An Update from KSUK: Building a Bigger, Better Platform
We've been thrilled to see the KSUK community grow since our launch, and we've aimed to keep a steady pace of updates, bug fixes, and new features. We know things have been a bit quiet on that front recently, so we wanted to pull back the curtain and give you an overview of the foundational work we've been doing.
From Personal Project to Community Platform
While KSUK officially launched in October 2024, its roots go back much further. Components of what you use today were first developed in mid-2023 as separate, personal projects. They were developed slowly, and honestly, we had no intention of releasing them publicly.
However, as we shared these tools with a small group of fellow racers, we saw a spark of interest. The growing dataset of lap times and the enthusiasm from this early group made it clear that these small, independent components could be something much bigger. We decided to tie them together under a single project, release it to the public, and KSUK as you know it was born. This initial year-long development period gave us a solid foundation to build upon.
What started as a side project for personal use quickly evolved. We realised the most important aspect of KSUK wasn't just the code, but the community of racers and the data you want to make accessible, comparable, and shareable. You are the core of KSUK, and we're incredibly grateful for the support you've shown.
Our Current Focus: A Major Data Expansion
That focus on data is precisely why we've been quiet. To support our growing community, we needed to significantly upgrade our backend infrastructure. Our main goal has been to expand the range of circuits we support, allowing more of you to contribute and compare your times.
After a lot of hard work, we're excited to announce a major breakthrough. The result of this work is a massive expansion: we can now process lap times from over 100 additional tracks across the UK and beyond! This growth will allow us to provide more accurate, useful, and comprehensive data for everyone, expanding the community of racers who can use KSUK to track and share their performance.
What's Next?
These new track capabilities are not yet available on the main website, as we are still fine-tuning the data processing and display. Over the coming weeks, we will begin rolling out these updates and making the new tracks available to all users. However, if you do have any race results you'd like to share with us (whether that be from a track currently on KSUK or not), please feel free to add it to our system using our email import feature at any time!
Once this expansion is complete, our next step will be to release new features that allow for more powerful performance comparisons and provide deeper insights into your racing data. We can't wait to share them with you.
Thank you for your patience and continued support. We're building a better platform for all of us, and the road ahead is exciting.