Judging

Racing is over. The header changes from navy blue to red, and the dashboard shifts focus: speed rankings are locked, and it's time for the awards that speed alone can't decide.

Your Race Supervisors — the two Scouts who ran the track — are done. They can grab a snack, watch the ceremony, or help count trophies. From here, it's the MC and the adult leaders who take over.

Speed Rankings Are Locked

The moment you click "Finish Race," the system calculates final standings from all the race data. The Standings table appears with two badges: "Final Results" — positions are set — and "Unlock" — a safety valve in case something needs adjustment.

The Unlock button is there for edge cases — if an adult leader spots something that needs correction, they can adjust a position before the ceremony begins. In practice, the algorithm's rankings are reliable. But the option exists because the system trusts the humans running the event over its own calculations.

Assigning Design Awards

The Race Info panel at the top shows a prompt: "Assign Design & Special Awards (0/4)" — or however many you configured during planning. Each award appears as a slot with a dropdown to pick the winner.

This is the moment to walk around the room. Look at the cars. Which one made you laugh? Which one clearly took twenty hours of careful painting? Which one looks like it should be doing 200 mph even standing still? The design and special awards are subjective — that's the whole point. They recognize effort, creativity, and personality that no algorithm can measure.

Who Decides?

The MC doesn't have to decide alone. There are two ways to assign awards:

Direct assignment — the MC (or adult leader) picks the winner for each award from the dropdown. Simple, fast. Works well when the MC has been watching the cars all evening and already knows who deserves what.

Voting — the MC asks the room, counts hands, and enters the crowd's favorite. For awards like Scout's Choice, that's the natural approach — the whole room should have a say. Will the system eventually collect votes digitally, straight from spectators' phones? We keep promising ourselves we'll build that. If you're reading this and it already works — you're welcome. If not — it's coming.

The Race Supervisors can participate as voters if you'd like — but the system doesn't let their role enter award decisions into the dashboard. That's reserved for the MC and adult leaders. The Scouts did their job running the track; the interface reflects that boundary.

What the MC Sees

During judging, the MC's dashboard shows everything they need for each award decision: participant photos, car names, race stats, and the full standings. They can see which racers already have speed awards — helpful for spreading recognition across more participants.

The MC also sees information the public screen never shows: matchup type labels, detailed win/loss patterns, and which racers had the most exciting runs. This is color commentary material — useful not just for judging, but for the award ceremony that follows, when the MC will announce each winner and needs something interesting to say about them.

What Spectators See

While the MC is walking around and deliberating, the public page shows a status change — the race is no longer in progress. But the Awards table hasn't appeared yet. Spectators know something is happening behind the scenes, but the results stay hidden until the ceremony.

This pause is part of the experience. The room shifts energy — from the rush of racing to the anticipation of awards. Kids start looking at each other's cars. Parents compare notes on who they think should win Best in Show. The MC can take their time.

Start Awarding

Once every design and special award has a winner assigned, the "Start Awarding" button activates. Click it, and the race transitions to the Awarding stage — the header turns gold, and the ceremony begins.

You can't start the ceremony with unassigned awards. The system makes sure every slot is filled before moving on — no awkward gaps during the reveal.