In areas where autocross is extremely popular, how do they run the huge events with hundreds of people?
I've never been fortunate enough to attend an event outside Atlantic Canada, but what processes do they use to be efficient enough to make that work?

How do registration/data entry/scoreboards/etc differ from what we do locally?

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Money ---> Heat and Noise

MMSC #12/ASP

The big national events are run with military precision. Multiple cars on course at the same time. Plus they start at the crack of dawn, and organize run groups in such a way that you (as a competitor) need not hang around the whole day to compete.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

We capped entries at 65 cars in Edmonton and hit that limit nearly every week. Everything is just more strict and there are a larger number of experienced people on site to run things. As soon as people showed up they were assigned jobs so there would be 5 or 6 people doing course prep and a bunch setting up the desk and teching cars. Preregistration was required too, which helped speed things up - run orders and groups were done before the event.

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You can't make a race car out of a pig, but you can make a pretty fast pig.
The pigs - '95 Firebird, '09 G8 Gt

So the obvious answer would be to push as many people as possible to preregister
Unfortunately, I think that pre-reg is pretty uncommon in these parts, generally speaking

As regards to entering the registrations into the computer for timing/scoring - are "the regulars" entered prior to the event (along with the preregistrations) and the new people entered on the spot?
Or is entering someone that has attended a previous event as quick as clicking a box to import/activate them for the current event?

I would like to help events start smoothly when I'm in attendance, but it seems like there are strictly 1-man jobs that already have people assigned to them. I don't think that course setup or tech has been keeping us from starting on time. Ming and Josh seem to get those done with plenty of time to spare

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Money ---> Heat and Noise

MMSC #12/ASP

It seems to be time waiting for everyone to be entered, and then run groups made up. Which is understandable, that takes time.


I'm sure if it would speed things up, more of us would be happy to pre-register. Although a pre reg and then pay on site option would be my choice.

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2009 Civic Hybrid. 1997 BMW 328iS
evanwritescars.com

What software is being used for timing and scoring?

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Money ---> Heat and Noise

MMSC #12/ASP

Is there any free and trustworthy online registration systems available?

NBSCC would consider it for our upcoming Regional event as 1.) we are going to be really tight on time for registration and 2.) we see the bottleneck being classifications of cars at our event.

On that point we are looking for a volunteer to sit at our registration table who is an expert at car classification as nobody in our club (myself included) is as versed in the news scca ruleset as maybe we should be... (Except maybe Charles, but he's going to be inputting for timing and scoring then, he just doesn't know it yet )

Thanks
Stacy

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The fricton circle for my 911 Porsche resembles more of an oblong... I'm either trailbraking or accelerating while trying to get it to turn!

This seems to be what is used for a lot of events. Looks like something we (ASCC at least) should have a look at.

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/ ... management

pricing and plans:

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/ ... lic.signup

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ASCC VP Membership
'01 DHG Mustang Bullitt #16
'22 Golf R

I'm pretty good with classing, but only up to SM. MOD/PREP classing is a pain and is not something anyone should be trying to figure out on site. I will probably be staying in a hotel the night before the NB regional if you need some help.

The main thing is to have someone with a laptop...it's much easier to sort out classing when you can search through a PDF copy of the rules.

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'99 BMW M3 / "Elvic"

They let you use that with basic features for free, which is pretty cool
I don't know what software the clubs are using now, but whatever it is there must be a way to avoid having to input each competitor for each event. You should only need to input the new competitors, select which of the previous competitors are present, and drag/drop to set run groups

Would it help if each club member registered a car number at the beginning of each year and used the same number all year so that there would be consistency in that regard?

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Money ---> Heat and Noise

MMSC #12/ASP

I would think the timing software and the registration element could be done at separate laptops if the software was designed well. That way, registering, or fixing registration data doesn't interfere with the timing of runs.

I think the key is that the competitor is responsible for his classing, not the organizer. Clubs can help sort this out at club level events, but by the time a car and competitor arrives at a regional, it should be figured out. Ask on the forum, call a friend, go to a club meeting and ask, but come event day, if you don't know it's too late - especially if it delays the day.

