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Hey everyone,
First, I'd like to note that my last post was definitely generated with the help of AI. I'm not a marketer, I'm a software engineer, so I thought I needed some help. Clearly, I was wrong, so this one is just me rambling on and using a bit of Grammarly (yes, it suggested I capitalize this word, for example) to help catch spelling and comma issues. I hope that's all right.
A while back, I posted here about the timing software I built during the off-season. That post got a bunch of helpful feedback, plus some skepticism, which honestly makes sense. Timing software doesn’t matter if it craps out on event day, no matter how nice the UI looks.
The main thing I’d like to share today is that it’s actually been used at real events. liveTiming.club has handled timing for three SCCA events, got used last week at a DriveAutoXtreme event, and will be running Summit Racing Autocross Week too.
The DriveAutoXtreme event was kind of the real test, though. It ran without any timing issues, drivers actually liked the mobile and live stuff, and the best part is someone with zero timing experience ran the whole thing, and it just worked. Which is very exciting to me, as that was basically the goal: timing software that doesn’t require a single timing person with 10 years of experience to run the event safely.
Since the last post, my partner and I have added a bunch of stuff beyond just basic timing:
Custom scoring is probably the biggest new thing. A lot of clubs run formats that don’t fit into the usual “best raw time” or “best PAX time” buckets, so I want liveTiming.club to handle those without making people mess with spreadsheets after the event. In addition, all of this is done live; participants no longer have to wait until after the event for the results.
Timing, live results, schedules, run and work groups, custom scoring, and the driver stuff should all feel like one system, not a pile of duct-taped workarounds.
If you’re a timing chief, club admin, or just a driver who cares about a better experience at your events, I’d genuinely appreciate you taking a look and poking holes in it.
Got my three home track decals on my Tesla today!
I've been working on Cone Canvas, a desktop browser-based autocross course designer built around SCCA Solo rules. No install, runs entirely in your browser. Wanted to share it and get feedback from actual course designers. Desktop mode is the best way to utilize this, not designed for Mobile.
What it does:
Set up your lot three ways
18 design tools
Standing cones, pointer cones, compound cones (one click for the standing + pointer pair), start/finish gates, wall rows, slalom stamps, chicane stamps, Chicago box stamps, driving line (bezier), section flags, worker stations, and more. Element stamps drop a full maneuver in one click-drag and register it structurally so compliance rules can address the whole maneuver.
Pointer placement follows the SCCA "tip touches cone" convention — the pointer tip overlaps the standing cone's center and the pair renders as one compound marker.
Live compliance checking
A floating overlay checks rules as you design:
Failing rules show red rings on the canvas at the problem location, not just a generic warning.
Course generator
Five layout templates: U-shape, S-shape, switchback, perimeter, and a user-path mode where you sketch a racing line and the generator builds the cone vocabulary around it — slaloms on straights, chicanes on medium straights, sweepers on curves, esses on connected opposite-direction sweepers. It runs a compliance retry loop (up to 6 seeds) and picks the best-passing layout.
Flow analysis overlay
Labels every curvature feature with radius and speed (Stock / Street / Mod reference classes), color-grades the driving line by speed. Based on the forward-accel + backward-brake model from Solo 101 slide 109. This "feature" really sucks...since the lines of the "path" dont really line up with how close a real car would get to the actual cones...the values returned are laughable... Need to think of a better solution for this.
ProSolo PS-2 mode
Full side-by-side course support — drag-race start, 60-ft light gate, timing trailer with the official start/staging structure drawn to spec, transit lanes, event zones (grid, tech impound, staging, paddock, spectator). Mirror seeds Course 2 from Course 1 across a draggable axis; both sides stay independently editable afterward. ProSolo-specific compliance rules (opening straight, first-third slalom, course separation, parallel starts, etc.).
Export options
JSON (round-trippable), SVG (aerial embedded, title block included), PNG (1×–4× scale), PDF, and a Live for Speed .lyt layout so you can actually drive the course in-sim before setting a cone. (need someone to test this! just developed it but haven't tried it out)
Share links
One click generates a shareable read-only URL. Viewer has pan/measure/fit tools and a "Edit a copy" button that hands the course to the editor.
Still actively developing..... Would love feedback from anyone who actually designs courses, especially on the compliance rules and whether the pointer/cone placement conventions feel right. Thinking of adding AI generator for courses but that gets pricey quick and I just wanted something to take a picture of an area and allow for course setup!