RaceRanger for Age Groupers? It’s Closer Than You Think

March 17, 2026

It always seemed a stretch to see the RaceRanger draft-detecting technology, which has become a mainstay at IRONMAN Pro Series, T100 and World Triathlon professional races, become a viable option at age-group races, but we could see that happen over the next few years. Originally conceived by former pro triathletes James Elvery and Dylan McNiece in 2014, RaceRanger got some financial backing from World Triathlon in 2017, and has been working closely with Jimmy Riccitello, IRONMAN’s Rules and Projects Coordinator since 2018.

Scaling up from a pro race with roughly 100 athletes is one thing, but being able to offer the service to hundreds, or even thousands, of competitors offers some daunting challenges for the New Zealand-based company. We caught up with Elvery to get some insights into where things stand as RaceRanger looks to expand its offerings to age-group racing in the future.

Slowtwitch.com: Let’s start with the 2026 RaceRanger forecast — where are things at?

James Elvery: 2024 was a big year where we grew to 37 pro races. The goal for 2025 was not to try and grow the number of pro races further, but to stay home more and work on the next version of the hardware and the whole system, with a view to making it really scalable.

So you personally weren’t at every race in 2025?

In 2024, I went to 25 races. But in 2025, I went to only eight. We had two people in Europe and one backup in North America. I came in and did some of the championship races where there was more media and I was more likely to get meetings with the decision makers for the following season. We’ve got the system pretty easy-to-operate and a growing team to run it now. This year, there’ll be two fairly full-time people in Europe and another two in North America. SLOWTWITCH