Class your vehicle wrong, and someone will query or protest it. If it is wrong, you are disqualified, or whatever other penalty the steward decides. It is Regional level competition after all.

Time we all get back to knowing how to read the rule books, and knowing why our vehicles meet the rules, instead of defaulting to what someone else says.

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Brent O'Connor
ASCC Member
MHPDC Volunteer
2007 Mustang GT
Kentville

Your hired!

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The fricton circle for my 911 Porsche resembles more of an oblong... I'm either trailbraking or accelerating while trying to get it to turn!

motorsportreg.com works quite well. I did a track day at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte last month as part of the 50th Mustang Anniversary event and had to sign up and register through motorsportreg.com. Through the registration process all my personal info, car info and driving experience was gathered. The event was run by the Carolina Regional Mustang Club/NASA/SCCA over 3 days with 300+ cars and 4 run groups daily. The registration process and run group classifications went off without a hitch and as previously stated, with military precision.

On a side note, first time running the combination high bank oval and infield road course with MRT, Steeda and Jack Roush Jr. cars on track was an awesome experience.

I attended the SCCA National Tour Event in Devens 2 years ago. It was over 200 cars. There was a cap and you had to pre-register and if you were late then you went on a waiting list. Run groups, grid assignments, worker assignments are done BEFORE the event. We were up at 5am and there was already a line to enter the site when we got there. There is no hand holding, you are expected to know what to do. There are at least 5 people working grid. There is someone there to tell you to get in you car. someone else to tell you to pull up to the start line. If you're not ready, you don't run. The course is designed to have multiple cars on course. If you get lost, you are not allowed to stop on course. A car takes off the line every 15-20 seconds.

^ that's exactly how they ran things in Edmonton as well. No BS at all - if you held things up you didn't run.

Also, if you drove like an complete idiot on the streets around the event (like most of the 'new' people and many of the spectators did at the MMSC event on Wednesday...) than you were permanently banned or the organizers called the police right away. Some spectator in a white mazda 3 who was speeding out of the parking lot trying to look tough and almost took a competitor's car

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You can't make a race car out of a pig, but you can make a pretty fast pig.
The pigs - '95 Firebird, '09 G8 Gt

I didn't see the guy you're talking about, but to be fair, they had the exit gate locked and everyone was forced to drive against "traffic" inappropriately to leave the venue. We were lucky that no tourists wanted to quickly drive in around those blind corners when we were leaving

I think our grid and our actual runs happen very efficiently. From what I've seen, it's typically:
- The first run group's hesitation to go straight to their station after they finish their runs that costs us 15 minutes (no one should be doing anything to their car at that point - everyone should've gotten race-ready beforehand and everyone should get street-ready after the event is finished), and

- The time lapse between the end of registration and the start of the drivers meeting that costs us a good 20-30 extra minutes. If we can have the 10-15 regulars (really, anyone that has >50% chance of showing up) already entered, whether they're actually pre registered online or not, that time could probably be drastically reduced. It would be a lot faster to delete a driver than enter one, and those individuals could already be set into default run groups (with a few additions and a few subtractions at each event depending on who is actually there). If new people (and anyone that competes infrequently and therefore isn't in the running for a plaque) don't end up running with the rest of their class, I don't think there will be any issues or complaints.
Then again, for all I know it's already done that way... I try to leave the guys alone when they're working hard to get things ready

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Money ---> Heat and Noise

MMSC #12/ASP

The Cumberland Motor Club (Maine) typically sees 65-75 people at events, although we do get 100-110 at some of our larger ones. As mentioned before, pre-registration is key as is advance work assignment. We typically run multiple cars on course (at our big event in Loring, we have 4 cars on course at a time). The key is net cycle time, the is how often you release cars. If you figure out your compete hours (for us typically 6.5-7 hours) and number of competitors, then from net cycle time you can derive max number of runs per competitor (in advance). I have a chart that shows for x number of competitors how to get 6,7, or 8 runs. I provide this to event chairs.

NER does run a very tight ship. We are more relaxed and novice friendly. If we start to see more competitors we will have some soul searching to do as we would have to be more like NER or cap registration.

We use Axware ORM for online registration and Axware for timing and scoring.