Molly Cooper joined Getac at West Surrey Racing, the home of the official BMW motorsport British touring car championship team.
The first thing you notice when walking into the WSR headquarters is the huge number of trophies everywhere. In cabinets, on shelves, meeting rooms, stairways and now even taking over the garage. “I said I would leave once this wall was complete,” said Carl Mitchell, Team Manager, Sporting and Operations at WSR. “But, years later I’m still here,” as he pointed to the rows of trophies lining the walls.
Currently, the BMW team stands as one of the most successful teams in BTCC history, winning the constructors title six years in a row; with each car being built and designed by WSR. But how do they continue to dominate? Last year saw them finish further down the leaderboard than they would have liked, so 2024 needed to be different.
Rugged technology company, Getac, has been working with the BTCC for the last three years and is now the official technology partner supplying both teams and scrutineers with rugged digital solutions. These solutions include a range of products and software solutions that provide the sport with the speed and efficiency it requires for a smooth race weekend. This allows the teams to concentrate on what they are good at – racing.
Scrapping the paperwork
The main trackside change that Getac’s technology has implemented is with the scrutineers. The company’s role is to ensure competing vehicles comply with the relevant technical regulations, which help to ensure safety and fair play.
Prior to 2022, the checklists and regulatory forms were paper-based, and the scrutineers spent a great deal of time going back and forth, making sure everything is correct and completed. Now, the Getac software allows checks to be completed and confirmed in real-time, all on a handheld tablet which can be carried around by the scrutineers on the track.
As well as document management, the teams in the BTCC also use the technology for trackside analysis, data capture and price control. All the collected information from the teams’ cars lives in one place and is easily accessible. “I can stay on the pit wall and look at that data when I need it rather than having to wait until later when I get back to the office. I can also hand it over to the driver on the grid, giving them that final bit of information they might want before they start the next race,” explained Carl.
The automotive industry is going through a huge amount of change right now and motorsport needs to act quickly to keep up and retain its competitive edge. The use of Getac’s devices has allowed for focus on the racing and helped the vehicle manufacturers to generate more revenue, support profit margins and keep costs under control.
Why ‘rugged’ technology?
The racetrack environment can be a difficult place to work; it can be dirty, hot, cold, wet or dusty. A normal consumer device would not perform well in that environment. So, for the BTCC, reliability on devices is critical, and devices like Getac’s are specifically designed for these environments.
Every part of a rugged technology device is meticulously thought through. Screen displays need to be visible in complete darkness or shining sun with anti-glare. They may be required to be touch screen in all weathers and need to work in 30°C degree temperatures and as low as -20°C, without condensation building up in between the displays. When wet or dusty, the ports need to be closed and covered so the internal elements stay protected. Each device needs to have limitless battery life and is equipped with swappable batteries. This means those working out in the field where charging for long periods of time is unavailable, the user can place another battery into the device and constantly keep it working.
Racetracks are notorious for bad signals, according to Chris Bye, Business Development Manager at Getac. “You arrive at the track on Friday and have one or two bars of service around the circuit, and on Saturday it turns patchy. By Sunday, you haven’t got a hope. For us, working with that persistent connectivity is so important,” he explained. Getac places a huge focus into its device antennas and into a software product that sits in the background and ensures it is picking up as much connectivity for its device, so it doesn’t crash.
As mentioned, the BTCC processes were completely paper-based, meaning the integration of Getac’s technology happened in stages. Firstly, Getac created tablets for the marshals and added cameras in vehicles for racing incidents. It then migrated the certification and checking from paper-based to digital to improve the team’s productivity. “Now, we are now getting to the stage where we’re using AI-based planning and scheduling software to do more for the vehicle health checking,” added Chris. “We offer critical health check software as part of the suite of automotive software solutions. We took the vehicle health check software, which is in database forms, and tailored it into a cloud-based system.”
Getac manufactures its devices within its own facilities in Taiwan and Shanghai. “Everything in our product is our product – even down to the batteries, housing and motherboards. However, our technology does operate on Windows. But this can change to suit the customer,” explained Chris.
Fair playing field for everyone
Getac are BTCC’s technology partner, and each team receives the same rugged technology and software to use at the track. This includes tablets and laptops for scrutineering work and cameras for vehicles. “There is no difference in teams from our perspective. The team with the smallest budget will also have access to it, as will the largest. For the championship, it must be fair,” said Chris.
Each year Getac’s Alan Gow, the CEO and Sam Riches, Head of Scrutineering at the BTCC, sit down and discuss the next steps. “We don’t really know the future of the championships right now, so we have turned our attention to focusing on how we can support this year, especially in terms of communication around the track,” he said.
Currently, the chief medical officer needs to be present for serious incidents, travelling to the scene by safety car. Getac plans to aid this by equipping the medics’ cars with cameras, allowing them to monitor the situation remotely, guide the helicopter in and respond effectively in extreme circumstances. Not only that, but Getac knows that AI will also be a big part of the future. Chris said: “The potential with AI is limitless and more of our technology is being built with this capability; it is very exciting.”
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