Our family race team recently arrived back home from a very successful 2009 QMA Western Grands. We have raced quarter midgets now for 6 years and have had the good fortune of some success in the past, but this was by far our best event yet and I believe PitLogic was - at the very least - partially responsible.

This year's event was held at the LQMA track in Langley, BC, a track we are very familiar with as we visit once per year for regional events. In 2009 our schedule brought us to Langley twice for pretty big events leading up to the "Grands". For each trip I used PitLogic to record all of our setups, track conditions, and results. As we tried different chassis stuff at each event we had a clear record of what was working and what wasn't.

When we showed up for the Grands all of our cars were baselined right to what had been working and had plenty of adjustment built into them for anticipated track condition changes. As the track built more rubber than had ever been there before and offered more speed than normal, we also needed some small gear adjustments. PitLogic's interactive gear charts made these changes a snap as well.

The results were two really happy boys. We were able to qualify straight to the A Main features in all 5 of our classes and then finish the event with a win, a 2nd place, a 3rd place, and two more top 5's. While lots of factors went into how we finshed, like 2 boys really trying their hearts out, great chassis builder support, strong engines, some new shocks that work amazing, and some general racing luck - I'd like to think that staying organized with our own PitLogic software and the laptop in the trailer definitley helped as well.

Our family has been in one form of racing or another since before I knew how to talk or walk. As I grew up so did my love of car racing, escpecially all things circle track. I first found myself working on a race car as my father tried his hand at asphalt late models after many years of being a crazy figure 8 driver. We quickly learned the value of information and proper record keeping.

Over time I tried driving race cars myself, first on the dirt in karts and then later in life in 4 cylinder "mini-stocks". As much fun as driving was, I really enjoyed working on cars - I've always liked trying to figure chassis setups and tires out - working with drivers and teams to go as fast as possible.

As much as this aspect of racing can be an artform, data and science are just as important. One of the keys to making the right changes at the right time is to use history to your advantage. Keeping track of what works - and just as crucial, what does not work will help keep a team going in the right direction.

Computers have also been an important part of my life. I bought my first home pc with chore and side job money when I was in 7th grade. It was a Commodore 64 and on that machine I started to learn how to program. I've been writing code ever since. My other company is a software company that sells business data solutions for small to medium businesses.

About 22 years ago while I was in college at the University of Washington I tried to combine my two passions and created the DOS based ACE Racing Systems and tried to sell some software to race teams around the country. Everywhere I went I was told computers and racing don't and won't mix. I fell for this asnwer and abandoned the effort.

Now that my family is racing heavily again and on a weekly basis are invlolved in getting cars ready and setting chassis up I looked around for an affordable computer solution to help us out. I couldn't find any that were easy to use, made sense, and applied to many different kinds of racing. So in 2008 I started writing PitLogic and am proud to release it this year to the racing public.

Our family currently races Quarter Midgets with our two boys, so the first version of PitLogic was born from open wheel small car setups but we made sure to create software that would work well for all types of racing. The software features an electronic setup book, and interactive gear chart, organizing help with check lists, and much more. Please check back here in this space for more information about how PitLogic is progressing and how it can help your own racing team.