FinishTime and Australian partners RaceTec have developed a revolutionary and affordable admin and timing system for event organisers.
RaceTec Toolkit has been created to provide clubs and event administrators with an affordable and easy-to-use system that manages smaller events (up to 250 competitors) via smartphones and mobile devices. It is designed to work seamlessly with FinishTime Passport, the free, competitor-orientated app created to make registration safe, secure and efficient.
Together, the two apps provide a beginning-to-end system that covers race registration and late entries, timekeeping and results, with optional add-ons that include other support services provided by FinishTime.
RaceTec Toolkit includes everything a smaller race organiser could need for timekeeping and race results, while also including many features to make race admin easier.
FinishTime Passport is aimed more at the race entrant and has been created to simplify and make safer the late entry and race registration procedure.
Why do we need a new system?
Following on from the government’s recent easing of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, a slew of sports bodies have indicated that South African sportsmen, sportswomen, administrators and service providers are able to cautiously celebrate the controlled reintroduction of sporting events.
The national athletics, canoeing, cycling and triathlon federations have all confirmed the restart of events, albeit with very strict pre-conditions and, in most cases, very strict control of numbers.
The simple reality is that Covid-19 is still a feature of our lives and runners, paddlers, cyclists and triathletes ARE going to have to get used to smaller races where entry limits are strictly enforced. There will also have to be more admin at events and the new norm will be temperatures taken and Covid-compliance forms to be filled in.
For clubs and event organisers this poses problems. Already small profit margins are restricted on one side by reduced numbers, and on the other there is an increase in admin to comply with regulations, which usually means more helpers and higher costs.
The somewhat ironic downside of the extra admin at race registration is that counter-productive queues could form – and queues are not something a potential entrant ever wants to see at any event and even more so in the socially-distant new world order.
Is there a solution?
The solution is either a massive increase in staff (and costs), or a much more efficient admin at registration and/or a system that allows almost everything to be done by athletes BEFORE standing in a queue.
FinishTime, in conjunction with Australian partners RaceTec, has developed the ‘RaceTec Toolkit’ as a paperless registration, admin and timekeeping system for smaller, regional and club events (up to 250 athletes). Using RaceTec Toolkit, clubs and organisers that want to save costs can easily handle the timing and admin themselves with a small team of volunteers.
Toolkit has been designed to work seamlessly with the recently launched FinishTime Passport app, a system that allows entrants to answer Covid-19 questions as well entering and updating personal details on the morning of an event, BEFORE getting to the registration queue.
FinishTime Passport is a free competitor-orientated app, while RaceTec Toolkit has been designed for event organisers to manage events. Together they form an affordable but powerful registration, timing and admin system. Both have been developed specifically to work on standard smartphones and mobile devices so there is no need to buy expensive equipment.
The nitty gritty: How does it work?
Athletes and potential entrants enter all the required data into their smartphone via the FinishTime Passport app. Basic information, such as name, gender and safety contact details are pre-entered into the app so this information only needs to be provided once and is then stored on the phone (up to five people’s information can be stored on one phone).
Entrants chose their race (event and specific distance for example) from a list and must then fill in the race-specific and legally required Covid-19 information via a questionnaire (which is designed and set up on an event-by-event basis, and can be time controlled so, for example, Covid-19 information has to be entered on the morning of an event).
At this point all this information is still only safely stored on the smartphone and not available anywhere else.
The entrant then goes to registration and taps the QR code button to generate a QR code which “contains” all the required information. The admin process only involves scanning the QR code with a QR scanner built into the RaceTek Toolkit app, and thus transferring the information to the race database.
Using this system means registration takes seconds rather than minutes, so queuing is reduced; it is more Covid-19 compliant than any other method because there is no touching of pens or paper and can even be done from behind a Perspex screen; and, because a QR code requires no online links, the chance of a data breach is significantly reduced.
The potent RaceTek Toolkit system allows event organisers to run an efficient registration (late entries and pre-entries), handle timekeeping, generate results and do other event admin, all from smartphones or other mobile devices.
The timekeeping options include (but are not limited to) team events, time trial-type staggered and open start times, batch starts, lap events and mass starts. All results are generated almost in real time and are available on the FinishTime results website within seconds of any athlete crossing the line.
The system can be integrated into other FinishTime options, such as generating finisher certificates for posting or for athletes to download, social media posts, e-mails and SMS notifications.
For more information on the RaceTec Toolkit and FinishTime Passport contact FinishTime via the website contact page or visit our services page to see what FinishTime can do for you.
