The team began arriving on Wednesday evening to set up the pits. Things are pretty crowded here and each team is forced to pit in an area not much wider than the trailer. We've got a motor home near the pit wall that will serve as refuge during the night, as temperatures have been getting quite close to freezing. We can't complain though as the sky is clear and it's getting into the 50's during the day and the forecast is for more of the same.
Behind the motorhome is the trailer with all the parts and tools. Major work to the car, and tire changes, have to be done behind the trailer rather than pit lane. Pit lane is just for fuel and driver changes.
On Thursday the car did its first laps around Thunderhill...and so did some of the drivers...and everything went smoothly. The crew has worked very hard to put the car together and have done an awesome job!!! All the drivers are happy with the car and we have only made a few very small handling tweaks so far.
Today is the final test day and we're spending it calculating fuel burn, practicing driver changes, pit stops, etc. These things are pretty easy in the light of day but we need to have everything dialed for nighttime and when we're feeling tired. After dark (about 5:30 PM) today we will get to run practice to test the lights.
We had a team meeting this morning to go over a few things. The drivers and crew will be split into 2 'teams'. One team will be Carlos and Chris, the other will be Ryan and Tony. Nick and Rocky will fill in gaps between the two teams. The idea is to allow a team to leave and get some rest once their shift is done. The driving stints will be between 1 and 2 hours long per driver, with each team responsible for about 4 hours+ per 'shift'. This will be refined once we get a better feel for fuel consumption today.
3 comments:
Hi from home! xox
Did I meet Carlos at your last party?
Good luck to you all!
Dad
Best of luck to the whole team!
We will be watching live results and cheering you on from here.
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