As I write this article, there are still one or two more events to be held in December 2022, but I thought it would be an excellent time to review the major happenings with the Richta GPS Checkpoints system in its fourth year of availability.
There were 115 events held using this system in 2022, an increase of 15 events over 2021.
• 1,835 cars went through
• 5,014 checkpoints generating
• 90,297 timeslips so far this year.
Highlights of the year include the first use of Richta GPS Checkpoints on the Alcan 5000 Rally, the Sports Car Club of America’s United States Road Rally Challenge in Detroit, and the system’s first use on a motorcycle-only event in British Columbia. Both the Porsche Club of America’s Porsche Parade Rally and Pittsburgh Vintage Charity Rally had fields of over 100 cars. This is in addition to the system’s continued use by many events of the SCCA National Road Rally Championship and signature events such as Detroit SCCA’s Press On Regardless, John Buffum’s Winter Challenge, Summer Challenge, and the Great American Mountain Rally Revival.
I have said this before, but it bears repeating. While I am proud of the adoption of this system by many “signature” events, I am most proud of the many small clubs that have been able to revive or expand their road rally program using this system. I’m talking about you, Cascade Gear Grinders in Portland, NE Ohio Region (SCCA), and the Central Ohio Rally Club in Columbus!
The highlight of my year was receiving the SCCA’s Woolf Barnato Award at the SCCA Convention last January. I was humbled and very proud to receive this award for the most significant long-term contribution to the club. This award has been given out every year since 1948, and prior recipients include Mark Donahue, Bob Sharp, and Carl Haas. What an honor!
The 200,000th Richta timeslip was generated during the USRRC weekend in Detroit, and I am looking forward to the 300th Richta event occurring sometime in early 2023.
There was one major app enhancement in mid-year. A feature called Directionally Sensitive Checkpoints (DSCP) was released, allowing a Rallymaster to specify a direction through which a CP must be passed for the CP to be detected. A CP may be detected, for example, only when the car passes the CP running toward the east and not to the west. This feature is simpler and less error-prone than specifying CP open and close times when the rally course reuses the same roads in a different direction.
I don’t like to pre-announce features to the system, but having said that, it is reasonable to wonder what is in store for the new year. December/January is the most natural time to release new features, and we have one under development – Flexible Restarts.
There are some event styles where the current restart CPs don’t fit the bill. Course/trap rallies with off-course loops need a restart type that allows the entrant to start at the top of a minute, be told of the restart time with enough time to reset their rally computer and leave at their convenience without creating a backup of cars along the road. Flying Start Truncate and Flying Start Round Up CPs were the first attempts at creating a solution, and while they satisfy the purpose, they don’t quite fit the bill. This feature can also be useful on stage rallies, where timely communication of stage times is a recurring issue.
We are also looking at detecting CZT Restarts as you approach the CP rather than after the entrant has passed the point.
The system documentation could use an update. I am looking at updating the Rallymaster’s Manual and consolidating the various presentations I’ve written into a more coherent set. I am envisioning:
• An Introduction to Richta GPS Checkpoints
• Advanced Topics (Rich, would you consider listing a few with, i.e. or with, etc. at the end)?
• A Guide for the New Rallymaster
• Best Practices and Handling Common Issues
I want to provide links to the various YouTube presentations on the website: www.richtarally.com
I encourage anyone interested in using the system to join our Facebook group – Richta GPS Checkpoints.
I have also recently updated the Android Richta GPS Odometer to eliminate the “ghost mileage” accumulation that can happen with internal GPS chipsets on phones and tablets. A version of a rally odometer for Apple devices is in prototype, and we are recruiting beta testers.
The Richta Competitor apps for both Android and Apple were updated in December with bug fixes for several problems. No major function was added.
I hope to see many of you at the SCCA Annual Convention sessions in late January.
