FPVTrackside

Race brackets, built in.

Set a bracket up in your browser, run each heat as a normal FPVTrackside race, and watch the results fill in by themselves.

Press ▶ Play to let it run by itself, or use ← → to step through.

The big picture

One loop, no paperwork

The bracket decides who races whom. FPVTrackside does what it already does: runs and times the race.

  • Heats go from the bracket into FPVTrackside as normal races.
  • You race them exactly as you always do.
  • When a race finishes, the bracket reads the finishing order and moves pilots on to their next heats.
Getting there

Opening Brackets

  • The Brackets tab next to Rounds, or Race Brackets at the top of the menu.
  • A short tip when an event opens. Ok takes you there. Tick Don't show this again to stop it.
  • FPVTrackside serves the page itself, so it works at the field without internet. Any phone or laptop on the same network can open it.
Brackets
The Brackets home page in FPVTrackside
New bracket · step 1 of 3

Pick a format

  • Double elimination: winners and redemption sides. Finals are chase the ace or a grand final.
  • Top 4 advance: MultiGP-style, ranks the top four.
  • Mains progression: the lowest main races first and its top finishers bump up.
  • Seeded ladder and points mains.

For most club finals, double elimination with a chase-the-ace final is the one to pick.

New bracket · Format
Choosing a bracket format
New bracket · step 2 of 3

Seed from qualifying

One button ranks pilots on their best consecutive laps from the event's time-trial rounds, fastest first.

  • You can choose the number of laps and which rounds count.
  • Drag a pilot, or use the arrows, to change their seed.
  • Untick anyone not racing in this bracket.
New bracket · Pilots
Pilots seeded from qualifying with their times
New bracket · step 2 of 3

Add anyone

  • Search pilots lists every pilot FPVTrackside knows. Anyone not yet in this event joins it when the bracket is created.
  • New pilot adds someone FPVTrackside has never seen: a callsign, and a name if you have it.
New pilot
The new pilot form
New bracket · step 3 of 3

Settings

  • Pilots per heat and how many advance from each heat.
  • Finals: chase the ace or a grand final, and how many wins make the champion.
  • Send heats to FPVTrackside automatically: round 1 straight away, later heats as results come in.
  • Channel per seat (optional): otherwise channels are chosen for you.

Name it and press Create bracket. It is saved with the event.

New bracket · Settings
Bracket settings
Race day

Every heat has a state

Waiting→ Ready→ In FPVTrackside→ On screen→ Done
  • Waiting heats say which heats they are waiting on.
  • Send creates a ready heat in FPVTrackside. Select puts it on the race-director screen.
  • With automatic sending on, you never press Send.
Open Class Finals
A bracket part way through, with heats done, on screen, in FPVTrackside and waiting
How double elimination flows

Lose once, you get a second chance

  • The top finishers in each heat move up the winners side.
  • The rest drop to the redemption side, not out. A second loss there knocks a pilot out.
  • Both sides feed the chase the ace final. The first pilot to win the set number of final heats is champion.
  • Seats not yet decided show where they will come from, such as 1st of L2-1.
Diagram
The bracket diagram with winners, redemption and chase-the-ace heats
Results

Results come back by themselves

When a heat's race finishes in FPVTrackside, the bracket records the finishing order and fills in the next heats.

Sync results pulls in anything it missed. Both automatic switches can be turned off at any time.

When you need to step in

Enter or fix a result

  • Tap the pilots in finishing order. The top finishers who advance are required; the rest are optional.
  • Leave Keep this result on to lock your call, even if FPVTrackside's timing says otherwise.
  • Reset clears a heat so it can be run again.
Enter result
Entering a heat result by tapping pilots in order
Channels

Pilots keep their channel

When a heat is sent, each pilot gets the channel they flew last heat if it's free, so nobody has to retune between rounds.

Each pilot's channel shows beside their name on every heat card, so they can check it before powering up.

Under the hood

How it fits together

The engine

Plain C# inside FPVTrackside. These are the formats AUFPV runs, and over 3,500 tests check the engine against the AUFPV platform's draws and results.

Saved with the event

Brackets live in Brackets.json in the event's folder, so they travel with the event.

Linked races

Each FPVTrackside race carries its bracket heat's ID. That is how a finished race finds its way back to the right heat.

REST API

The page uses FPVTrackside's new /api/v1. The same API can drive the whole app. Try it in the console at /api/v1/docs.

Race day checklist

Five steps

1

Run qualifying as time trials, as you always do.

2

Open Brackets → New bracket → pick a format.

3

Seed from qualifying, check the order, choose settings, Create.

4

Leave Send heats automatically on and run the races.

5

Fix any call by hand and lock it. The champion appears at the end.