Developer by day, rallysprint racer by night

Ever since he can remember, Kacper Antos has always loved cars. When he was three, he played with a simple PC steering wheelattached to his parents' computer. A decade later, as a junior high school student, he's taken to practising with a serious sim racing equipment.

Here at hero/dot, we know Kacper as a talented developer, specializing in more than one programming language. But his pursuit of a career in IT did not stop him from staying true to his passion for car racing.

Since 2018, Kacper has been racing in rallysprint events (where no co-driver or pilot is required), and dare we say – with great success! A two time vice-champion, and current champion in his class, Kacper radiated joy when we spoke to him about it.

Kacper Antos posing with a cup won in 2022 BMW SPORT class championship. Photo by agniess.pl

But how exactly did Kacper's passion for car racing turn into an entire web application? No worries, we're getting to it!

Let's go back to where it all began

We know it may sound cliché, but the beginnings of Kacper's platform are rooted in... love. It's like a real-life romcom – a young car racer meets a motorsport photographer at an event they both attend. Right off the bat, they hit it off and bond over their mutual passion. But instead of riding off into the sunset to an end credit song, they start working on an exciting project.

Kacper and the racing car he's participated in so many events with. Photo by agniess.pl

Agnieszka Kujawa, who is our mysterious photographer, has 17 years of experience in the automotive industry. Having taken photos on countless occasions, she knew very well how hard it can be to find an event to attend. With so many of them, it's challenging to stay in the loop, not to mention find the ones that suit your needs.

Being highly invested in the car racing world, Kacper and Agnieszka refused to accept it as status quo. They were motivated to find a much-needed solution and help their community.

Let's get down to business (and a lot of work)

So what are we doing?, they asked themselves. The answer seemed obvious to Agnieszka: a calendar comprising all relevant automotive events in Poland.

Their first attempt was made in partnership with a renowned car magazine, TRENDS. Kacper and Agnieszka worked in a team with a graphic designer, making their vision come true. Yet, due to limited budget, the publisher had to halt their work before they could complete it.

Not being one to quit easily, Kacper made the decision to make Agnieszka's dream come true, anyway. He wrote the code himself from start to finish – frontend in React.js, backend in C#, database in MSSQL.

Work in progress version of the final product. Kacper still has all of them to commemorate the long process. Screenshot courtesy of Kacper Antos.

To make sure the end product is user-friendly and, well, easy on the eye, Agnieszka looked for graphic designers. And she did find an entire team of them. Long story short, she and Kacper had partnered with WRAP.DIRECT, a car wrapping brand. Their in-house design team supported the process of creating the platform in exchange for future promotion of the brand.

Kacper, Agnieszka and the team's work lasted for about half a year, with truly intense last three months, until...

We are LIVE aka hard work pays off

The platform had its launch at the beginning of February 2023. In the first four days of being live, it has amassed over a 1,000 unique entries. We dare say that this is the best indicator of how needed such an initiative was in the car racing community.

So far, Agnieszka has entered over 300 events into the platform's database. However, she and Kacper aim to promote the automotive events calendar to an extent that would motivate organizers to upload their events on their own.

Currently, the majority of promotions take place via their Facebook group of over a 1,000 members. Kacper was proud to share that more than 15 organizations have already reached out, wanting their logos and events to be featured.

What's the key to success?

As any good product designer would say – getting to know your target group. And Kacper and Agnieszka know their audience inside out. It's thanks to this deep understanding that they were able to design an automotive events calendar so well, it caught on immediately.

So what makes their event platform so good?

• Browser. With specific categories, covering every need an event participant may have.
• Filter options. Potential drivers can filter events based on important information such as surface type or roll cage approvals.
• Detailed info, including ticket price and location (with filtering available).
• Niche events. For example: weekend rallies that are still a novelty here in Poland.
• Being Poland-focused but open to international events, too. The platform is available both in Polish, and English.

Kacper and Agnieszka's website went live at the beginning of 2023, and has already attracted over a thousand visitors.

Summary

Want to keep up to date with automotive events happening right now? Pay a visit to Kacper's website – we can promise you some very fast cars and truly solid code.

And if you'd like to join our amazing team and become a part of the company that supports your passions – check out our current recruitments and apply now!