Race Cars and Ragic: A Flexible System Driving Efficiency for a Fast-Moving Team
Company Name | Cameron Racing |
Industry | Racing Management |
Benefits of Implementation | |
Applications | Work Log, Payroll, Sales Order and Purchase Order System, Company’s Document Management |
Subscription Plan | Professional |
Scale of Use | 15 users, including engineers, racers, and office staff, running operations most of the time remotely |
“We are like the dream business, involving wealthy people that want to go racing.” That is how Pete, the Office Manager of Cameron Racing who set up Cameron Racing’s entire office and database from the ground up described what Cameron Racing does. They do everything related to racing, from procuring the car, prepping them, training the racers, anything racing, Cameron deals with it.
“I knew what I wanted, and when I found it, it’s like this is it. I looked at Ragic for about 2 minutes, I mean, Ragic was really kind of a love at first sight sort of thing.” And that is what Pete said on Ragic, a tool that runs the core operation of Cameron Racing, from all their documents ranging from the boss’ monitor user manual to agreement with their drivers, their car parts Sales and Purchase Orders, to the Employees Payroll.
The Challenge
Ragic isn't Cameron Racing's first magic tool—Pete is. Pete first met Steve, the owner of Cameron Racing, when he was handling the team's travel arrangements as their travel agent. Initially hired to assist with a bit of filing, things didn't quite go as expected—or perhaps they went better than anyone imagined. After just a day and a half, Pete realized the extent of the challenge and said, "Dude, you really need someone to set up your office here." And that was it—everything fell into place. It seemed like Pete's 45 years of experience had perfectly equipped him to become the office manager at Cameron Racing.
When Pete came on board, Steve was doing everything either manually on paper, or in a computer with the wrong software. He was handwriting checks, the mechanics wrote down the jobs they did and the parts they installed on a car on clipboards. The mechanics’ penmanship? Horrible. When Pete tried to transfer these papers into QuickBooks, it was a nightmare.
Pete and Cameron Racing’s ex-crew chief both knew the solution was job management software. The ex-crew chief explored turnkey solutions, but they didn’t fit their needs and were too expensive. Pete knew exactly what he wanted, so he got serious. After browsing the internet, he found Ragic. In just two minutes, he was convinced—Ragic’s flexibility to build what he needed, his way, was perfect for their niche industry.
While the team was out at the race, Pete spent two weeks immersing himself in Ragic. When Steve returned from the trip, it was the breaking point. His head was hotter than a helmet—one of the guys had misplaced a crucial clipboard that listed the jobs done on a race car. Chaos followed—they couldn’t keep track of what had been completed or bill clients accurately. They need to prevent this from happening again.
It’s the right moment for Pete, who was ready with a framework of how the system looks to pitch Ragic. Steve grasped the concept immediately, and his reaction was priceless: "Holy cow, this is really cool."
Now, Ragic handles their data the way the boys like their cars—fast and precise. With everything digitalized, missing clipboards and the chaos they caused are off the table.
The Ease of Use: “If This Old Codger Can Do It, You've Got a Good Product”
“I needed something straightforward. If something happens to me—yeah, I’ve got two stents in my heart—it has to keep running without needing a squad of expensive coders or custom solutions. It’s gotta be user-friendly enough for someone with just decent computer skills.”
"And Ragic is exactly that. The guys come to me with requests like, “Can you add a field to track the chassis number of the car?” I can get it done in just two minutes. If this old codger can do it, you’ve got a good product.”
This system that runs the core operation in Ragic has no custom code at all. Pete set it all up with all Ragic’s native capabilities.
The Mission Critical Ragic App
In this industry, everyone is always on the move, except for Pete, who has done his fair share of travel back then when he was the travel agent. He loves his job being the guy that handles everything on Ragic behind his desk. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is always out on the track. For instance, Steve is frequently traveling; if it's Wednesday, he's likely flying out to the next race.
Steve, and others like him, benefit greatly from Ragic’s Mobile App. “One half of our team travels with the IMSA truck—the International Motorsports Association truck—leaving for the East Coast in May and not returning until October. They may spend weeks or even a month and a half out there, with only brief breaks at home.”
With Ragic’s cloud-based system and mobile app, Steve and his team can seamlessly record and access data on the go. “The ability to record work remotely and access information anytime is crucial. It’s a game-changer. Convincing younger team members to use clipboards is challenging (hence, the chicken scratches writing), but they easily engage with technology. Having Ragic's app means they can manage everything from their smartphones, which has been a huge advantage for us.”
