Anyone who runs events knows that once problems start compounding, there may be no saving the proceedings without doing a hard reboot. Such was the situation the SCCA faced last weekend, as the ProSolo season officially kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina, and quickly took a hard right turn, wedging itself in the Suez Canal of ZMax Raceway, unable to …
It's a smart move by the SCCA, but I also do not see it returning in anything like it's current form.
I've ran a few Pro Solos in the past, and although it looked cool, is there a particular reason it has to have the mirror courses? I always thought two totally separate courses and combine the time, sort of like solo nationals. It would solve the timer issue and provide a national experience as well. Or run a single course that may be more difficult. Who says it has to be drag race style?
So, maybe it's not polite to ask but who was in charge of the Pro Solo program and can anyone explain a little about what was so messed up that they felt it was time to shut it all down until it could be rebooted?
While I imagine that the earliest we'll see the program return is the finale, officially the title is wrong as only the next three events have been canceled/repurposed.
Mirrored courses aren't required and there have been a few non-mirrored course events and there were some single course events on the schedule for this season. Neither of those things solves the timing issues though. And the drag race style start is basically the whole point of the event.
Maybe get rid of PAX indexes and it would solve a few of the problems.
How exactly would getting rid of pax fix power surges, server communication issues, or event management failures? Unless you mean that by killing pax you kill prosolo as a whole, which is technically a solution but not one anyone wants.
In reply to dps214 :
It makes the timing equipment requirements exponentially easier. Running heads up you can use a basic drag racing timing system and only have to program in the multiple cars on track portion. The PAX and indexes are what cause an off the shelf programming to not be able to work. Those server issues come from the hodge podge programming and hardware that make up the frankenstein ProSolo timing and scoring system.
(Have worked T&S at two recent National ProSolo's)
In reply to Kubotai :
The official answer is a power surge/problem killed the electronics in the start lights. Then, the same power problem killed the backup lights soon after they were plugged in. Electricity was provided by a generator and something happened that caused the power output to be dirtier than normal. There were also software problems which made recovery more difficult.
The Pro Solo season normally consists of 3-5 events east of the Mississippi and a similar number on the West coast, mostly in California. You have to travel to at least 2 events to earn enough points to qualify for the national championships in Nebraska around Labor Day. Charlotte was the first eastern event with the next one in a few weeks. There probably isn't enough time to fix and test the hardware at an event pace before the next event. On the west coast, events are getting canceled due to Covid restrictions.
The national office took the opportunity to cancel the season long points competition. Half the events were already canceled and this gives them more time to fix the hardware and software problems. I assume they are going to turn the Pro Solos that are still scheduled into some sort of Championship or Match Tour. Maybe it will be back by September for nationals.
Points were canceled before the season even started because of covid stuff. Charlotte was canceled, texas and NJ are champ tours, kansas is most likely canceled, everything past that is still undecided.
Yep, most likely a covid issue.
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