Sydney Motorsport Park
ARDC
Every lap turned at Sydney Motorsport Park crosses the same loops, resolves through the same decoders and lands in the same results. Two devices make that happen — one you supply, one we do — and almost everybody confuses them. Start here.
Fitting a MyLaps unit is mandatory for any track activity at Sydney Motorsport Park — not only for race entrants. Collection points, hire fees and non-return charges are set by the promoter of your event.
What I need to doThe regulations call both of them a “transponder.” They have opposite owners, opposite costs and opposite regulatory standing. Nearly every support call at this venue starts here.
The device that actually times you. Every official lap time, every sector split and every classification at this venue resolves from this unit.
A race-control and driver-advisory unit. It tracks the car between marshal posts and can show flag signals in the cockpit. MYLAPS is explicit: this is not a timing transponder.
Seven layers turn a passing car into a published lap time. Open any one of them.
MYLAPS builds the timing and race-control technology used across motorsport worldwide. At Sydney Motorsport Park it does two jobs. It measures — every lap, every sector, to a thousandth of a second. And it watches — tracking where every car is on circuit and pushing flag signals toward the cockpit. The measuring half is the transponder you supply. The watching half is the race-control unit we supply.
A TR2 carries a unique eight-digit identity and announces it continuously. It is IP67 sealed, rated to 260 km/h for cars and bikes, and resolves to two milliseconds. Two power models exist: a rechargeable unit that runs roughly 120 hours of racing per charge, and a Direct Power unit wired to the vehicle’s 12 volt supply — which, unlike its predecessor, carries no back-up battery.
A detection loop is the system’s antenna: a cable set into the track surface at the start/finish line and at intermediate points around the circuit. It picks up the transponder’s signal as the car passes over it and hands that signal on to a decoder. Loops come in ten and twenty metre spans and can be installed in asphalt, concrete, sand or snow.
MYLAPS calls a single detection a passing. Everything downstream — laps, sectors, classifications — is arithmetic performed on passings.
Sydney Motorsport Park runs three timing sectors. The start/finish loop closes the lap; the intermediate loops split it. A segment is the stretch between two consecutive loops; a sector is the stretch between any two. Which loops are active depends on the circuit configuration in use that day.
Sector splits are where lap time is actually won and lost — a tenth found in sector two is worth exactly as much as a tenth found anywhere else, but it is far easier to see.
The decoder determines the precise moment each transponder crossed each loop, to a resolution of one thousandth of a second, and forwards that to the timing server. It is the component that turns a radio signal into a defensible number — and the reason a lap time can be protested but rarely is.
X2 Race Control is the safety half of the system. In ARDC’s own words, it is “a fully integrated solution to control all the action happening on the track, using real-time data to help raise the safety of our personnel and our racers,” combining track tracing, monitoring, lights and timing.
Transponder to loop by magnetic induction. Loop to decoder by cable. Decoder to server. Server to timing software, to the results published by the Secretary of the Event, and—for practice sessions—to a public results platform. Every component is redundant at the layer that matters, because a meeting cannot be classified without it.
Every other section here explains one part of the system. This is the whole chain, in order — from the moment your transponder fires to the moment a time is published against your name.
Your transponder wakes on track power and broadcasts a unique ID continuously. Nothing about your lap exists until this fires — which is why a flat battery is a DNF on the timesheet.
Rated to 200 km/hA wire loop cut into the circuit surface reads the ID as you cross it. Three loops sit around Gardner GP — start/finish plus two intermediates — and that is what cuts one lap into three sectors.
Loops 03The loop's signal resolves to a timestamp in a trackside decoder. This is where a crossing becomes a number, and where the resolution that separates first from second is decided.
Resolution 0.001sTimestamps land in race control and become sector splits, lap times and positions. The X2 RaceLink unit runs the other direction — carrying flag and safety information back to the car.
