Route motorsports tech inspection results with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Slack
Go to Workflow
Swapnil Mandloi
Description
Quick overview
This workflow receives motorsports tech-inspection submissions via webhook, scores each safety item against expiry rules, uses OpenAI to classify the overall outcome (Pass/Conditional/Fail/Disqualify), then posts results to a race-control timing API, archives to Google Sheets, and notifies Slack.
How it works
Receives a POST request from a trackside tech-inspection app containing car details, inspector notes, and an array of safety-equipment items.
Splits the equipment array into individual items and calculates days-to-expiry and pass/fail per item based on class-specific renewal cycles.
Adds a human-readable class/rating label to each item and aggregates the per-item results back into a consolidated per-car compliance summary.
Sends the compliance summary and inspector notes to an OpenAI-powered text classifier to route the car into Pass, Conditional-Pass-Rework, Fail, or Disqualify.
Writes the chosen inspection category into an inspectionCategory field and routes to the matching outcome path.
For Pass outcomes, checks the provided grid-eligibility cutoff timestamp and posts a PASS result with a gridEligible flag to the race-control timing API.
For Conditional-Pass-Rework, Fail, and Disqualify outcomes, posts the corresponding result to the race-control timing API, escalates Disqualify to a chief-steward Slack channel, then appends the final result to Google Sheets and notifies the tech-inspection crew on Slack.
Setup
Create an OpenAI credential and select it on the OpenAI Chat Model used by the inspection text classifier.
Create an HTTP Header Auth credential for your race-control timing system and replace the example API base URL in all HTTP Request steps.
Connect Google Sheets OAuth credentials, set the spreadsheet ID, and ensure the Tech_Inspection_Archive sheet exists for appending inspection logs.
Connect Slack credentials, set the chief-steward and tech-crew channel IDs, and confirm the workflow can post messages to both channels.
Copy the webhook URL for the tech-inspection-submission path into your trackside app and ensure the payload includes equipmentItems, inspectorNotes, carNumber, and gridEligibilityCutoff (plus any fields your timing payload expects).
Review and adjust the equipment expiry-cycle map in the code step (e.g., helmet/harness cycles) to match your sanctioning body’s rules.
This workflow was created by Swapnil Mandloi and shared publicly on the n8n community template library. n8nFind indexes it for discovery — the workflow remains the property of its original creator.