Event Manager

Flexibility is a core design goal of Finish-Time. Whether you are an SCCA club or an independent sports-car club, you can shape Finish-Time to match your needs.

The Event Manager is the heart of the season database. Standard classes, bumping rules, trophy settings, and competition points for every event in the season database are configured here.

Open the Event Manager with Tools > Event Manager.

Select an item on the left side of the window to display its settings.

Note: Some changes made in the Event Manager affect ALL competition events in the season database, including the current event, and trigger a recalculation across the entire database.

Home Event Manager

The Home panel is where you create and open every competition event for the season.

To open an event, select it and click the toolbar button. Double-clicking the event also opens it.

Click to start a new event.

Registration Event Manager

Enter the Member and Non-Member Fees here. During registration you can set each driver’s membership status, and at the close of registration you can print a final income report. These values also appear on the Event Report printout.

The Event Profile menu configures the Auto Assign and Schedule functions for all New Events. SCCA Mode (Grid) enables Grid Staging and Independant Mode (Linear) enables single line, numeric staging.

Enter the number of Drivers Required per Class. Finish-Time uses this number to build the list of required bumps.

Note: You can ignore Drivers Required per Class if your club does not bump drivers.

Standard Classes Event Manager

Before you can register a driver in a class, that class must appear in the Standard Classes list. Finish-Time matches each driver’s declared class against this list when registering and staging drivers for every event in the season. You do not have to enter PAX indexes, but you must list every class your club recognizes.

New classes are inserted below the currently selected class (similar to an Excel insert) or added at the bottom of the list. Drag and drop to reorder them. The order shown here determines the order of drivers when the Drivers List is grouped by class.

Click to add a class, or to delete a class and its PAX index.

Use the Category menu to assign a Class Category that best describes the class.

To change a class name or PAX index, click once, then click again and type the new value.

Note: If at least one driver in an event is assigned to a class, only that class’s PAX index and list order may be changed.

Obtaining the Latest Indexes

Yearly updates to the PAX indexes are available to Finish-Time users shortly after the Chicago Region SCCA releases them. You can update them here with one click or enter them manually. Click to check online for new PAX indexes.

Note: Updating the PAX Indexes will also add any new classes that the SCCA has introduced. It does not however delete any classes that have been abandoned.

PAX Indexed Classes Event Manager

You can add additional classes in which each driver’s best time is multiplied by the PAX index of their standard class. Standings within the indexed class are then determined solely by the resulting PAX times. (These multipliers are the same PAX values you entered in the Standard Classes list.)

PAX Index Class Example

If your club runs a vintage class (VIN) that mixes cars from several standard autocross classes, each driver’s best time is still multiplied by the PAX index of their standard class. The winner of the VIN class is simply the driver with the lowest PAX time.

Click to add, or to delete a PAX Indexed Class.

Use the Category menu to assign a Class Category that best describes the class.

To rename a PAX Indexed Class, click the name once, then again and type the new value.

Reorder the list by dragging and dropping. The order here controls the order of the Class drop-down menu in Registration.

Categories Event Manager

Add or delete categories and associate them with Standard Classes and PAX Indexed Classes.

Click to add, or to delete a category.

Rename a category by clicking once, then again.

The Indexed Check Box determines if the Category (of classes) are PAX Indexed or not.

Reorder categories by dragging and dropping. The order shown here controls the order of classes in printed and web results and is also used when grouping classes for bumping.

Worker Positions Event Manager

The Worker Positions listed here appear in the Registration panel and the Worker Assignments panel. This feature is optional, but it provides a convenient way to assign event workers. It also supports full Auto-Assign.

Click to add, or to delete a Worker Position.

Reorder the list by dragging and dropping. The order here determines the order of positions in Registration and in the Worker Assignments window.

To rename a position, click once, then again and type the new value. Click the Exclusion check box to exclude the driver from working.

The Exclusion Check Box determines if the driver with this assignment should be excluded from any Work Group.

Standings and Points Event Manager

When results are published, Finish-Time shows class placements (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) for up to ten cars per class and calculates season points according to the rules you configure here.

Enter the number of cars required for a trophy at each placing. Leaving a field blank or entering zero means no trophy is awarded for that place.

Example: If your club requires three cars in class for a first-place trophy and four cars for a second-place trophy, enter 3 in the 1st field and 4 in the 2nd field.

Points Calculation

You have four options for event points:

None
Fixed
Indexed (Raw by Class)
Indexed (All Inclusive, By Class)

Fixed Points

The Fixed Points system awards the points you enter for each place. Minimum Points is the lowest number of points awarded regardless of finishing position.

Indexed (By Class)

With Indexed (Raw by Class), the first-place driver in each class receives the value in the First Place Points field.

For each subsequent place, Finish-Time calculates points from the difference between that driver’s best raw time and the class winner’s best raw time. The difference is divided by the later driver’s raw time, then scaled by First Place Points and subtracted from First Place Points. The same calculation is applied to third place, fourth place, and so on within each class.

Indexed (All Inclusive, By Class)

With Indexed (PAX All Inclusive, By Class), the overall first-place driver (lowest PAX time across all classes) receives the value in the First Place Points field.

For each subsequent place, Finish-Time uses the difference between that driver’s best PAX time and the overall winner’s best PAX time. The difference is divided by the later driver’s PAX time, scaled by First Place Points, and subtracted from First Place Points. The same calculation is applied to every remaining driver across all classes combined.