Sectors S1 · S2 · S3The classification is published and fed to the broadcast overlay — provisional first, then final once the Secretary of the Event has signed it off.
Published to NatsoftUnder race conditions the whole chain resolves faster than you can read the pit board — which is why a timing query is almost never about speed, and almost always about which device was fitted.
Hover or focus a detection point to see what it does. The racing line draws in the real direction of travel — anti-clockwise, from the start/finish grid.
Closes the lap and opens the next one. This is the loop that decides your lap time, your grid position and, at the end of the race, the result.
The first split. Everything from the start/finish line to here is sector one.
The second split. Sector three then runs from here back to the start/finish loop.
Detection points shown indicatively · exact positions confirmed per configuration
A race meeting runs on more than a stopwatch. Switch a layer to see what sits where.
Start/finish and two intermediates, each cabled back to a decoder.
Timing room, race control and the clerk’s office — the operational centre of every meeting.
Flag points around the circuit. X2 tracks cars between them and pushes signals toward the cockpit.
Trackside radio links and the fibre path that carries detections back to the tower.
Illustrative layout · not a survey drawing
Sydney Motorsport Park is one of very few circuits in the world that races under lights at full scale. The lighting system carries up to 60 unique sequences — and the right one has to be running before a car turns a wheel.
One timing feed leaves the tower and fans out — to race control, to the broadcast truck, to the commentary box and to the screens around the venue.
The board above is the system talking. A lap resolves in the decoder and lands on the trackside screens, the broadcast overlay and the commentary desk from the same source — so what the crowd reads, what the director cuts to and what race control acts on are never out of step.
Positions, sectors and gaps in front of the Clerk of the Course in real time, alongside the X2 tracking picture.
Position, gap, sector colour and personal-best flags rendered onto the broadcast picture — no manual entry, no lag behind the racing.
The box works from the same tables as race control, so what you hear matches the screen.
Timing screens, pit-lane displays and the stream all read one source of truth.
ARDC.TVTwo platforms carry timing out of this venue. Race meetings and supersprints resolve to Natsoft. Practice, track days and ride days publish to MYLAPS Speedhive.
MYLAPS Speedhive results embed. Sector splits, session bests and lap-by-lap comparison land here.
Natsoft official timing embed. Provisional and final classifications for race meetings and supersprints.
Work down the spine. Each step is the one that stops people at the gate.
A TR2 transponder times you, and you supply it. An X2 RaceLink is a race-control unit, and we supply it free at the event. Most people need both, and they are not interchangeable — nor are car/bike, kart and MX transponder variants.
Compare the two devicesTransponder hire is elected during the online entry process for your event. Hire fees are set by the promoter of the round, so check your supplementary regulations. To buy, go through MYLAPS or an authorised Australian reseller — Sydney Motorsport Park is itself a listed MYLAPS reseller for accessories.
Hire fee — TBC per eventThis is the step that catches people out. The collection point for the race-control unit is set by the promoter of your event, not by the venue. At ARDC-promoted rounds it is the Main Office at the base of the Control Tower, collected and returned at the beginning and end of each day. Other promoters at the same venue use the Timing Room on Level 2 of the tower, from early morning.
Leave the venue without returning the unit and you have two weeks to get it back, at your own cost. After that a replacement is invoiced — $1,100.
Mount the transponder in the front wheel arch on a car or the front forks on a bike, as close to vertical as possible, with a clear line of sight to the track surface.
Mount it badly and the loop misses passings — which shows up as a session with fewer laps than you actually completed.
A TR2 will not work without a live subscription, and purchasing a subscription is not the same as activating it. Activation happens in the Speedhive app over Bluetooth — it cannot be done from a laptop. Allow up to twelve hours for a purchase to appear against your account.
A rechargeable TR2 blinking red five times a second is telling you the subscription has expired.
The unit tells you what it needs before anyone else can. Out of the cradle, green blinks count the race days of charge remaining.
