# Trackmate Question



## bolts69 (Dec 24, 2009)

If I have 5 drivers and want 3 to race and 2 to marshall and rotate all 5 is there some way I can do this? Thanks for any help.


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## toomanyhobbies (Mar 27, 2005)

Select custom rotation in the race format window and put only the lane numbers you want racers in into the window next to the custom rotation button. Hope this helps.

Dominic


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

to make sure everyone races on all lanes, we used a racers called ghost1, ghost2 and ghost3.

I do not remember exactly how we did did but it was something like adding a ghost racer here & there to keep 2 or 3 marshals or the track.

I could not get it to work with the custom rotation back then. maybe it is better now


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

Buried in the Trackmate software there is a PDF and that explains how to do custom rotations.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

The help section is no different than it was years ago.
I played with it a lot, but could not get it to rotate 5 guys racing all the lanes but having just 2 or 3 on the track while the others marshal


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

I have never done a custom rotation, but if I recall correctly you would have to use dummy names so that every lane has a driver assigned. Possibly you could also change your track setup so that there are three lanes, that way you would not have to do a custom rotation. If we do not have enough people to marshal we use track calls. You can program in a track call delay so that people that a crash will be penalized. My track has its track call button mounted in a box with an extension cord. The box can be placed anywhere around the track. If there is only one person available to marshal he stands where the cars are most likely to crash and uses the button for cars that are out of reach. If there is no one to marshal the button can be located where a driver can reach it.
Back before I used Trackmate I used a homemade system with two boxes, one was placed between the drivers stations for lanes 1&2 and the the other was between 3&4, that way a person that crashed could reach the button himself.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

> I have never done a custom rotation, but if I recall correctly you would have to use dummy names so that every lane has a driver assigned


yeah, that's what I explained above.

we have also dne the crash burn thing as well as if you crash, you have to ru and get your car(self marshal) that was a blast


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

The really simple thing to do is to have each driver just skip a particular lane and marshall instead. You would probably want to make the heats longer so the total time on the track would be the same.


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## toomanyhobbies (Mar 27, 2005)

It's as easy as I mentioned above. Go to Race format, change from practice mode to round robin timed race, or round robin lap race. Then chose custom rotation and choose the lanes you want to use. 124, 123,, 234, 134, whatever. Press select racers. Move the racers you want into the middle box, then click place random button on the bottom of the middle box, press OK and done!


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

the custom rotation deals with lanes
if you add a 0 it simply a sitout
so if you do 1020304 for a 4 lane track
4 racers are still in on the 1st heat. Not what is wanted.

if you do 234 lane 1 is simply not used, so it not going to get each racer on each lane.

to have 5 racers on with 2 or 3 marshals and running all lanes, the ghost is the key from the testing I did.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

If you go into the track setup menu you can deactivate one lane, so the program will change the rotation to 5 heats of three lanes each. That way you would get two people free to marshal, but of course you would not be using all of the lanes. If you want to race on all of the lanes you have to do a custom rotation with dummy names. As I noted earlier if you left all of the lanes activated when each driver rotated to a particular lane he could marshal instead of racing.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

yeah
what that's what I was saying, that's why adding ghost allows all lanes to be used. 
It also adds time to how long the race will take


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