Running an Event

This is the end-to-end walkthrough: create an event, run the setup wizard, then work through the event workspace stage by stage to a finished result. If you have not launched GridFPV yet, start with Getting Started and add a Mock timer so you can follow along without hardware.

The event workspace is a left-to-right sequence of stage pages:

Classes & Roster → Rounds & Heats → Race Control → Marshaling → Results

You move through them in order, but you can revisit any stage at any time. There is no separate "edit" mode — setting an event up is just visiting its early stages. Most choices save automatically as you make them, so you can close and reopen the event without losing work.

Create an event

1. From the home hub, open Events.
2. Create a new event and give it a name (for example Tuesday Club Night).
3. Open it. You land in the event workspace, and the setup wizard offers to walk you through the common path.

The setup wizard

The wizard is a quick guided first pass that gets a standard event ready in a few clicks. It covers the same ground as the early stage pages, in this order:

Timer & channels → Classes & Roster → First round → Review

Every selection auto-saves as you go — there is no Save button, and you can leave and come back. Use Next / Back to move between steps, Skip to jump past an optional step, and Finish setup on the last step.

Step 1 — Timer & channels

Choose the timer (or timers) that feed this event and confirm their channels and node count.

You need at least one timer

Next is disabled until you select a timer. A timer defines how many pilots can fly at once (its node count) and which channels they can fly on. If you have not set one up yet, add the built-in Mock timer — see Connecting a Timer.

If you select more than one timer, mark one as the Primary (it feeds the race and supplies the channel list); the others act as hot-standby Alternates.

Step 2 — Classes & Roster

Pick the classes this event runs, mark who is present, and place pilots into each class with their channel. This is the same work the Classes & Roster stage does — the wizard just front-loads it.

Step 3 — First round

Define one round so the event is ready to fill heats. Choose a format and its win condition (see Round Formats). One round is enough to start; you can add more later on the Rounds & Heats stage.

Step 4 — Review

A short readiness check confirms you have at least one class, one placed pilot, a timer, and a round. None of these block you — it is a gentle "ready to race?" summary. Click Finish setup to land in the workspace.

TIP

Everything the wizard does is also editable later from the stage pages. If you skip the wizard or want to change something, just open the matching stage.

Stage 1 — Classes & Roster

This stage decides who races and on what channel. Your pilots and classes come from the app-level registries (set up once under Pilots and Classes on the home hub), so here you are mostly selecting and arranging. It has three sections.

Classes

Tick the classes this event runs (for example Open and Spec). Need a class that does not exist yet? Use + Add class to create it. Your selection saves automatically.

Pilots (roster)

Mark who is actually at the event today:

1. Tick each directory pilot who is present, or use + Add pilot to add a new one on the spot. Select all / Unselect all help with a big field.
2. Place present pilots into classes:
   • With a single class, every present pilot is filled in for you.
   • With multiple classes, use each class's grid to Place all / Clear all or tick individual pilots.

Running a simulator?

Sim players appear in the roster automatically as they join, so you do not have to add them by hand.

Channels

Each placed pilot flies a channel — their fixed binding for qualifying and time-trial rounds.

1. (If you have more than one timer) pick which timer's channels to use under Channels from….
2. Click Auto-assign channels to spread the available channels across every placed pilot.
3. Override any individual pilot's channel from the dropdown in the placement grid.

No channels to assign?

If auto-assign is greyed out, your timer has no available channels yet. Open the Timers stage, pick a timer, and give it some available channels. See channels vs nodes for what these mean.

Stage 2 — Rounds & Heats

A round is a chunk of racing run with one format — a time trial, a head-to-head final, a practice session, and so on. Heats are the lineups within a round that fly together.

Define a round

1. Click + Add round.
2. Fill in the round form:
   • Label — a name like Qualifying R1 or Mains.
   • Format — the round type: Practice, Time Trials, or Head-to-Head (Round Formats).
   • Eligible class — the class this round runs for.
   • Win condition — how the heat ends and pilots are ranked, e.g. Timed — Most Laps (see Win conditions). Timed conditions ask for a race time; lap-count conditions ask for a laps number.
   • Seeding — start From roster, or From ranking to seed from earlier rounds (pick one or more source rounds and Take top — how many pilots from that ranking race here; the count is bounded by the source rounds' field).
   • Start & timing — staging time, the start procedure delay range, the grace window (default 30s), the min lap time (default 5s — crossings that would close a shorter lap are auto-removed as double-detections, marshal-restorable; 0 = off), and the protest window (0 = manual finalize; otherwise the result auto-finalizes that many seconds after race end). The defaults are sensible; leave them unless you have a reason to change them.
3. Save the round. You can Edit or Remove it later.

