RaceTools v3.0.6 – Daytona Race edition *** Safety Car Alert ***

I don’t like to release new software during an event, and more so the morning of a race, but here is what I discovered during the CTSC race yesterday.
1. Based on some procedural changes in how Timing and Scoring is done, the datafeed exposed a flaw in RaceTools v3.x that can filter out the safety cars, even under yellow. This can be resolved by going back to v2.114 (http://racetools.com/racetools/imsa_tsmodule_2016.zip) or updating to v3.0.6 (http://racetools.com/racetools/imsa_tsmodule.zip). This is not a critical update, but recommended as it may affect the track map’s ability to display the position of the safety car during caution periods, and more importantly the running order display might not place the safety car at the top of the field. Depending on the order of the cars being sent in the data feed at the start of the session, the safety car could be filtered at all times, even under caution with v3.0.5.
2. During the race, all of the cars stopped moving around the track. I tried all of the usual tricks to get the cars moving again, including the unstick cars and even the more severe step of clearing the data (starting a new session) without success. I spent 30 minutes trying to track down the problem with my software. Then, miraculously the cars started moving on the track map again. I found out after the race that there was a problem with the data feed for around 13 minutes which incorrectly assigned transponder numbers instead of car numbers to line crossings so during that time, all of the line crossing messages could not be applied to the cars in the race. The replay file on results.imsa.com had to be fixed manually (replacing the transponder numbers with the correct car number) before being made available. Thanks to David Pees for that extra work to make the data available in the correct format.

If you use the Running Order popup (and I think you should during the race), make sure you are running either v2.114 or v3.0.6. v3.0.5 may or may not correctly display the position of the safety car. It all depended on when the safety car’s $A/COMP message is seen relative to other cars in the field.

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