Digitising the British Touring Car Championship

Rugged mobile tech company Getac has worked closely with the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) to digitise key race-day operations, including safety and compliance checks, team communications and vehicle diagnostics, in the latest phase of its ongoing strategic technology partnership.

Getac has collaborated with the BTCC for over three years and is now its official technology partner. For the 2022 season, Getac has supplied the BTCC with its Electronic Vehicle Inspection solution, which includes the UX10 fully rugged tablets and Getac Vehicle Inspection software, to digitise the key scrutineering processes that take place each race. Doing so has significantly improved transparency between teams and officials, while crucially shortening operational and decision-making times.

Effective digitisation central to BTCC’s future plans

Prior to partnering with Getac, BTCC staff primarily relied on paper forms and consumer grade IT devices, which created major challenges before, during and after each race weekend. Not only were paper forms time consuming to complete and difficult to archive correctly, but the relative fragility and poor battery life of consumer grade devices often led to unanticipated issues and delays. As the BTCC moved from traditional petrol-powered engines to petrol/electric hybridisation for the 2022 season, it knew a fully digitised approach to race day officiating and analysis was the only way to ensure smooth, efficient and seamless operations going forward.

Digitally transforming race operations

Getac’s solution offers outstanding performance and reliability in every aspect of operations, for both officials and race teams.

For race officials, the Getac UX10 makes data entry quick and easy. Its fully rugged design also means it can be used in race control or trackside, for everything from lap timing and regulation compliance to video reviews and post-race car inspections, with complete peace of mind.

The BTCC technical team use Getac’s Electronic Vehicle Inspection Solution to check the safety and compliance of competing vehicles digitally, with the data immediately made available to all relevant parties. Once each race is over, officials can then look at key data trends from the weekend and use the information to improve team and driver experiences at future events.

Race teams can also use Getac’s Electronic Vehicle Inspection solution to capture and review racing data in real time, take/transmit photos and video evidence, and pull diagnostic information directly from the cars pre/post-race for performance analysis purposes. Additionally, teams can monitor engine and tyre performance, using data provided by BTCC partners Cosworth and Goodyear, directly on their Getac devices.

The extensive connectivity options also mean teams can get accurate timing and race information from wherever they are around the track, rather than having to continuously return to their technical trucks or garage during each race.

“Our partnership with Getac over the past three years has helped us realise that paper-based processes no longer have a place in fast-paced race environments. Thanks to Getac’s digital solution, we can bring real-time control, visibility and efficiency to every aspect of our race day operations, ensuring audiences everywhere get the fantastic spectacle they have come to expect,” said Alan Gow, chief executive of the BTCC.

Image credit: iStock.com/metamorworks