Read the light codesSydney Motorsport Park publishes practice sessions publicly. If you turned laps here on a track day, your times are already online.
Speedhive live timing board — live results, recent sessions, fastest laps and upcoming events.
Sydney Motorsport Park has its own MYLAPS explainers — made here, for this venue. Competitors and officials need different ones.
The venue’s own walkthrough for drivers — what you need and how it is fitted.
The official training video for ARDC officials operating the system trackside.
How the integrated race-control system works across the venue.
What a decoder does, why one-thousandth of a second is the unit that matters, and how a passing becomes a lap time you can protest.
Open the system explorerInduction, loop spans, placement in the racing surface, and what actually happens when a passing is missed.
See the loop mapPlacement, height limits by vehicle type, orientation, and the mistakes that quietly cost you laps.
Go to step 04Charge, activate, mount, collect, return — the six things to do before you are scrutineered.
Open the six stepsManufacturer manuals, quick-start guides and specification sheets. Awaiting files from ARDC.
Timekeepers are licensed officials, not volunteers with a stopwatch. The accreditation ladder runs General → Bronze → Silver → Gold, and ARDC runs a free introduction day.
Talk to race operations
Sydney Motorsport Park publishes practice sessions publicly. If you have turned laps here on a track day or a ride day, your lap and sector times are sitting on Speedhive right now — free, no account needed.
Go and lookTwo different things, and they are confused constantly. The TR2 transponder is yours to supply and is what times you — hire one during the entry process or buy direct. The X2 RaceLink is a race-control unit that is mandatory for any track activity at Sydney Motorsport Park; it is ARDC property, carries no charge, has no regulatory implication for Motorsport Australia, and is collected and returned daily.
No. Car/bike, kart and MX transponders are different products and are not interchangeable — they are colour-coded at the cap for exactly this reason. Series regulations enforce it explicitly, so turning up with the wrong variant means you cannot be timed.
If you leave the venue without returning it, the safe return of the unit in full working order is at your expense and it must reach ARDC within two weeks. Fail that and a replacement unit is invoiced at $1,100. A one-off $20 hardwire cable removes the daily return trip altogether by charging the unit from the vehicle.
Three things, in order. Subscription — a fast red blink, five times a second, means it has expired. Charge — green blinks count the race days remaining; no light at all means flat. Mounting — if a session shows fewer laps than you completed, the unit is not sitting where the loop can see it. Move it lower, closer to vertical, with clear sight of the track surface.
Buying a subscription and activating it are two separate steps. A TR2 must be activated through the Speedhive app over Bluetooth — it cannot be done from a computer. Allow up to twelve hours after payment for the subscription to appear, then sync the unit.
It depends on who is promoting your event, so read the supplementary regulations for the round you entered. At ARDC-promoted events it is the Main Office at the base of the Control Tower, at the start and end of each day so the unit is charged for the next one. Other promoters at this venue use the Timing Room on Level 2 of the tower.
It depends what you were doing. Practice, track days and ride days publish to MYLAPS Speedhive, which is public and free and carries all three sector splits. Race meetings and supersprints resolve to Natsoft, where provisional and final classifications are issued.
Results published at the end of a session are provisional — they precede post-competition scrutineering and any judicial matter. They are posted with a time of publication, and where both an official and a digital notice board exist the official one takes precedence. Final classification is forwarded to competitors within 120 hours of the end of the event.
Timing at Sydney Motorsport Park has three distinct owners — the technology, the regulation and the meeting itself. Knowing which one you need saves a phone call.
Entries, transponder hire, collection and return, and anything about the running of your meeting. This is the desk for almost every competitor question.
Office hours 8:30am – 5:00pm weekdays · Turn 1, Gate A
The loops, decoders and race-control hardware are run in-house. Hardware faults and system questions route through the race office.
Meet the teamAppointed per event and named in the supplementary regulations. Queries about a published time or classification belong here, through the Secretary of the Event.
Event documents