Default the dashboard back to port 8000

The smishing-web backend that held it has been stopped, so the race-day script
matches the CLI and the README again.

The preflight check stays, and it is the part that mattered: a port that cannot
be bound kills the engine at launch, which for this script is hours after it was
started and with the race already running. It now names what is holding the port
and takes a free one as its sixth argument.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: Ark07Yad

docs/RACE_DAY.md

@@ -22,20 +22,22 @@ Qualifying finished 16:00–17:00 CEST on Saturday and the feed already reports
 ## One command
 
 ```bash
-nohup ./scripts/race_day.sh "2026-08-23 13:45" 2026-netherlands-race "2026 Dutch GP" "" 195 8010 &
+nohup ./scripts/race_day.sh "2026-08-23 13:45" 2026-netherlands-race "2026 Dutch GP" "" 195 &
 ```
 
 Arguments: start time (local), recording basename, ledger session name, TLA to advise (empty = the
 race leader), minutes to run, dashboard port.
 
 That is **one process holding one connection**, which records the raw frames, folds them into race
 state, fits the models, publishes a call every lap, and commits each call to the ledger as it is
-made. The dashboard is at <http://127.0.0.1:8010>.
+made. The dashboard is at <http://127.0.0.1:8000>.
 
-⚠️ **Port 8010, not the CLI's default 8000.** This machine has the SmishingGuard API (the
-`smishing-web` backend) listening on 8000 and has done since 5 August. Uvicorn cannot bind a taken
-port, so on 8000 the engine would die the instant it started — hours after launch, with the race
-under way. The script refuses to start if the port is busy rather than discovering it later.
+The port is the optional 6th argument. The script **refuses to start if it is already in use**,
+checked before the wait rather than at launch — uvicorn cannot bind a taken port, so a clash would
+kill the engine the instant it finally started, hours later with the race under way. This is not
+hypothetical: the `smishing-web` backend held 8000 for seventeen days until it was stopped on the
+eve of this race. If something is on 8000 again, pass a free port instead:
+`... "2026 Dutch GP" "" 195 8010`.
 
 **Do not also run `scripts/record.py`.** It would open a second connection to an undocumented
 endpoint from one address, which is exactly what this project's disclaimer promises not to do. The
@@ -69,7 +71,7 @@ Check the dashboard in the first few laps:
 | `ledger.written` | rising by one per lap, once calls begin |
 | `ledger.commits_failed` | **0** |
 
-`curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8010/api/state | python -m json.tool` if the browser is inconvenient.
+`curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/state | python -m json.tool` if the browser is inconvenient.
 
 ### Things that look broken and are not
 
@@ -124,7 +126,7 @@ The `--session` name must be identical or you get a second ledger file.
 
 ```bash
 .venv/bin/pitwall dashboard --record data/raw/2026-netherlands-race.txt \
-    --log-predictions --session "2026 Dutch GP" --port 8010
+    --log-predictions --session "2026 Dutch GP"
 ```
 
 **Commits failing** (`ledger.commits_failed` climbing). The predictions are still on disk; only the

scripts/race_day.sh

@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@
 # Arguments: start time (local), recording basename, ledger session name, the
 # TLA to advise (blank = the leader), minutes to run, and the dashboard port.
 #
-# The port defaults to 8010 rather than the CLI's 8000, because this machine has
-# another project's API listening on 8000. Binding is checked before the wait.
+# The port is checked before the wait rather than at launch: uvicorn cannot bind
+# a taken port, so a clash would kill the engine the instant it finally started -
+# hours later, with the race under way and no second chance at it.
 #
 # Deliberately NOT run alongside scripts/record.py. That would open a second
 # connection to an undocumented endpoint from one address, which is exactly the
@@ -28,7 +29,7 @@ BASENAME="${2:?missing recording basename}"
 SESSION="${3:?missing ledger session name}"
 DRIVER="${4:-}"
 MINUTES="${5:-195}"
-PORT="${6:-8010}"
+PORT="${6:-8000}"
 
 REPO="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
 OUTPUT="${REPO}/data/raw/${BASENAME}.txt"