RaceYear Calendar User Guide

Welcome to RaceYear Calendar

RaceYear Calendar is a calendar platform for grassroots oval racing. Whatever your role, the promise is the same: never miss a race.

There are four ways people use the app:

• Fans follow tracks, drivers, and series, and get every race auto-synced into their phone calendar.
• Drivers build a full season schedule, manage travel budget and conflicts, then share it with fans.
• Track owners publish their schedule once and keep it current with almost no effort.
• Admins run the data pipeline, moderation, ads, and announcements behind the scenes.

How these guides work

Use the sidebar on the left to jump between topics. Each how-to is short and shows you exactly where the control lives.

Accounts & choosing your role

Header → Log in / Sign up

Creating an account takes one click and decides which experience you land in.

Sign up or log in

1. Click Sign up (or Log in) in the top-right of the header.
2. Continue with Google. That is the only sign-in method — there is no password to remember.
3. You are returned to the app already signed in.

Choosing your role

On the Home page, two cards — “I'm a Driver” and “I'm a Fan” — set your path. The app remembers your choice and routes you into the matching setup after you sign in.

• Pick Fan to follow tracks/drivers/series and get calendar reminders.
• Pick Driver to build and share a race season (drivers get all the fan features too).

Track owners and admins

Track owner access is granted after you claim a track and an admin approves it (see the Track Owner guides). Admin is reserved for platform operators.

Navigating the app

A few controls live in the header on every page. Learn these once and the rest is easy.

The header

• Logo — returns you to Home.
• Navigation tabs — change based on your role (fans see Browse/Feed/Tracks/Series/Drivers; drivers see Find Races/My Schedule/Promote/Tools).
• Search — find any track, driver, or series. Press / anywhere to jump straight into it.
• Notifications bell — cancellations on things you follow, new races near you, and drivers adding dates. A badge shows the unread count.
• Theme toggle — switch between light and dark mode; your choice is remembered.
• Profile menu — your avatar opens settings, role options, the Help Center, and log out.

Announcement banners

A colored banner may appear under the header with platform news. It is dismissable — close it and it stays closed for you.

Set your location

The location bar on Browse

Setting your location makes everything you see local — nearby races first, distances on every card.

Set it on Browse

1. Enter your ZIP code. The app geocodes it to position you on the map.
2. Choose how to measure reach: by miles (50 / 100 / 200 / Anywhere) or by driving hours (1 / 2 / 3 / Anywhere).
3. Continue — every list now respects that radius.

Change it later

On Browse, the location bar shows your current ZIP and radius. Use Change to update it or Clear to remove the filter.

Browse & discover races

Header → Browse · Route: /browse

Browse is your home base as a fan. Everything you can follow is discoverable here.

Find what you care about

• Search + day-of-week filter — search all races, and check Sun–Sat to show only the nights you can attend. Save as default remembers your nights.
• Your Follows — once you follow things, they appear as pills at the top with an Open in calendar link.
• Racing This Weekend — a smart Friday–Sunday window of upcoming events.
• Popular Near You — the most-followed tracks and drivers in your state.
• Browse Events — the full, day-filtered list.
• Track Locator, Driver Schedules, Explore Series — dedicated rails for each, every tile with its own Follow button.

Reading the tiles

Each tile shows the date, the series, and how many people follow it. Two badges can appear in the top-right corner:

🔥 Popular — high interest. 💰 Big Money — purse ≥ $5,000.

Follow & sync your calendar

Following is the core action. It puts a race calendar on your phone that updates itself.

How to follow

1. Find a track, driver, series, or single race you want to follow.
2. Press Follow. If you are not signed in, a quick sign-up prompt appears first — your follow completes automatically afterward.
3. Your calendar feed link opens. Add it to your phone's calendar — Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook.

What you get

• A live webcal / iCal feed in your calendar app.
• It stays in sync — when the track adds, moves, or cancels a race, your calendar updates on its own.
• Cancelled races are flagged, not silently deleted, so you are never surprised.
• Confirmed races include a day-before reminder.

From what you follow

Browse → the “From what you follow” section at the top

Everything you follow, collapsed into one simple list of the next 30 days — right at the top of Browse.

What's on it

• Every upcoming race from the tracks, drivers, and series you follow — in date order.
• A weather chip with the forecast when a race is within 7 days.
• The track, location, and start time, plus which follow it came from.
• Prize money where it's known.

