All competing British Truck Racing Association Championship machines will be fitted with SmartWitness video camera systems in 2019, following an agreement with SmartWitness.
Forward-facing, rear and blind side SmartWitness cameras will be installed on all competing trucks at BTRAC events for the forthcoming season with the live video support set to be available for race officials at the click of a button.
Competing trucks will have 1080HD footage on a monitored live stream via connected 3G/4G SmartWitness cameras which will be monitored on the SmartView software platform. The live video platform registers events such as hard breaking, acceleration as well as footage on demand from collisions shot in high resolution and at 30 frames per second.
The forward facing SmartWitness KP1S camera has a 170 angle lens which simultaneously records to an SD card in a tamper-proof unit, as well as sending footage and data via the 3G/4G cellular connection.
Driving infringements can be monitored live from the SmartView platform or can be reviewed from the SD card afterwards if race officials so wish. The SmartWitness software will allow officials to track back to the exact moment of an alleged infringement and can analyse footage frame by frame on forward-facing, rear or blind side cameras to see exactly what happened in any alleged incident. The SmartWitness system has already been trialled on BTRAC machinery with selective trucks running the equipment at the 2018 season finale at Brands Hatch.
Glen Horncastle, Championship Director, said: “The SmartWitness system and cameras are the perfect solution to assist race officials to investigate and monitor these race trucks in race conditions. The SmartWitness cameras and software really impressed us and ticked all the boxes from what we needed from live video analysis.
“We are always looking to align ourselves with professional sponsors / partners who can bring added value to the Championship, and having the ability to work with a technology leading camera and software provider such as SmartWitness is a very exciting prospect.
“Not only will the Championship benefit from this relationship but so will the fans, as they will be given the opportunity of viewing truck racing from new angles and with previously unavailable vehicle telemetry.”
Paul Singh, SmartWitness CEO, added: “We are really proud to be a part of the British Truck Racing Association Championship, we are big fans of the sport and it’s great that we can help make it safer and fairer.
“The cameras and systems are exactly the same as we install in HGV fleets across the UK and USA, the cameras are the same high definition footage, G-shock sensors and GPS tracking. Our system is so robust and flexible that it can work just as well on a truck hurtling round Brands Hatch at 100mph as it does with a vehicle in urban traffic.”
The 2019 British Truck Racing Association Championship season will begin over the Easter weekend at Brands Hatch on April 21/22, before the heavyweight behemoths then descend on Pembrey, Thruxton, Nurburgring, Donington Park and Snetterton, before capping off the year back at Pembrey and Brands Hatch.