Customer Comments

Customer Comments:

Here are some of our unsolicited customer's comments. The only editing of them was to include their organization, city and state, if excluded by the customer.

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4/9/2012

Best race and the most fun our district ever had.

Our district tried all kinds of race systems, we even tried reinventing the wheel with our own software creations...

Nothing matches the fun we had with GrandPrix Race Manager.

We ran five or six heats of three and then I switched to auto and let the youth members on stage continue by themselves... The race was over in 1.5 hours and there were no issues.

The scouting youth appeared to be doing it all by themselves... because they were actually on their own. They were the perfect picture of fun.

Fun for all, easy to setup and manage, buy a guarantied memory maker, GrandPrix Race Manager gets my 100% endorsement.

Can't say more except, Thanks for a great event!

Philip Hamilton
Montreal West Island Area
Saint-laurent, Quebec Canada

4/1/2012

Randy,

Just want to let you know that my Pack finished its Pinewood Derby using the Grand Prix Software for the first time yesterday. And I must say it went off without a glitch. Your software has proven to be the best investment that our unit has ever made for our Derby events. I would highly recommend it to all units that are considering buying software for their tracks and computer interface. It is great.

Thank you,

William J. Shelp
Cubmaster
Pack 557
Shinglehouse, PA

3/12/2012

Ran the derby this weekend and I have to say that GPRM worked flawlessly! Just to provide a bit of background, I'm a software developer myself and had previously used my own custom excel spreadsheet to run the race, but as this was to be my last year as PWD chair, I felt the need to hand-off something that didn't require any "customer support" from me. I'm generally VERY particular about software, so after trying several other packages (which will remain nameless), I was a bit concerned when I downloaded GPRM.

Well, everyone commented on how well the race went. I went straight to trophy rounds for the Cubs except for the 25 Tigers, which I ran down to 7, and then did a second round for Tiger trophies. This was followed by an open division that was just walk-up and sign-in, so I created the group on the fly (again:easy) and ran them. Then, I jumped back to my cubs and created a grand finals round and ran that. All-in-all, a fantastic program.

And since my oldest son won 1st place in the Pack, I was glad that I was using something "official" in order to remove any appearance of bias.

Thanks, Randy!

David Scott
Pack 688
Atlanta, GA

1/19/2012

Randy,

We had three of our Den races last night and everything worked GREAT!!!  The hands free operation worked great, the racer photos on the current heat screen was a big hit (except for the ones we mixed up due to adding them at the last minute), the automatic tie breaker rules were awesome (in the past we always had to run tie breaker heats), the large display was a HUGE difference from our old program, etc, etc, etc. Once we get better acquainted with navigating between the screens we'll be golden.

Thanks again,

Jim O'Shell
Pack 65
Hershey, PA

6/1/2011

Hi! I just wanted to say I love your software! It's awesome! Makes my job a lot easier. Also, right in the middle of our races we blew a circuit and everything went black, but when we got power back and the computer turned back on, the program picked up right where it left off, it didn't miss a beat. Great job!

John Volf
Pack 157
Longmont, CO

4/19/2011

We used version 10 for our race night. We had 24 racers registered out of 35 possible. The software worked very well and the Perfect N Type was the used. Each boy raced a minimum of 3 times. All participants and viewers enjoyed themselves. Everyone was enthusiastic and impressed on how well the software worked. We used to use double elimination manually prior the grandprix race manager, and upgrading to Grandprix made the race experience more pleasurable. Thank you for the software development.

Floyd Gibson
Sunrise Community Church
Fair Oaks, CA

4/7/2011

The Grand Prix Race Management software is an awesome tool. I only wished we would have purchased this years ago. In previous years, our races would last 4-5 hours by scoring manually on an Excel spreadsheet. This year with the implementation of the GPRM software, we completed our race with 55 cars in about 2 hours!! The derby race was awesome and everyone stayed engaged throughout the entire experience. Everyone really enjoyed the instant heat results displaying the times and scale speeds. I would highly recommend the GPRM package for all Cub Scout Derby races!!

Steve Berry
Pack 1640
Livonia, MI

11/22/2010

Hello

The software worked great! The only problem we had was when we plugged in the serial to usb adapter we had to download drivers to make it work. We set it up at home to get a feel for it and everything worked great. Last year with the old track and 15 year old software they were ready to burn us at the stake and this year we had people compliment and thank us for a smooth running derby. It actually ran too good because they didn't have time to sell any food! Thanks for your great product and support!