Tap any race to open its track page. Use Manage follows → to jump back to Browse.

Tracks, drivers & series

Beyond Browse, four directory areas let you dig into the catalog. All are public.

Tracks

Header → Tracks · Route: /tracks

• Switch between map and list views.
• Filter by state, surface (dirt / asphalt), track type, “with upcoming races,” and distance.
• Follow a track to save it and sync its schedule to your calendar.

Each Track page has a map, contact and social links, a “Going” count (how many drivers have it on their calendar), a big follow panel (webcal + iCal URL + a downloadable schedule CSV), a 7-day weather forecast, reviews, related tracks/series, the upcoming-race list, and a Report an issue button for bad data.

Drivers

Header → Drivers · Route: /drivers

Browse public drivers, then open a Driver page for their car photo, number, verified ✓, team and bio, and a follow panel. Their confirmed schedule is grouped by month.

Series

Header → Series · Route: /series

Series are grouped by sanctioning body. Each Series page has a follow panel, the drivers running that series, and the upcoming races.

Driver setup

Route: /setup

Driver setup is a five-step wizard that tailors race discovery to you. A progress bar tracks your place.

1. Where are you based? Your city and state (or ZIP) — the anchor for travel distance.
2. How far will you travel? A radius in miles or driving hours.
3. What do you race? Select one or more car classes (Late Model, Modified, Sprint, and more).
4. Which series are you targeting? A searchable, body-grouped checklist.
5. Save profile. You land on Find Races, tuned to your setup.

Find races & fill weekends

Header → Find Races · Route: /races

Find Races is race discovery tuned to your profile, built to fill your calendar fast.

Filter the list

• Filter by series, car class, state, and distance radius.
• Toggle between “Going only” and “might race here.”
• Set a date range to focus on a stretch of the season.

Add a race two ways

Every race card gives you two buttons — Add as Maybe and Add as Going — so your calendar reflects how sure you are.

Fill your open weekends

A suggestions rail surfaces races that fit the empty weekends in your calendar, flagging ones that match your class. Use the Quick-add button to bulk-add them. A weekend briefing highlights the best races near home this weekend, with weather.

Build your season

Header → My Schedule · Route: /season

My Season is your command center — the full calendar, the budget math, and conflict control in one place.

See the season

• Stats dashboard — total races, Going vs Maybe, conflicts, a Next Race countdown, season purse, tow miles, estimated cost, and your weekend streak.
• Calendar view — a drag-and-drop month grid, color-coded by series.
• List view — the same races grouped by month. Toggle between the two.

Manage races

• Flip any race between Maybe and Going; filter with the All / Maybe / Going tabs.
• Confirm all Maybe races commits your maybes in one click.
• The conflict resolver appears when two races land on one date — keep one and drop the rest.
• Removed a race by mistake? A 6-second Undo pill brings it back.

Custom events

Add your own dated entries — practice nights, banquets, a one-off race not in the catalog. Mark each public or private; they flow into your calendar and exports, and can be edited or deleted any time.

Share & export your schedule

On My Season (/season)

Once your season is built, share it with fans and export it wherever you need it.

Share with fans

1. Click Share with fans. The first time, you may be asked for an email.
2. The app publishes a public calendar fans can subscribe to (webcal + iCal URL).
3. A separate private feed is available for invitees only.

Export options

• Download .ics — your whole season with real start times, timezone, and day-before alarms.
• Schedule CSV — a spreadsheet of every race.
• Season Recap PNG — a shareable stat card for social.
• QR code — links to your public profile; print it for the hauler or business cards.
• Export for RaceTrips (CSV) — hands your season to the RaceTrips expense tracker.

A download counter shows how many times your schedule has been pulled.

Create promo graphics

Header → Promote to fans · Route: /posts

The post designer turns your schedule into share-ready 1080×1080 graphics.

Pick a template

• Upcoming 3 races — auto-pulled from your calendar.
• Race Announcement — hype a single date.
• Race Result — finish position and lap time.
• Podium Finish — a top-three layout.
• Sponsor Thanks — shout out your backers.

Make it yours

The canvas uses your brand colors and car photo from Settings. Upload your own background, or generate one with AI from a text prompt. When it looks right, download the PNG, copy it, or share it.

Profile, budget & verification

Profile menu → Edit driver profile · Route: /settings

Settings is your full driver profile plus the numbers that power your season budget.

