Purpose
TrackStrat is a pit-wall strategy board for amateur endurance racing (ChampCar first). A crew can watch its own car, but nobody can track fifty rivals' pit cycles by hand. TrackStrat does that for every car in the field and projects the finish: where each car will be at the checkered flag after the stops it still has to make, in class and overall.
Built first for Flying Low Motorsports #737 (E46, class C) at AMP, Oct 31 – Nov 1, 2026, and tested live at Pocono, Oct 10–11. Working title.
Capabilities
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| Live | Standings like Race Monitor: position, car, team, class, laps, last, average and best lap, gap and diff, pit badge. Filter by class. |
| Projections | Projected finishing position (▲▼ against live), finish laps, pace, stops made and left, next stop due, stint length, fuel window, fuel logged. |
| Car page | Tap any car: info panel, scrolling lap bar graph with 5-lap rolling average, pit stops, fuel logged, team history, full lap history. |
| Fuel logging | Count jugs going into any car (ours or a rival's): full jugs plus ¼ ½ ¾ of the last translucent jug. Shows burn rate. Needs the crew code. |
| Paddock | Walk the paddock and log each car: fuel cell or stock tank, capacity, where it starves, notes. Works without a live race. |
| Header | Event, track, date, LIVE and flag badges, race countdown to the scheduled checkered flag, and a timer since the last update (orange after 45 s, red after 90 s). |
| History | Teams, cars, results and every stint from past races; placeholder drivers (Driver123) per stint that can be linked to real drivers. |
Scope
In scope
- ChampCar endurance races timed by Red Mist (the main race, with EC cars where they share the event).
- Projections for every car: stops, fuel windows, stop cost, pace, finish order.
- Crew input: fuel jugs seen, paddock observations.
- History that improves projections race to race.
Not in scope (yet)
- Official timing or results: TrackStrat is unofficial and can lag the track.
- In-car data, radio or a "box this lap" message to the driver.
- Series other than ChampCar (Lemons and Lucky Dog would need their timing source).
- Pit, Pace and Alerts tabs, the stint and fuel planner for our car, and rival profile pages: planned.
Design
- One board, tabs, class filters. Readable at arm's length on a tablet at the pit wall; class colours match ChampCar's.
- Worst case by default. A rival with no measured stint is assumed able to run the series maximum of 2 hours, so a projection never flatters us.
- The finish is fixed in time. ChampCar races finish on time even after a late green, and each car completes its lap; projections count down to the scheduled checkered flag.
- Stops are inferred from lap times against the field's median for the same moment, so cautions and red flags are not mistaken for stops. Stops over 15 minutes are garage visits and don't set stop cost or fuel window.
- Fuel is a range. A "5 gal" jug can be overfilled to about 5.9 gal; usable capacity is tank size minus where the car starves.
- Honest about uncertainty. "?" marks an assumed fuel window; small projected gaps (under a lap) are a toss-up.
- Works with a weak signal. The last data stays on screen with its age shown.
Development
| Part | Where it runs | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Recorder | "Jeeves", an always-on laptop at home | Records Red Mist's live feed and lap history, raw, for every ChampCar event. Never changed on race day. |
| Engine | Jeeves | Every 20 s: rebuilds the race from the recording, finds stops and stints, projects the finish, writes the board. Safe to restart; it recomputes from the start. |
| Database | Supabase | Board, laps, stops, fuel log, paddock notes, history, feed health log. Public read; writes need the engine key or the crew code. |
| App | Cloudflare Pages | This web app. No install; works on phone, tablet and laptop. |
Updates reach the screen about 15–20 s apart and up to ~55 s behind the track. Code: private repository zixyllc/trackstrat.
