The difference
Timing software announces. HeatCaller produces.
An announcement is a line of text read aloud when something happens. A show is a structure: it opens, it has segments and people in it, it goes to a break, it comes back, and it signs off. HeatCaller is the only RC timing app that builds the second thing.
Reads the position out when a car crosses. Maybe a fastest-lap chime. The same twelve phrases every Saturday, in the same order, in a voice the room stopped hearing in April. Between races, silence.
Opens the evening. Introduces the grid by number, home club and form. Throws to a co-host with a point of view. Calls the lead change and says it's the fourth. Takes a commercial break your sponsors paid for. Comes back, recaps, hands out the honours, interviews the winning team's technical lead, and signs off into the next race.
Run of show
One race, from cold open to sign-off.
Every segment below is written from what actually happened on your track — the real grid, the real laps, the real season. Each one stays quiet when the race gives it nothing to say, so a club hears a show rather than padding.
Sets the evening out — what's running, what's at stake, who turned up.
Your club's own opener lands, the music bed comes up underneath, and the first words arrive over its tail — a broadcast coming on air, not a clip followed by an announcement.
The host hands to the co-host, who has the Team Principal from a driver's team before the off.
Down the grid in order: grid slot, racing number, home club, and the most interesting true thing in their record — a first start, a hundredth, a winning run, won last time out. Before a main it opens with what qualifying decided and by how much.
Then green. The start waits for the show, not the other way round.
"That's the fourth lead change, among three drivers" — the line only a booth watching the whole race could give.
Calls a fight once two cars have been locked together a while, and says what it's for — the lead, or third.
A record falling — the race's, the night's, the layout's — and what the lap actually beat.
A short line so the room knows a recap is coming.
Your sponsor slides take the big screen while the recap is being written — so the half-minute the writing takes is advert time instead of silence. A video leads the break where the club has one.
Coming back from the break, the race told as a story: who led and for how long, what the lap times meant, how close it was at the end.
A third voice reads out the badges the race unlocked — first win, hundredth race, hat trick.
The form guide and the grid history, inside the recap's own show rather than as separate broadcasts after it.
Two questions for the winning team: one about the race, one about the car. What it says about the car comes from the setup actually logged in the garage that day, and what changed from the run before.
Always the last thing, naming the show and the next race on the program.
The night's totals, the fastest lap, the closest finish.
The whole evening written for the people who weren't there — played out in the hall as everyone packs up, and left in tonight's folder as a file you can post.
The big ones
Eight things no other RC timing system does.
Every driver gets their own clip
Each race is recorded exactly as the room heard it, and every driver gets an mp3 of just the stretches where the announcer called them — their fastest lap, the pass for the lead, the finish.
A driver who posts forty seconds of their own pass is the best advertising a club has.A co-host who disagrees
The host and the co-host are written as one exchange and split in two, so the answer actually answers. Seven dispositions: backs the underdog, takes nothing on one lap, remembers everything, explains why.
Nobody is ever unkind about a driver. The edge is about the racing.Segments your club can sell
"The fastest lap, presented by Joe's Hobby Shop." Sponsors attach to moments — fastest lap, battles, driver introductions, the race result — and appear in the call, on the stream graphic, and in a report showing exactly what each one got.
The commercial break is real airtime, not a logo in a corner.Broadcast graphics, built in
A transparent OBS overlay and a graphics page with a proper timing pylon — interval, gap to leader, laps led — plus a battle box that tracks how long a fight has run and whether it's closing, and banners for lead changes and milestones.
A number for the whole drive
HeatCaller's version of NASCAR's driver rating, 0 to 150, built only from what the timing records: finish, laps led, pace against the race's best, the fastest lap, places gained. It feeds the recap, so the announcer can say who actually drove well.
The hall gets into the broadcast
Club notes typed at the desk or sent from phones get read on air. The room votes on who wins and the announcer says what it reckoned. Shout-outs go out between races.
People who weren't there
A four-minute piece about the whole evening, written for someone who wasn't watching — it explains what the A-main was instead of assuming. Plus a page per driver, and listening along live from home.
Imaging that's yours
Seven music beds and seven openers ship with it, all levelled to the same loudness so your mix holds when you swap. Or load your own opener, bed and sting, and the show sounds like your club rather than like the software.
Demo mode runs the whole night
A full fake race through the real race logic, announcer and sounds — the Team Principal before, the introductions, the recap, the technical lead after. Hear the entire show before you own any hardware.
The app
One laptop runs the night.
Race day opens on what happens next — the round, who's in it, what's left to run, and one button that starts it. A readiness check names anything still to do.
Everything in it
160 features. Fifty-six of them are the show.
HeatCaller replaces your timing system rather than sitting alongside it, so the list below has to cover a whole race night — the decoder, the program, the season, the screens and the website. The broadcast is the half nobody else has.
160
Features in beta 0.59
Counted from the manual, grouped below. The broadcast groups are marked.
