Testimonials - GrandPrix Race Manager

Randy,

I wanted to send you a Thank You for your software and the successful event we just had. It was awesome and everyone loved the software. The last few years I had programmed an Access data base, manually entered times and just had a report that displayed on the overhead. It was nice having the racers and the on-deck, it helped to move things along. We also had some of the Elders of the church who said it was the best Pinewood Derby they had had and felt it was very fair. Everything worked perfectly.

I don't know if you want suggestions, as it stands you have an awesome program that made our event special. You probably get a million "suggestions" and obviously can't do everything everyone wants (unless they are willing to pay extra of course).

Do you do other programming as a profession? You are very good. I have customers sometimes who are looking for good programmers to develop niche apps. I would be happy to refer people to you if it is something you would want.

Oh well, just got back from camping (Ohio, 0 degrees last night), I need a shower (hot).

Thanks again and God Bless,

Jim Swartwood
Maranatha Bible Church
Norton, OH

Hello Randy,

We ran our Derby on Saturday and all went well. Your program worked perfectly and everyone was pleased with the "Big Screen" and sound effects.

Thank you for your excellent tech support and helping me resolve my initial problems.

Tim Grimes
Cubmaster Pack 7
Golden Spread Council
Golden Eagle District
Amarillo, Texas

Randy,

Just a quick note of thanks... In this fast-pace world it's real easy to get complacent towards delivering good customer service. I know you were probably "wiped out" after a tough day of the office, yet you still put forth at willingness to assist me. I'm quite aware that you are the software developer not the hardware tech. With that said, I appreciate you taking the time to assist me in troubleshooting my construction issues.

I will recommend you and your software to all the Pack Leaders that attend our Pinewood Derby.

Ed Pine
Pack 701
Amarillo, TX

Used this software for an Awana Grand Prix on 11/15/2003 with a total of 61 cars. Using this software resulted in the best race we've ever conducted.

Past years were double elimination and took 2-3 hours to compete. Many kids and parents felt the cars lucky enough to race in the "fast" lanes ended up winning.

This year, every car ran in each lane (Perfect-N) and we used the cumulative elapsed time scoring method. The race only took 55 minutes to compete for all 62 heats even with manually typing in the elapsed times for each heat (used older Awana Racemaster timer that doesn't have a computer interface). Everyone felt it was much more efficient and fairer. The kids were happy that they all raced four times.

Highly recommend the software. We will use for all future races.

Suggested improvements would be:
1. Improved graphing of lane statistics. We took the top 10 racer results and created a bar chart of elapsed time in each lane to look at lane speed trends. Did this in excel after exporting the data. Would be nice to have this built in. Also would be nice to zoom in to the chart showing average lane times.
2. Improved data entry in the registration area. Currently very "Microsoft Access like". Would be nice if sorting of data fields persisted after saving changes. (e.g. sort by car number to find a particular car and then change the car to "pass inspection"....after saving, need to re-sort.)

David McKenney
Liberty Heights Church
West Chester, Ohio

Just wanted to drop a line and tell you that we used your program today at our Master Club pinewood derby. We had 5 separate groups, 47 cars. Race registration was smooth and easy. We had a few "operator" errors initially during the race but then figured out what we were doing wrong. The sound effects and graphics were a big hit. We displayed the computer screen on a 32" TV so all could see the scheduling. We purchased our electronic eye from Awanas a few years back, so we had to manually input times.
Look forward to using your program for years to come.

Thanks,

Tim McQueen
Assistant Pastor, Youth Ministries
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Swansboro, NC

We had our annual AWANA Grand Prix on Sat. the 12th. We had been using bracket style elimination in the past, this year we used your software program and everyone was impressed!! The kids loved racing their car a whole bunch of times, and those who paid attention to the details had no complaints, can't get any fairer than that. Some of the finish times were only .0005 seconds apart.

I have one question about the lane setup, can the designated lane colors in the program be changed around without repainting the lanes?

