Omnis application delivers live Web and SMS race results for world motorsport events

The World Enduro Championship (WEC) is the world championship series for enduro, a popular form of off-road motorcycle sport in which a number of stages are raced in a time trial against the clock. The WEC is run by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and consists of six two-day events across Europe, plus one in the USA and another in Canada. This sort of event is not technically a race, but is in fact a time-keeping event, therefore capturing and storing the time-keeping data is critical. Getting live timings and results during the event is also essential and adds to the excitement of the sport.

For the past two years, all timing and results for the WEC have been handled by Infomega Race Results, a long-term Omnis developer based in Athens and specialist in motorsport solutions. Infomega manages results for all Greek Championships including events for Auto, Moto, Kart racing, and MotoCross, and they have been awarded the contract for WEC in 2007 as well. The system they created and use now to manage race results is called iRally, but it began life back in the early 1990s as “Rally Master” when Infomega were the official race results contractor for the Greek Acropolis Rally.

The original application was written in Omnis 7 (1.4), and although it's still running in its latest incarnation (Omnis 7.3.8.3) as iRally, it has evolved into a fully automated timing and results system running under Windows XP, with many new technologies added in recent years. The current system captures, via serial ports, times and competitor IDs from transponders fitted on each vehicle, and all data from remote Special Stages and Time Controls are sent to central processing using 3G/GPRS data cards resident in remote laptops. The system also has automatic web updates at user-defined intervals and live SMS messaging to anybody who has signed up to receive the service, such as race teams, support crews, the media, event officials and spectators. iRally can also send live results to commentator's monitors, the open-air digital score boards, and to the event website (www.wec-live.com), using FTP commands and a combination of 3G data cards and SMS gateway. Each of the connected laptops can run multiple copies of Omnis and all share the same Omnis database.

“I still can't believe what I have done with Omnis all these years and it still amazes me with its flexibility even with all new state-of-the-art transponders/decoders, live web updates and interface to the SMS gateway I have added to the latest application. Kudos to Raining Data for keeping Omnis 7 alive and kicking for guys like me,” said Nick Andritsakis, chief Omnis developer with Infomega Race Results.

About Infomega Race Results: the company been heavily involved with time keeping and race results processing since 1983 (always with Omnis). The company has three main partners and about 10 part-time assistants, covering all races, rallies and hill climbs in the Car, Motorcycle and Kart Greek Championships. Major international events include Acropolis Rally (WRC), Elpa Rally (ERC), SuperMoto EU Championship events held in Greece as well as all the current World Enduro Championship events. They have extensive experience with TV coverage, working with SuperSport cable channel in F3 races and with results posted on-line over the Internet for major events. They use the iRally race results solution for all motorsport events that they manage and it is also being sold internationally.

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