Use the Decimal Places drop-down to set the precision you need.

Club Points

Club Points is optional for clubs that track non-competition participation such as meetings and event chairmanship. Enable it with the Club Points switch.

Click the ellipsis button to open the Club Points options.

Meeting Points

Click Default to pre-load each month starting with January. You can edit the list or add more entries.

Value is the number of points awarded for attending a meeting. Meeting points are assigned with check-boxes in the Points panel.

Drop At controls when one meeting is dropped from the total. Entering 12 drops the 12th meeting for members who attend all twelve. Entering zero means no meetings are dropped.

Other Points

Enter any other non-competitive points your club tracks. No value is stored here; the actual points are entered later in the Points panel.

Auto Bump Event Manager

Auto Bump supports both Traditional Bump and Indexed Group bumping. Traditional Bump is rarely used today. Indexed Group bump moves any competition class that does not meet the minimum driver count into an indexed group (or class).

By default Auto Bump is set to Traditional and includes a working sample schedule (shown below). You can replace the sample with your own bump tables.

How Indexed Group Bump works: the process starts with the top-most Category and walks through each Standard Class in that Category, bumping cars into the associated Indexed Group until the Drivers Required per Class requirement is met.

Note: Every class in the Standard Classes list must have the correct Category assigned. Otherwise Auto Bump may fail or bump to the wrong class. The order of Standard Classes also controls the order in which Auto Bump iterates.

Details for the Traditional Bump Tables

Here is a mapped example of the default bump table, using the Street Category.

The table begins with HS, bumps upward to SS, then reverse-bumps back. If the Drivers Required per Class count is still not met, the process continues through Street Touring, Classic American Muscle, Electric Vehicle, and finally stops at Extreme Street. The sequence in this example is based on PAX index.

The classes for the Street Category bump would therefore be entered as:

HS,GS,ES,FS,DS,CS,BS,AS,SS,AS,BS,CS,DS,FS,ES,GS,HS,STS,STH,SSC,STX, STR,ST,STS,STH,SSC,STX,STR,STU,CAMT,CAMC,CAMS,EV,XSA,XSB, XSA,EV,CAMS,CAMC,CAMT,XSA,EV,CAMS,CAMC,CAMT

To Edit the Traditional Bump Table

Double-click the table to open the editor and change the default values. Always separate each class with a comma.

To Edit the Indexed Group Bump Table

Finish-Time includes standard Categories linked to their Standard Classes. Category order determines the Auto Bump sequence.

To add new indexed groups:

Add the Categories:

Street Bump
Street Touring Bump
Unlimited Bump
Hoosier Bump

Select the Indexed check box for each Category.
Add and link these Indexed Classes:

SB → Street Bump
STB → Street Touring Bump
UB → Unlimited Bump
HB → Hoosier Bump

Open Auto Bump and build the Indexed Group Bump matrix:

Click Add (+) to create a new entry.
Select a Category.
Assign its Indexed Group.

To change the Category order

Drag and drop each Category into the desired position.

Penalty Event Manager

The value entered here is the time, in seconds, added for each pylon penalty. Valid entries are 0 to 9 seconds. The default is 2 seconds and can be changed at any time. Each pylon assessed to a driver is multiplied by this value.

Live Results Event Manager

Finish-Time LIVE posts autocross results to a web site while the event is in progress. Uploads occur automatically at the interval you choose. Participants can follow live results, work/grid assignments, and the course map. On-site internet access to your web server is required.

Prerequisites for Finish-Time LIVE:

A web server running PHP 7.x or later.
FTP access to the web server (needed only for the initial upload of the Web Application, not for posting live results).
Working knowledge of FTP software, or an upload tool in your host’s admin panel.
Read and write permission on the directory that holds the Web App. This is often already true on Linux servers but may need to be set on Windows Server. Finish-Time will warn you if the requirement is not met.

Note: Users of previous versions of Finish-Time must follow the steps below to create a new LIVE Web Application. Going forward, Finish-Time updates the JavaScript as needed, so you should not have to recreate the App unless a major change is introduced.

Configuring Finish-Time LIVE

Select Live Results.
Enter the Live URL where participants will view the results.
Click Create App\ldots and save the Live Results App to your hard disk.
Using any FTP client, upload all files from that folder to the location on your club’s website that will host the LIVE results.
After the upload, click the Reload button next to the Status field. It should read Ready. If it does not, see the status messages below.

Example URL
http://results.finish-time.com/LiveDemo

Finish-Time LIVE Status

The URL points to a directory that does not contain the Finish-Time LIVE App.

The Finish-Time App at this location is an older version. Delete all content at the location and follow the steps in Configuring Finish-Time LIVE to create an updated App.

Going forward, Finish-Time will update the JavaScript as needed. You will not have to repeat this procedure unless a major change is made to the Web App.

The server is running an older PHP version, or PHP is disabled. Finish-Time LIVE requires PHP 7.0 or later. PHP is supported on both Linux and Windows servers. Most hosts provide a control panel (cPanel, etc.) for PHP configuration.

Finish-Time LIVE scripts require both read and write permissions on the web server. The write test failed. Granting read/write access is normally handled through the host’s admin panel.

Note: The newly created Finish-Time LIVE App contains a complex random password embedded in the login script. The same password is stored in encrypted form on your computer. Both must match. Therefore, anytime you create a new Finish-Time LIVE App the password changes, and you must upload the new App to your web site or live posting will fail.