How do the laps work?

The track counts total distance, not the space you are standing on, and the lap is worked back out of it. On a twenty space oval, a car that has gone twenty five spaces is on lap two, space five. That is why laps cannot drift: there is one number behind everything, and the lap and the position on the oval are both read off it.

What happens if two cars cross together?

It says photo finish and names everybody who crossed, and it does not pick a winner. A race where two pieces are level has no second place either, so the running order shares a position and skips the next one, the way a real results sheet does. Deciding a dead heat is the table's job and any rule the screen invented would be the wrong one.

Do I have to use the die?

No. Every car has minus one, plus one and plus five buttons, so a lap can be awarded for anything at all: a page read, a question answered, a length swum, a round won at something else entirely. The die is there for when the game is the race itself.

Does it remember the race if I close the tab?

Yes. The track, the laps and how far every car has gone are kept in this browser, so a race survives a refresh or a locked phone. Nothing is uploaded, and a share link carries only the size of the track, never the names or the positions.

What happens if I make the track shorter mid-race?

Everybody who was past the new finish line is brought back to it rather than left floating off the end of the board. It is worth doing before the race starts rather than during it, because shortening a track can hand somebody an instant win.

★ Step right up · free forever ★

Race track

An oval track, a piece per player, laps and positions updated as they move.

Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated 2026-09-22

20 spaces, 3 laps

Add names in the Players tab. Everybody lines up at the start and takes it in turns to roll.

Spaces in a lap

Between 20 and 60 spaces round the oval. Twenty keeps the whole track readable on a phone.

Laps to win

One to 5. Three laps of twenty is sixty spaces, which is about ten minutes with four players and a die.

Space roll and move · R new race

No signup · No accounts · Free forever

A race anything can be the fuel for

A track with laps on it is the oldest motivation device there is, and it works because it answers two questions at once: how far have I got, and who is ahead of me. Roll the die and it is a board game. Ignore the die and it is a chart: a space for every page read, every length swum, every set of ten sums finished, every day somebody remembered their kit. Because the buttons move any car by one or five at a time, the rule for earning a space is entirely yours and the screen never needs to know it.

The progress track is a path from a start to an end, with labelled spaces that do something when you land on them. This one is a loop with no labels at all and a lap counter instead, so it suits a long run at the same thing rather than a journey with events along the way. Pick the progress track when landing somewhere should matter, and the race track when the only thing that matters is distance.

Kept in this browser under pph.race.state, pph.race.rules, pph.race.muted and pph.players, and nowhere else. Accounts, printing, storage and what the page loads are answered on the FAQ.

Questions

How do the laps work?: The track counts total distance, not the space you are standing on, and the lap is worked back out of it. On a twenty space oval, a car that has gone twenty five spaces is on lap two, space five. That is why laps cannot drift: there is one number behind everything, and the lap and the position on the oval are both read off it.
What happens if two cars cross together?: It says photo finish and names everybody who crossed, and it does not pick a winner. A race where two pieces are level has no second place either, so the running order shares a position and skips the next one, the way a real results sheet does. Deciding a dead heat is the table's job and any rule the screen invented would be the wrong one.
Do I have to use the die?: No. Every car has minus one, plus one and plus five buttons, so a lap can be awarded for anything at all: a page read, a question answered, a length swum, a round won at something else entirely. The die is there for when the game is the race itself.
Does it remember the race if I close the tab?: Yes. The track, the laps and how far every car has gone are kept in this browser, so a race survives a refresh or a locked phone. Nothing is uploaded, and a share link carries only the size of the track, never the names or the positions.
What happens if I make the track shorter mid-race?: Everybody who was past the new finish line is brought back to it rather than left floating off the end of the board. It is worth doing before the race starts rather than during it, because shortening a track can hand somebody an instant win.

Race track

A race anything can be the fuel for

Questions

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Leader token

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