Using it with other apps
| App | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Red Mist | TrackStrat's data source: ChampCar's live timing. Anonymous access; the live feed carries standings during a race. |
| Race Monitor | Keep using it for official-looking live timing. TrackStrat reads its entry list for team names when Red Mist has none, and can cross-check it. Race Monitor can drop at starts or mid-race; TrackStrat records Red Mist independently. |
| MYLAPS Speedhive | The track's timing system and app; a third view of the same scoring. Not used directly. |
| YouTube (ChampCar Endurance Series) | Live stream; useful to confirm stops, cautions and garage visits. Each session's stream is saved with its data. |
| RaceHero | ChampCar no longer uses it. |
Positioning
Timing apps (Race Monitor, Red Mist, Speedhive) show what is happening. Pit-wall tools like KartSpot and Stint Planner plan your own stints and fuel. Data loggers like RaceCapture and Podium read your own car. TrackStrat sits between them: it watches every rival from public timing, learns their fuel windows and stop costs, and projects how the race ends. It is built around amateur-endurance facts: 5 gal gravity jugs, a 2 h stint limit, 5 min minimum stops, and a fixed finish time.
FAQ
How current is the data?
The board refreshes about every 15–20 s and can be up to about 55 s behind the track. The "since update" timer shows the age; orange after 45 s, red after 90 s means the feed is probably down.
What does "120m?" mean in the fuel window?
The car hasn't completed a full stint after a stop yet, so TrackStrat assumes the 2 h maximum (worst case for us). It changes to a measured window after its second stop.
Why does a car project ahead of one that's leading?
Faster pace, a stop already made, or a longer fuel window. Gaps under about a lap are a toss-up; they settle once real stops and fuel windows are known.
How are pit stops found?
From each car's Flagtronics FT200 "in pit" signal (carried by Red Mist), confirmed by a lap at least 60 s slower than the field. Cars without that signal: a lap more than 3 minutes slower than the field's median for that moment. Over 15 minutes in pit counts as a garage visit.
Why are there no team names sometimes?
Red Mist doesn't publish the entry list during a live race. TrackStrat uses an entry list taken from Race Monitor for the event.
How do I log fuel?
Open a car's page, tap Log fuel, tap the full jugs, then ¼ ½ ¾ for the last jug. Enter the crew code once per device. Undo is in the same box.
Who can change data?
Anyone with the link can read. Only the engine and devices with the crew code can write (fuel logs, paddock notes).
Why is a car's number different from last season?
Numbers move between teams, teams change cars, and drivers change teams. TrackStrat keeps team, car and driver separate and links them per race.
Is this official?
No. Timing and projections are unofficial; ChampCar's official results always win.
Version history
The version number is the latest database change. Newest first.
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| v0.13 | Oct 10 | Live: average lap column (excluding pit-stop laps). Stops now use the FT200 in-pit flag from Red Mist, confirmed by lap time; lap-time inference as fallback. |
| v0.12 | Oct 10 | Help page; version in the header. Paddock: "starves below" and usable capacity. Fuel jugs shown as a 5.0–5.9 gal range; partial last jug (¼ ½ ¾). |
| v0.11 | Oct 10 | Paddock tab: fuel cell or stock tank, capacity, notes. |
| v0.10 | Oct 10 | Placeholder drivers (Driver123) for every stint, linkable to real drivers. |
| v0.9 | Oct 10 | Drivers as their own identity with team per race; driver aliases. |
| v0.8 | Oct 10 | Car page: info panel, scrolling lap bar graph with rolling average, stops, fuel, history, lap rows. Class colours. Stop count fixed (one reference time); a lone first stint no longer sets the fuel window. |
| v0.7 | Oct 10 | Reads Red Mist's live feed during races (its standings endpoint is empty while live). Team names from Race Monitor. Stream link per session. |
| v0.6 | Oct 10 | Feed health log: every update and the gap since the last. |
| v0.5 | Oct 10 | Live and Projections tabs with class filters; event bar with LIVE and flag; since-update timer; Red Mist live fields. |
| v0.4 | Oct 10 | Red Mist ↔ ChampCar event numbers; main race preferred over a same-weekend EC event. |
| v0.3 | Oct 10 | Fuel logging for any car with a crew code; burn rate. |
| v0.2 | Oct 9 | History: teams, cars, results and stints from nine 2026 races. Default fuel window 2 h (worst case). Race ends at the scheduled checkered flag; finish laps. |
| v0.1 | Oct 9 | First prototype: engine (stops, stints, fuel window, projections), board, Supabase. |
| v0.0 | Oct 6–7 | Recorder on Jeeves, race simulator, plan. |