January 1, 2013 -Fremont, MI - Race Director 2013 development has been wrapped up and is ready for release. Many great new features and enhancements have been included in this version. Extended Support customers can download this latest version and begin use immediately.

Support Subscription Process
Any new Race Director users or renewing support plan users are eligible to move now to Race Director 2013. If you've purchased Race Director in the past 6 months, ask me about a 2013 support subscription discount.  

Significant development time was put into this latest version.

We hope these new features expand the capabilities of your organization and help make the most timely, accurate results at every race.

Buy 2013 now! | Download 2013

Comments or Suggestions

Please login to the site and comment on this article to let us know how we are doing, if you have any suggestions for 2013.

New 2013 Features Summary

Smart Phone Results at my-finish.com
Created a website for immediate smart phone results.  The information shown in the mobile phone browser is the same as is shown on the Results Kiosk screens.  Race setup and participant data is uploaded prior to the race.  Results data is sent automatically after each import of results from your chip system.  QR codes can now be created on the participant ID label which will scan directly to the participant's individual result for the race.

ChronoTrack Live Integration  
Expanded the number of fields included in the participant data import - including custom fields defined at CT.  The import will also pick up all changes made on the CT side since the last participant data import.  A completely new function has been added to upload participant data to CT for participants that exists only in Race Director - meaning there is now full synchronization of participant data between CT Live and Race Director.

DAG Integration with U-Center
A major development to allow a connection to the DAG U-Center system for pulling results directly.  This integration works with all Announcer screens, the general chip results import and the lap results chip data import.

Cross Country
Removed the restriction that cross country must be scored as a single segment race.  At the point, the cross country results report will show only the finish time, but there is no longer the need to score the race twice so that you can show segment times on an overall results report.

Top Finisher Changes
Several major improvements to how top finishers can be identified and reported.
-Assign Manually - for situations where you simply want to "force" who is in a specific top finisher category.
-Special Categories - for situations such as a youth or military category where you want finishers pulled from the age groups and reported at the top of the age group report.
-Sequencing - you can now control the sequence for how the top finisher categories are shown at the top of the age group report.

Happy New Year!

 

Race Management Systems

120 S. Division

Fremont,  MI  49412

(231) 924-6874

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Roger Retires from Corporate America

November 5, 2012 - After a long and wonderful career with Gerber and eventually Nestle, I'm taking early retirement from my "real job" at the end of 2012.  This will be a big change for me!

It will allow me to focus much more of my time and effort on improvements to Race Director and most importantly the needs of my Race Director customers.  Including the opportunity to visit some of your timing events, where I can gain experiences to help me identify and prioritize improvements needed in Race Director.

2013 Chip Conferences

Race Director Live Mobile Results

In January 2013 I am introducing a completely new component of Race Director, live results designed for smart phones.  

I'm sure it's evident to you as timers, that your customers are expecting more and more with regard to live results.   In my opinion, there are a lot of choices out there for your larger races, but none that are effectively priced for an average 300 person race.  This is the target for my offering.   The mobile app will be designed so that a participant can see their results, including all the information you'd see on a RD Results Kiosk screen, immediatly upon finishing the race.  

Included will be the ability for you to print a QR code on their participant ID label so they can scan directly to their personal result.

 

In order to fund the development, addtional server charges, and individual race administration that is required, I'll be charging a small fee for this service.

I'm starting with an introductory price of $50 per race.  Once we gain some real experience, we'll decide if this price is too high or low.  Whatever the price, it will be one that we all agree is reasonable.

-Roger

 

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July 26, 2012 - RunSignup.com is a web service allowing you to create a free race web page and registration form for your runners to register online. 

RaceSignUp Registration Integration
Race Director now has an advanced integration for pulling registration data from Runsignup.com. You will now find a choice for this integration under the Import options found on the Update -> Participants screen.

RaceSignUp Instructions
-The integration with RunSignUp starts by giving you a sign-on screen where you enter your RunSignUp UserID and Password.
-Once signed in, you will be provided with a list of your RunSignUp events.
-The only mapping required is for division assignment or to indicate how "non-standard" RunSignUp data is mapped to Race Director data elements.
-After you've imported participant data and return later, each subsequent import will pick up whereve the last one left off.

Ongoing Support & Development
Race Director currently supports the following Registration Integrations:
-Active
-RaceIt
-RunSignUp

We will continue to add additional registration integrations as different sites become popular with the RD community. 
-Roger

July 26, 2012 - Quick Response(QR) codes are becoming a popular, quick, and easy way to link your runners with smart phones to their results and other important race information. 

QR Code Labels Now in Race Director!
A new capability for producing a QR (Quick Response) Code has been added to the label generation process. 

This new feature enables you to specify the URL that will result from a scan of the code by the participant using an app on their mobile device.  In fact, the URL can even include the participants bib number as a unique link to a search request at for the search engine you may be employing at your results website. 

Customization Required
The implementation of the QR Code does require a customization - please contact Race Director Support if you would like to explore this new capability.
-Roger