Chip Ganassi Racing has selected Microsoft solution to help improve their car performances during racing. The high-performance computing (HPC) solution is based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Now simulations which took 24 hours can be run in less than a hour, thanks to Microsoft solution.
Chip Ganassi Racing is an racing organization with its team competing in NASCAR, IRL and Grand-Am. Owned by Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, the team is based in Concord, North Carolina. Chip Ganassi Racing worked with Microsoft and Stackpole Engineering Services Inc. who were their simulation software vendors to modify the software to run on the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.
Previously, the racing team spent 24 hours to run a simulation. Now, with the use of five-node HPC cluster, the team can run a simulation in less than an hour. This has helped the team run simulations faster and more frequently to equip the team better and more competitive in race tacks.
Paxton of Chip Ganassi team mentions, “We’re all about making cars go faster, not building fancy computer systems. At first, I thought HPC was only for big companies that can afford multimillion-dollar supercomputers. After we realized that HPC was accessible and affordable, we saw the potential competitive advantage it would bring. My only concerns were that the solution be easy to use and easy to manage, and that we could easily modify the application. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 enabled us to meet all three requirements.”