Shawn Norris
Pack 714
Milford, CT

9/4/2010

Our Pack raised the funds to purchase a new 6 lane track and timer. We switched to your software and was rewarded with the most efficiently run race in our history. We managed to complete the race in 2 hours, and our boys had a great time. We recieved overwhelmingly positive feedback from our parents.

Chris Saben
Pack 1459
Chantilly, VA

3/20/2010

Hello Randy:

We ran our Pack Races today with your Grand Prix software (we also used the FX package). What a hit !!! We ran 53 cars in two separate groups. All had a great time and all the boys remained interested down to the end. (In the past, we used an elimination type program where 3/4 of the boys lost interest after being eliminated). The races ran very smoothly and the software was straight forward and easy to understand and use. It also kept us on our schedule. We had a blast. We also really jazzed up the race with the sound program --- we got lots of laughs. I am thoroughly impressed with your products. I also thank you for the tips you gave us.

Best Regards,

Neil McGuinness
Pack 305
Miami Shores, FL

2/25/2010

Randy,

Thank you VERY much for your help with our order yesterday. I logged onto your site to see if there was an update for my Race Manager software (version 5). When I saw that you were up to version 9, I immediately ordered the upgraded version. Unfortunately, our race was last night – a pretty tight timeframe! I really appreciate the extra effort you showed by getting me the serial number BEFORE our Grand Prix. Version 9 rocks! We were able to run 55 racers four separate times within an hour; and that was only half the field – the older group ran on a separate track (also using Race Manager) on the other side of the gym.

We had absolutely no software mishaps, even though this was the first time we had used version 9. You have put out an excellent product – thanks!

Chuck Carvey
Foothills Fellowship Baptist Church
Littleton, CO

2/20/2010

This is the third year that we have used your software. Every year I plan on letting you know how fantastic your software is. Well, this year I am. We increased the number of races this year because the race runs so efficiently. The graphics, sounds, awards, etc are all top notch. Thanks for another fantastic year!

Ron Kitchen
First Baptist Church
Wixom, MI

2/15/2010

Hi Randy,

Just wanted to drop you a message that the Grand Prix Race Manager v9 software in conjunction with the SmartLine timer worked flawlessly. With the 'hands-free' and 'auto heat advance' I literally had to touch the laptop twice during the race. Once was because the start gate has not been reset and the other was to re-run a heat when a car fell off the track. I received several good comments after the race and since it was so easy to run, I am contemplating setting up another race.

I also work in programming and look for feedback to make my programs better. I am struggling to come up with a way to improve your software, but wanted to try to offer something up. When I was starting to test the software with the track initially, I went to delete the track top times and track records. The natural tendency was to click on Options > Delete but the Top Times and Track Records are not there. After a while I found that I could clear that data under the Options > Setup Options section. I am not sure that this suggestion is worthy of a change, but wanted to throw it out there.

Another possible item is that when the software tries to advance to the next heat and the starting gate has not been reset, it pops a warning message. I am not sure if the starting gate sends any signal to the software when it is reset, but if it does, maybe that warning message could go away automatically when the start gate has been reset. Or if it does not, maybe the warning message can be turned into a 'wait' message. Something like 'Waiting for start gate to be reset' and have the software attempt to ready the timer and advance to the next heat after 5 seconds. If start gate has not been reset yet, then repeat the cycle three times unless someone escapes out of the sequence if there is a major problem. The message could be large enough that it can be easily seen on the projection screen so the starter gets the hint to reset the gate.

I am looking forward to using the software and timer at our Webster Challenge in April which is the top six finishers from all packs in our area. People are sure to be amazed with it. Please feel free to use any portion of this email for your website.

Fantastic job on the software and thank you for your work.

Take care,

Dan Lazzaro
Pack 112
Webster, NY

2/12/2010

Randy,

I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you that we had our derby last Friday and everything went really well.

GPRM is a great program (and a great value) and your support is terrific.

I'm sure I'll be responsible for the computer next year and you'll hear from me then.

Again, thanks.

Regards,

Nick Petras
Pack 101
Manhasset, NY

1/5/2010

I just wanted to thank you all for this software. We have been able to put on a Grand Prix for 5 wonderful years and have not had an issue with it yet! The information is very manageable and your annual updates for $10 are a wonderful addition to the investment in the software. Thank you for all the good work, we could not do our outreach without you! We are growing every year and last year we ran over 200 racers in about 2.5 hours because of your software. We race single-best time and our racers love the fact that they can see to the 10,000th of a second. The reporting is top notch and we really appreciate the effort to make this very usable. Keep up the good work!!

Garry Stackhouse
Stonebriar Community Church
Frisco, TX