't get the timing to work for a while because of cable issues, and so sent everyone on fun runs while the kinks were being solved. After the cables were fixed It was tricky to handle 4 cars on the course at a time, plus cars kept changing their order in line, and we had a couple of people hanging around in the bus wanting to chat, all of which contributed to errors.

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"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

It is but one of many issues. The purpose of this thread is getting people used to this particular brand of evil. Because it's what we're using. Doing it entirely by hand is clearly not a better option.

(VB macro in excel... might be less of a joke than expected)

For what it's worth, the auto-x VPs are actively looking at alternatives to AX Ware due to support and other issues. All this may be a moot point if they find a better solution. On the other hand, their needs are not the same as ours.
Charlie G

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

I would assume that any potential replacement would involve a group effort on defining requirements?

Richard

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
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