Homologation question

[Dakimmer]

One of your competitors is telling me my lights need to be homologated or one of the race groups will not use our track. Can you tell me what homologation is and why we need it? Our track has been running for years without it and this is the first time I am hearing it is required.

[raceamerica]

Homologation is a product approval by the FIA. Homologation is a set of product specs for LED based Electronic Flagging Systems (EFS). It includes specs for color, brightness, viewing angle, physical size dimensions, and most importantly, a set of flag images used exclusively by the FIA. Each race organization defines the flags they use and almost all share common flags like red, green, flashing yellow, checkered, etc. Like the FIA, race organizations also have unique flags in their flag set. Homologation identifies up to 19 flag images used by the FIA as part of the product spec. To meet the needs of a race facility renting to several race organizations, a wide variety of flags need to be available.

RaceAmerica offers a Digital Safety Flag (DSF) EFS product line with currently 62 flag images preloaded covering the flag requirements of the FIA, SCCA, IMSA, Indycar, MotoGP, NASCAR, Karting Australia, SVRA, and many others. The DSF products meet or exceed the specs defined for homologation and definitely exceeds the flag requirements.

There are two ways to offer the FIA flags at your track. Each turn can be equipped with a DSF and the flag set required can be selected to match the race organization on track and easily changed to match tomorrow's rental needs. This is an impressive installation.

An alternate way to offer the required flags is to install a single DSF at the start/finish line and more affordable Track Safety Lights (TSL) at all other corners or sectors on the race track. The flag images will be displayed at the start/finish line and the TSLs around track display matching color schemes to the flag images. For medium size tracks, additional DSFs can be installed at key locations to add more full color flag images around the track. Several private tracks have taken this approach to an affordable and effective EFS solution.

[Dakimmer]

Thank you for the insight. Our track has a DSF at the start line and eight TSLs, one at each turn. We need to upgrade our software to take advantage of the additional flags on our DSF but so far we have been able to offer flags each rental group requests for their race day.

[ManagerBen]

I am new to this forum and jumping around reading posts. This one caught my eye since it mentions 62 flags in the DSF. I can only recall like 30 flags total. What flags make up the 62 in your DSF?

[raceamerica]

The Digital Safety Flag product line 3rd generation can store up to 120 full color image flags as well as animated full color flags. The 62 flags currently loaded offer all the flags you normally see at a race plus custom flags designed by our customers for their use. Once we add their custom flag in, other tracks have access to those flags and begin to use the same custom flags.

There are also different versions of a flag as preferences appear from our customers. The checkered flag is a standard flag and the DSF also include an animated checkered flag flowing across the screen. The animation is more visible at greater distances due to the movement of the animation. Double Yellow, the US Flag, Rain on track also have a still and an animated version so a track can select which flag works best for their use.

RaceAmerica designs custom flags for race tracks and other tracks can benefit from the unique meaning flags or variations on standard flags. All of these flags are pre-loaded into the DSF version 3 product. If the FIA or other race organizations add a new flag, RaceAmerica adds it to the DSF and makes it available to customers to download and add to their DSF.