Raced rounds freeze their scoring rules

Once a round has raced heats, its scoring-defining settings (format, classes, win condition, seeding, min lap time) lock — editing them would silently re-score finished results. The label, staging/start timing, grace, protest window, and the heats-per-pilot count stay editable.

Fill heats

With a round defined, build its heats:

• Click Generate heats to build the round's lineups automatically from your roster and format (an open-ended round offers Generate next heat, one at a time), or use + Build heat to pick pilots into a heat yourself.
• Filled heats are named <Round> Heat N — for example Qualifying Heat 1, Qualifying Heat 2. A Practice round produces a single Practice Heat.
• For Time Trials, each pilot flies several heats ("Heats per pilot") on their fixed channel, and the round's win condition becomes the ranking. A later round — say a Head-to-Head final — seeds From ranking off it.

Stage 3 — Race Control

This is the race-running cockpit. You drive one heat at a time through its lifecycle and watch it play out. For the full state-by-state detail, see the heat lifecycle.

Pick the current heat

At the top, the current heat and its phase are shown large and color-coded. Use the heat picker to choose which heat is current.

WARNING

The heat picker locks once a heat is staged or running — you cannot switch heats mid-race. Finalize or abort the current heat first.

Stage, then start

1. Stage the heat. This begins the staging countdown ("pilots to the line"). The countdown is informational — nothing auto-advances, so take your time and Start when ready.
2. Start the heat. It arms and runs the start procedure: a short randomized hold (so pilots can't anticipate the exact go), then the start tone. The countdown runs itself — there is nothing to press between Start and the tone.
3. The moment the hold elapses, the heat goes Running on its own — listen for the tone.

Race audio

The console is the race's voice, and it follows you to every page — you can stage a heat, walk over to Marshaling or Rounds, and still hear everything:

• Procedure tones are always on: the start tone, the end-of-race countdown pips (5…1s), and the race-end buzzer.
• Lap callouts — a crossing pip plus a spoken "‹callsign›, lap N, ‹time›" for every recorded lap — are the informational layer. The Callouts toggle in Race Control mutes them (the procedure tones stay).

Watch the race

While Running, the live standing updates per pilot (laps, last lap, best lap). A timed heat shows a big countdown from the race time — past zero it runs negative through the grace window (yellow, then red) — with a smaller count-up elapsed clock beside it. Other heats show the classic count-up. In Practice you get a practice board per channel instead, with a New run · clear board button to start a fresh run.

The race ends on its own when the win condition is met, plus the grace window (default 30s) so late crossings still count. The heat then moves to Unofficial. If you need to end it early, press Stop.

Finish to Unofficial, then Final

• When the heat reaches Unofficial, the result is provisional — this is your window to fix anything (see Marshaling).
• When the result looks right, Finalize to lock it as Final. Advance moves you on to the next heat.

Off-ramps when you need them

Stop ends a Running race now (pilots land; the result stands as flown). Abort or Restart reset a heat all the way back to Scheduled (you re-stage it), and Discard throws it out entirely. The destructive ones ask for confirmation.

Stage 4 — Marshaling

Marshaling is where you correct a heat — fix laps against the recorded signal, apply penalties, handle protests, and set the official result. It has grown into its own guide: Marshaling covers every tool in detail.

The one-paragraph version: pin any heat (without touching the one Race Control is running), focus one pilot at a time, and correct their laps right on the lap list — Remove a false crossing, Save an edited lap time, Split a double-length lap, Throw out a lap that shouldn't count, Add a missed one, or re-derive the whole set from the RSSI trace with Tune detection. Below the divider, whole-heat rulings: penalties, protests, Finalize / Revert, and Void heat. Every change is an audited ruling and results re-fold live.

Stage 5 — Results

The Results stage shows your standings and finished results:

• Per-class standings aggregated across that class's rounds — position, pilot, points, best lap, laps, and rounds entered. Use the class selector to switch classes.
• Round standings for each scored round as data comes in.
• Export JSON to download the visible results (with pilot callsigns, not internal ids) for your own records or post-processing.

Standings populate as heats are scored, so this stage fills in naturally as the day runs.

What's next

• Choosing how to structure your rounds? See Round Formats.
• Wiring up real hardware? See Connecting a Timer.
• Quick questions? Check the FAQ.