Thanks,

Dave Gillingham
Shannon Baptist Church
Freeport, IL

Mr. and Mrs. Lisano,

Just thought that I would drop you guys a line and let you know how it went with our Pinewood derby. Sorry that it took so long to get back, but we have been very busy here.

I was one of only a couple of people that really thought that we should order some kind of software for the pinewood derby. I had looked on the web and found that the software could really speed up the workings and really help you keep track of what was going on. We received our copy and right away I was able to enter information and see how we would be able to run the race.

I encountered a lot of resistance when I told them that the software would not do a double elimination, but that I thought the way the software worked was much better, because everyone got to race more and it seemed like a better way to determine who the actual winner is.

The day before the race I got to actually hook the track to the software and it all worked like a charm. Just clicked on the button for our type of time and it was off and communicating. GREAT!!

I borrowed a projector from my work and was able to project the race up on the wall, so that everyone knew who was racing, what place they were in and what was going on with the race. Everything went great. We went from taking about four hours with a double elimination to letting every boy race four times, and having the top six places race in the Grand Finale in only two hours. The only problem that we had is when I didn't enter one boy and we had to start the race over. This was totally my fault.

So this long winded email is to let you know that software worked great and now most everyone (still have some doubters, but they are the type of people that think computers are the work of the devil) thinks that the software was one of the best ideas for the race ever. So I appreciate your hard work and think that you guys did a great job. Just let me know if you need any type of reference as I would be glad to help.

Thank you,

Chad Taylor
Pack 789
Rockdale, TX

Hello Randy,

We ran our Andrew J. Baker Memorial Pinewood Derby on the 22nd of February. The combination of the Grand Prix Software, Fast Track Timer, and BestTrack Track was unbeatable. We are very proud that we were able to honor Andrew with the Derby and the race software greatly contributed to our success. The software was very easy to use and was a smash hit when we posted the heat results using a projector. The link below is to some pictures of our derby.The young man in the first picture is Andrew Baker's step brother and he is sitting on their Mother's lap. As you can see by the pictures, it made his family very proud also.

Thank you very much for building such a fine product. We would not hesitate to recommend your software and can't wait until our derby next year. The only recommendation that we could possibly make is to save the mph information in the database. The kids absolutely loved seeing their cars go 200 MPH!! When we posted all of the results though we could only give time. We could put the information into a spreadsheet and calculate the speed but there is too great a possibility of an erroneous calculation. Even though we couldn't post the scale speed, we still very much enjoyed using the software and found it very easy to use.

Respectfully,

Tim Centers
Pack 200
Cleves, OH

http://www.clevespack200.org/packinfo/pinewood/pw_pics.html


Hello Randy,

Andrew was a Wolf Cub in my Den. He was killed in an automobile accident January 19th of this year. He was buried in his uniform and received his wolf badge at his funeral. The following link has an excerpt from an article that was written in a local newspaper and explains everything in much more eloquent detail.
http://www.clevespack200.org/packinfo/pinewood/pw_history.html

You are welcome to use our comments and thank you for considering our recommendations.

Thanks,
Tim

To: Randy Lisano and everyone at Lisano Enterprises,

You truly have a winner with your GrandPrix Race Manager software. As the new Pinewood Derby coordinator for Pack 1990 in Douglasville Georgia, I started looking for a software product that could help eliminate the chaos and confusion of trying to run a derby using the bracket method. Your software was selected and put to the test this past weekend. It performed flawlessly and I received many compliments on how well the derby was run. We ran 54 scout races in about an hour and a half, with some of that time taken up by a short intermission. I have recommended your software to other packs.

I do have one question. Your web site lists three timers that are sold with your software. I'm looking to replace our timer next year and was wondering if you had a personal favorite out of those three?

Once again, thank you for a great product.

Joe Rizzoli
Pack 1990
Douglasville, GA

Just a note to let you know that we had are derby Friday night and it went great, we had 45 cars and ran 135 races with no problems. We even had 4 races that we had to go to the third decimal place to get a winner. Thanks for everything it great to work with a great christian company and people like you.

Thanks

Clay Showalter
Pack 508
Asheboro, NC