Cameron Racing Work Log Sample in Ragic Mobile App
The Consistent, Helpful Support Team
Over two years of immersing himself in Ragic, Pete has sent 12 support tickets. As he put it, “Every time I’ve had any kind of questions, you guys get right back to me, usually within a few hours, and I’m back on my way!” The responsiveness and reliability of Ragic’s support team have been a key factor in his continued satisfaction with the platform.
So Now, What Can They Do With Ragic?
Work Log: The Core of Operations
“The Work Log is probably the main sheet of the whole system; it’s really the most important one that we use because it records all the work that's done on the cars, any parts that were put on, and it records the hours that the guys work.”
While the Work Log is where all the information is initially entered, Ragic’s capabilities to build relationships between each sheet with features like Link and Load, Show References from Existing Sheets, and Create New Sheet from Subtable allow data to be interconnected across multiple sheets. For instance, when you view the Customer Car Sheet, you can easily see all the work that’s been done on that car.
“We can go in and pull up a customer car and see all the work that was done on it and all the parts that were ever installed in that car. So... if, say, a customer comes in and buys a new Radical, okay, and then he runs it for a couple years and sells it to somebody else, we can show the customer all the work that was done on the car.”
Cameron Racing Work Log Sample and the relationship with Customer Vehicles Sample Sheet
Similarly, in the Employee Center Sheet you can access the complete history of tasks performed by a specific employee.
Cameron Racing Work Log Sample and the Relationship With Employee Center Sample Sheet
This eliminates data silos, automating updates across sheets and making information readily available and actionable.
Marie Loves It, It's Her Payroll Magic Tool
One of the most “actionable” uses is how Marie, Cameron Racing’s accounting specialist, handles payroll effortlessly. From the data key-ed in Work Log by all crews when performing jobs, with Ragic’s reporting feature, she can quickly pull detailed reports on the hours worked by each employee in less than 5 seconds. It made her job so much easier from what used to be gathering paper from all the crews with different clarity due to different penmanship, manually looking for and calculating the hours.
“Well, we have a routine for payroll, so she just runs that every other week and can see all the work that everybody's done, how many hours they put in from it, it’s been an enormous time saver.”
Payroll Report Sample
What Was Manual Punch-In Nightmare, Now Systemized Sales Order System
“Like the Radical parts, all we got from the factory was a spreadsheet. And you had to manually punch in the part number to get the pricing of it. It was a nightmare.”
Just imagine the chaos: juggling multiple spreadsheets, manually checking stock availability, and matching prices. Managing orders for parts across several customers’ cars became a logistical nightmare due to the absence of a centralized system.
But now, with Ragic, all that’s changed. The spreadsheet contains more than 16,000 parts that used to require manual handling—just imagine the time involved! With Ragic’s import from Excel feature, Pete said, “It took 2 minutes. It was slick.”
Everything starts with the RNW Parts Price List Sheet, where each new batch of parts gets logged through the Inventory In process(1). A formula is also applied to automatically convert pricing to U.S. dollars when parts are sourced from the U.K.(2)
Parts Price List Sheet Sample
Whenever they key in a Sales Order, the Sales Information subtable is directly linked to the RNW Parts Price List, instantly loading the correct price and quantity available.
Sales Order Sheet Sample
When returning to the RNW Parts Price List Sheet, they can see Inventory In and Out at a glance, with quantities updated in real-time, without any extra effort.
In the Employee Center, You Can Only See You
“It's handy because you can go into the Employee Center, and I've got that set up so they can only see themselves; they can't see everybody else's details.”
Ragic Access Rights ensures that sensitive information is kept private, and employees only have access to their own record to maintain clarity, keeping both parties on the same page for matters like assignments and day offs.
Employee Center Sheet Sample
They Sold It, Helping Another Racing Management Company Digitalize Their Workflow
The racing industry is a very niche market, and finding a turnkey system that fits perfectly is almost impossible. Cameron Racing had tried several expensive, off-the-shelf solutions before, but none met their needs. The only way to go is a custom-built solution, and Ragic turned out to be the perfect match. Steve, the boss, thinks that Ragic is something that every race team could use. Remember the ex-crew chief mentioned? He left Cameron Racing, but had been part of the journey to find the right system for Cameron Racing. He knew firsthand how difficult it was to find a solution that worked—so when he moved to a new company, the first thing he did was to adopt Cameron's Racing database definition in Ragic.
Category: Case Studies > Services