Changes to Autocross PAX March 23, 2012
The recent introduction of three new indexed classes from SCCA National (RTA, RTR and RTF) have led us to a lot of discussion about PAX support in MotorsportReg.com. This is not an SCCA-specific issue as many BMW CCA and PCA groups also have indexed classes for their autocrosses. I won’t say we have been wrong for the last ~five years since adding class modifiers, but we certainly could have been more right.
Our current implementation is largely based around working backwards from the need to export a class like “NSS” (which might be short for Novice – Super Stock) to timing and scoring software such as AxWare. We capture the class and then allow the participant to optionally indicate which indexed class they would like to compete in. It looks like:
ASL: Autocross as a Second Language
What’s been lost in the translation is that the indexed class, Novice in this example, is not actually in addition to whatever class they’re picking but rather it is the class they are entering. It took an hour-long phone call with Darrin Disimo who writes software for SCCA Pro Solo and National Tour events to disambiguate the use of the word “class”. There’s class, PAX class, indexed class, base class, multiplier class and about ten more variations that came up during our call.
What’s funny is that this isn’t because we don’t know anything about autocross. We have a reasonable amount of autocross experience under our belts but not from the timing and scoring perspective which caused us to miss the subtlety.
In effect, we don’t want one dropdown with all of the regular classes and one with the indexed classes, what we want is one drop down with all of the regular classes and the indexed classes and a second drop down with just the regular classes (those that have a multiplier). Something that looks like this:
The Solution
Well, we can’t be having that, now can we? So, here’s what we’re doing about it! First, we’re going to talk about these things consistently:
- Class – this is the class of the participant whether it is Indexed or non-Indexed. Examples from the SCCA world would include SS (non-indexed Super Stock) and RTA (indexed Road Tire AWD)
- Class Modifier AKA PAX – this is the multiplier that will be used by your T&S software to calculate the indexed time. Generally speaking this will be all of your non-indexed classes (everything you currently have listed as “Classes” today).
In the next few days, we are going to be making significant enhancements to class modifiers (AKA PAX) and we plan to automagically migrate your existing classes and registrations to use the new approach unless you opt out. Here’s a table of today vs. tomorrow and what it means to you:
| Current | Next Week |
|---|---|
| Enter indexed classes as Class Modifiers under Club Profile | Enter indexed classes as regular ole’ Classes under Club Profile. It’s the actual class in which the person is competing. |
| Duplicate numbers in Indexed class | Because indexed classes will be just regular classes, numbers can be reserved and kept unique in class. If you allow #51 in both SS and BS, this change will also allow #51 in Pro, Novice and Ladies. |
| Modifier abbreviation is limited to 1 character | Modifier abbreviation is limited to 25 characters just like Classes. Pick whatever you want, but remember, it will be appended to your Indexed class abbreviation. |
| Modifiers are all-or-nothing; there is no way to turn them on/off per event like Classes | Modifiers can be checked and unchecked on a per-event basis just like Classes and Groups. Only allow modifiers for certain events (like schools, Novice or Ladies only events) |
| Modifier is optional and some people don’t select one | New validation rule allows specifying the modifier dropdown is required if they pick an Indexed class. If someone picks Novice, Pro or Ladies (as an example) in the class dropdown, require a class modifier/PAX |
| Not all Class and PAX combinations are valid | New validation rule allows specifying that only certain modifiers are a valid selection for a given Indexed class. If someone picks “Novice” in the class dropdown, force them to only pick one of the stock classes in the modifier/PAX dropdown. |
| T&S software looks for data like PAX + Class (e.g., Novice + SS = ‘NSS’) | The AxWare report will change to use Class + PAX so you still download ‘NSS’. You must use the AxWare reports listed under “Assignments” in the report center. If you save a custom version you will lose the update and header translation.1 |
These changes will provide first-class support for indexed classes and PAX in MotorsportReg.com and hopefully make it easier to get your events started on time in the mornings.
On a side note since so many solo groups do season passes, we will be adding the ability to clone entries from one event to another so you can take a pre-season registration for all of your events and simply copy the driver(s) into the appropriate events for the season.
What You Need To Do
Nothing, maybe.
The auto-migration will take a snapshot of your current classes, then migrate your Indexed classes to regular Classes, and then make a copy of the snapshot as Modifiers. What you have listed in Classes will be almost the same as what is listed in Class Modifiers plus the Indexed classes that we migrate. Here’s a sample of what you might have today and what you will have next week:
| Today | Next Week | |
|---|---|---|
| Modifiers/PAX | P/Pro, N/Novice, L/Ladies… | SCCA regions will have ~75 official classes ranging from SS to F125. BMW, Porsche and independent groups will have a copy of whatever classes are currently under “Classes”. |
| Classes | SCCA regions have ~75 official classes ranging from SS to F125. Other groups will have whatever class structure they run. | Whatever classes you have today plus the Modifiers/PAX you have today. |
If you do not want this to happen, please let us know. We will perform the update early next week on all Solo customers who do not opt out. We have also sent an email directly to all organizations who are using PAX today with this same information.
1 – Saving a copy of the AxWare report loses the header translation? Yes, and we know that’s lame. We’re almost done with phase one of a reporting update. The second phase will let you customize the headers so this isn’t lost as you modify a report.
March 24th, 2012 at 7:59 am
I think this sounds good, and am willing to see our events switch over automatically. I request an email to “us” when it is done so we as registrars can take a look, and check out the change and make any changes to our instructions if needed.
And – thank you.
March 26th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
That is the most complicated explanation of a simple system that I’ve seen in a long time, and your solution to a non-problem seems to only make it more complicated.
The only things your new system seems to do differently is limit which “real classes” can be a part of a particular “aggregate” and increase the size of the aggregate name field. Both of those could have been done without changing anything else. It sounds like there’s some extra number uniqueness stuff in there, but it’s not explained very well so I can’t tell what it did before or what it will do in the future.
If you just want to make the UI more intuitive and powerful, then stop using simple select lists that are always visible and don’t attach a name to both fields. Put the aggregates at the top of the “Class” list, and if someone chooses one add a “—>[second box]” after it with no name at all, populated with the real classes only.
March 27th, 2012 at 9:28 am
This all sounds great! I hope I can simplify our registration options and make the whole process easier on our attendees. Thanks for all you do!
March 27th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
@Brad – thanks for the feedback; I agree that on the surface this doesn’t seem like much of an issue and perhaps we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.
What we identified were far too many ways that people were trying to accomplish things with the Class Modifier field and our existing implementation was based on some flawed logic. We’re trying to correct that so it works as it should have going forward.
The only controversial part is trying to automatically upgrade everyone but we feel it’s better to try and keep everyone on the latest and greatest best practice then leave them to find their own way at a later date.
March 28th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
We just pushed live our change to the back end. Class modifiers/PAX can now be longer, re-ordered, turned on/off per event. We added two validations rules – one to require the modifier and one to only allow certain classes to select a modifier (e.g., only “Pro” can pick a base multiplier, but not “Super Stock”).
We have *not* yet migrated the data as described above.
April 25th, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Hi, I can’t seem to figure out how to define certain classes as indexed classes. I would like to define them and only allow those classes to have the drop down menu for pax modifier.
My first event has about 20% of the entries MIS-classed because its kind of confusing.