Profile

• Name, car number, team, bio, and car photo.
• Public-profile toggle — controls whether you appear in the Drivers directory.
• Car classes (including custom ones) and your targeted series.
• Brand colors for your promo graphics.

Location & budget

• Home address / city / state and your max travel distance.
• Fuel cost per mile — drives the tow-cost estimate on My Season.
• Recompute distances — refresh distances after changing your home base.

Get verified

Click Get verified and submit a proof link (your racing social profile, a results page) plus an optional note. Once an admin approves it, a blue ✓ appears on your profile and cards — a trust signal for fans.

More race tools

Header → More race tools · Route: /tools

A curated directory of other racing apps and resources, maintained by the RaceYear team. Each card opens an external tool in a new tab.

The list is managed by admins, so it stays current.

Claim your track

Claiming a track unlocks the owner portal, where you control its details and schedule.

Submit a claim

1. Open your track's page (/track/…) — search for it from the header if needed.
2. Click “Own this track?” and submit your name, email, and a short note.
3. An admin reviews and approves the claim. Once approved, the track appears in your Owner Portal.

Manage your track

Header → My Track · Route: /owner

The Owner Portal is your dashboard for each track you manage.

Edit track details

Update name, website, phone, email, address, surface, type, length, classes, and your schedule link. Click Save details to publish.

Manage races

Add, edit, or cancel individual races directly from the portal.

Keep your schedule current

You have three ways to keep your schedule current. Start with the easiest that fits your setup.

1. Connect a calendar (.ics) — easiest

1. Paste your track's public Google / Apple / Outlook calendar .ics URL into the import card.
2. Click Connect. Your races import immediately.
3. The app re-syncs weekly automatically. The card shows “✓ Connected · N events · last synced…”.

Use Resync to pull changes now, or Disconnect to stop syncing (already-imported races stay).

2. Import from your website or a flyer (AI)

Point the importer at your homepage or upload a schedule PDF/image. AI reads the dates and creates the races in one batch for you to review.

3. Enter races by hand

Use the add / edit / cancel controls in the portal for full manual control.

Promote with embed & QR

Once your schedule is live, two tools help fans find and follow it.

Embed widget

Copy the <iframe> snippet from the portal and paste it onto your own website. It shows your live schedule and updates automatically whenever you change it.

QR code

Download a QR code for flyers and the ticket window. Fans scan it and land on your track page, one tap from following.

Badges & icons glossary

Small badges and icons appear throughout the app. Here's what each one means.

Frequently asked questions

Quick answers to the questions we hear most.

Do I need an account to use the RaceYear Calendar?

No. The whole catalog is public to browse. You only need to sign in (with Google) to follow something, build a season, or manage a track.

How do I get races into my phone's calendar?

Follow any track, driver, series, or race. You'll get a webcal/iCal feed link to add to your phone's calendar — Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. It stays in sync automatically.

What's the difference between “Maybe” and “Going”?

On a driver season, “Maybe” is tentative and “Going” is locked in. You can filter by either, and bulk-confirm your maybes. Only your Going races appear on your public schedule for fans.

What does the Big Money badge mean?

The race has a purse of $5,000 or more. If a race is both popular and big-money, the Big Money badge is shown instead of Popular.

A race I follow got cancelled. What happens?

Cancelled races are flagged rather than silently removed, and the change flows into your synced calendar — so you see it instead of just showing up to a closed gate.

How do I become a verified driver?

In Settings, click Get verified and submit a proof link (your racing social, a results page) plus an optional note. An admin reviews it and grants the blue ✓.

I own a track. How do I manage it here?

Open your track's page and click “Own this track?” to submit a claim. After an admin approves it, the track appears in your Owner Portal, where the easiest way to stay current is connecting your public .ics calendar.

How does the tow-cost estimate work?

My Season multiplies the round-trip distance from your home base to each track by the fuel cost per mile you set in Settings. Update either and the totals recompute.

Where does the race data come from?

A mix of automated weekly scrapes of the major sanctioning bodies, AI extraction from track websites and flyers, and schedules that track owners connect directly. Cancellations are detected daily.

Can I export my season to another app?

Yes. From My Season you can download an .ics file or a CSV, and use Export for RaceTrips (CSV) to move your season into the RaceTrips expense tracker.

How do I switch between light and dark mode?

Use the sun/moon toggle in the header. Your choice is remembered across sessions.

Found wrong data — how do I report it?

On any track page, use the Report an issue button. Reports land in the admin Data Reports queue to be resolved.