2024 Week 41 | Power BI: Visualize a Drag Race with Animation

Power BI, Workout Wednesday / By

Introduction

There are a few ways to visualize movement in Power BI. This week, we are visualizing race cars moving on a track. The example report below uses Deneb, but you could also complete this challenge by combining a custom visual and the Play Axis visual. 

In the report below, once you click the Go button, the race car will start to move. If you click the Stop button, the cars will return to the starting point. If you click Go once again, the cars will begin the race again. 

While most of our challenges take less than an hour, this one might take a bit more time (and is a little more advanced). I found it to be a great learning experience, and I hope you will, too!

Requirements

  1. Get the data. 
  2.  Create a scatterplot or custom map that uses a race car image to show the position of each car. The distance traveled should be plotted on the x-axis. 
  3. Change the color of the race car image to indicate whether the car raced in the left or right lane. 
  4. Create a tooltip for the markers (race cars) that shows the driver, car number, and total race time (elapsed time) for each car.
  5.  Create a background for the visual that resembles a race track. 
  6. Create the report such that the user does not have to change the time value to make the cars move across the x-axis. 
  7. Provide a way to stop and restart the race.
  8. Bonus: Add an audio player to play race track sounds. 
The images used in the example report are available for your use on Github. 

Dataset

The data used in the example report is from https://www.nhra.com/results/2024/nhra-mission-foods-drag-racing-series/67321/detailed-results/top-fuel/q2.

You can use any race results in your report as long as they contain the car number, driver, total race time, and multiple time values for various distances within the race (e.g. the car took 2.4 seconds to reach 350 ft and 3.6 seconds to reach 660 ft). 

Share

After you finish your workout, share on Twitter or LinkedIn using the hashtags #WOW2024 and #PowerBI, and tag @MMarie, @shan_gsd, @KerryKolosko. 

Also make sure to fill out the Submission Tracker so that we can count you as a participant this week in order to track our participation throughout the year.

Solution

Solution File available for download from the data stories gallery.

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