Read all 160
The produced show — 38
- AI race commentary written from the night's real facts
- Cold open before the first race
- Driver introductions in grid order
- Qualifying report before the mains
- Pre-race throw to pit lane
- Team Principal interview before the race
- On Air start — jingle, opening, bumper, staging
- Live lap, position and lead-change calls
- Lead-change count, NASCAR style
- Battle watch, naming what the battle is for
- Record-lap calls — race, night and layout
- Pace notes
- Halfway standings
- Finish call
- Teaser into the recap
- Commercial break while the recap is written
- The race recap
- Honours read by a third voice
- Colour segments inside the recap
- Technical Lead interview after a main
- TV-style sign-off into the next race
- Championship check after a class's last main
- Milestones — hundredth race, first podium
- Form guide from recent results
- Grid history — debuts and rivalries
- Sign-off numbers
- This day at the club
- Co-host — two voices in the booth
- Seven co-host dispositions
- Named cast — show, host, co-host, tech lead, reader
- Show music — opener, bed and sting
- Hitting the post on the opener's tail
- Writing tone — enthusiastic, neutral, dry
- Chattiness dial
- Pacing dial — room between calls
- Commentator number reading
- Rivalry lines
- Continuity across the night
The room in the show — 6
- Club notes read on air
- Notes sent from phones and the club page
- The room's vote on who wins
- Shout-outs from the room
- Championship stakes said out loud
- Why the announcer said what it said
Voices and soundscapes — 6
- HeatCaller voice, included
- ElevenLabs on your own account
- Kokoro — free and offline
- Six soundscapes
- Recorded voice lines per soundscape
- Name pronunciation check
Recording and sharing — 6
- Every race recorded as an mp3
- A highlight clip per driver
- Cold open and sign-off recorded separately
- The Night — four minutes about the evening
- A piece about one driver's night
- A private page per driver
Stream and big screen — 18
- Big Screen leaderboard for a TV
- Choosable leaderboard columns
- ON AIR band while the show runs
- Banners for warnings, records and milestones
- Grid roll call
- Between-races cards
- Track evolution
- If it ended now — live championship
- Live track map
- Stopped-car locator
- Best-lap ghost on the map
- Transparent OBS overlay
- Broadcast graphics page
- Timing pylon — interval, gap, laps led
- Battle box
- Webcam photo finish
- Announcer screen
- Qualifying projection
Sponsors — 6
- Sponsor slides on the Big Screen
- Sponsor videos
- Spoken sponsor reads
- Sponsored segments — "presented by"
- A sponsor's picture during their read
- Sponsor report of what each one got
Timing and race control — 20
- Direct EasyLap decoder over USB
- I-Lap decoder over serial
- Decoder connects by itself
- Flag control on F1–F6
- Lap-limited and timed races
- Minimum lap time
- Own release and shared green starts
- Staggered and pursuit starts
- Qualifying starts
- Jump-start detection
- Race Mode full screen
- Mission Control
- Timing warnings
- Split loops
- Split and sector times
- Sector records and best sectors
- Speed trap
- Quick Race
- Pre-race check
- Undo, 25 steps deep
Race day — 16
- Race days with entries
- Check-in, including QR scanning
- Scrutineering log
- The qualifying program built in one press
- A next-step card that always says what to do
- A, B and C mains with bump-ups
- Heats seeded by pace
- Corner marshal assignment
- Timetable
- Heat sheets to print
- Qualifying methods per class
- Class rules and tech checklists
- Rentals, with a count while any are out
- Handicaps for a mixed grid
- Venues — a track's setup in one click
- Track Layouts and the Track Designer
Drivers and cars — 8
- Driver Hub
- A driver in more than one class
- Any number of transponders per driver
- Transponder transfer
- Transponder health over time
- CSV import
- Garage — cars, setups and what got quicker
- Battery pack tracking
Results and the season — 10
- Race History, saved automatically
- Replay
- Shareable results card
- Exports
- Event report
- Championships with points and dropped rounds
- Race Analytics, six tabs
- Personal bests
- Achievement badges
- Driver rating, 0 to 150
Practice and rehearsal — 4
- Open practice
- Ghost cars
- Demo Mode — a full night, no decoder
- Lap beeps in your ear
Phones on club Wi-Fi — 6
- Live results page
- Phone remote for flags
- Self check-in page
- Race-day manager page
- QR posters
- You're up — your call on your phone
Your club online — 8
- Public club pages
- Online results and standings
- The live race online
- Online check-in from a phone
- Driver sign-up
- Racer PINs by email
- Follow a driver
- Listen along from home
The app itself — 8
- 18 looks, plus your own
- Your club's logo throughout
- Text size from 85% to 200%
- Sidebar that narrows to icons
- Reorder and hide pages
- Search that finds settings, not just pages
- Backup and restore
- Cloud backup with status at a glance
What you need
One laptop, your decoder, and the speakers you already own.
HeatCaller talks to EasyLap and I-Lap decoders directly — no bridge software, no second timing system running alongside. It replaces what you have rather than sitting on top of it.
The announcer speaks through whatever PA the track already uses. You don't need internet to run a race — the show keeps going when the Wi-Fi doesn't, with a voice that runs on the laptop itself.
No decoder in front of you? Demo mode runs a full race night on fake laps, the whole broadcast included.
- DecodersEasyLap · I-Lap
- ConnectionUSB / serial
- Operating systemWindows 10 · 11
- Audio outAny PA or powered speaker
- Announcer voices3 engines, one included
- InternetNot required to race
- No hardware yet?Demo mode
- VersionBeta 0.59
Beta is coming.
HeatCaller runs a real race night at a real track every week. The beta goes out once the whole show survives a full night on somebody else's hardware — different decoder, different PC, different Saturday.
If you run a club track and want to be in that first group, say so and tell me which decoder you're on.
[email protected]