The Downing/Atlanta team took our WR-Mazda sports prototype car to the Petit Le Mans last weekend and were thrilled to achieve third place in the LMP 675 class. This was my first experience going over the wall as the RF tire changer and I had a sensational time. I would not have believed that so much work could also be so much fun.
Our Thursday went badly as we dealt with big problems. An unlatched rear clip blew off the rear bodywork in the esses, destroying our super lightweight tail and part of the rear wing. We were lucky this did not happen at top speed or the car might have gotten airborne and caused a large accident. We had to get the spare tail and wing and fit them to the car, not an easy process. After this was completed we lost a wheel in turn 1 - a high speed corner at Road Atlanta. This turned out to be a manufacturing defect on the lug nut and all of them had to be re-machined at the track. The drivers were very unhappy with the balance during Thursday's night practice and we were concerned about making the race at all.
With the car running more reliably on Friday we were able to start adjusting it to the track. Two hours before qualifying we decided to change the gearbox and the rear springs. I did one spring then helped with the gearbox which we assembled incorrectly the first time. Things got tense as we did it again but luck was on our side because our tardiness meant the weather was drying for our run and the driver recorded a great lap to place us 11th overall. We practiced pit stops after qualifying.
We skipped the practice Saturday morning. With the temperature around 5C (45F) and the race two hours away we felt there was nothing to be gained and much to lose on such a cold morning. The grid was cleared of spectators, the SpeedTV cameras rolled and as the teams lined up for the national anthems this was a great moment for me, I had to remind myself I was really working for a race team and that many people would give their right arm to be in my place. The race went well, we refueled every 40 minutes and changed tires every other fuel stop. My job was to replace the RF tire after the jack man loosened the wheel lug nut, then hand tighten the nut, throw the used tire on the pit wall, retrieve the used LF tire and hop over the wall with that. It is so exciting to be in the hot pits. I realized the team was gradually letting me have more responsibility, and my 'promotion' to tire changer was due to doing a good job and staying calm at the last race. It's important to be calm and methodical, they drill it into you over and over. For instance if you forget to lower your goggles you get a time penalty, so you must remember everything. After a stop you remove your balaclava, gloves and eye protection. This seemed like a good idea until the radio malfunctioned and the team manager yelled HE'S COMING IN with no notice. A flat tire was the cause and this was changed quickly, apparently I was visible on the TV coverage at this stop. Things continued going well and we worked our way up the field as others had problems. This demonstrated the importance of calm driving - our drivers stayed on track as others spun off or hit other cars, creating their own problems. We had an ongoing problem with our replacement tail working loose, you could see it flapping on the car. The rear-most latches had failed on both sides and we had to use washers and safety wire to make it stay put. We did not know the movement had created a bigger problem - the wiring to the rear lights had chafed thru on both sides. When we discovered this I was aghast, I thought our race was over. I removed the tail and took it over the wall where the electrical engineer re-wired the lights. But that didn't fix the problem, the lights had been damaged too. So we ran to get the smashed tail, removed those lights and hooked one up. It worked! and we were back on the track. This 20 minute stop cost us 2nd place to the Dyson team who beat us by 4 minutes, quite a lot on the track but not if you look at the time we spent stopped. Interestingly no team member begrudged the time spent stopped, when I whined that we could have had 2nd they said not true, that would have been a different race. Good attitude.
The drivers brought the champagne back from the podium and shared it all around. I had them sign the bottle and kept it for the office. It says Petit Le Mans 2003 on it. It was terrible sweet fizzy stuff but we all enjoyed a swig. Then we had to pack everything up which took several hours, ending a 20-hour work day at the track. Some teams have multiple crews for long races like this. When you consider that we are 10 people, all volunteer, working against well-funded pro teams of 30 or 40 people you can see how proud we were of our result. Everyone on our team does the work of 3 or 4 people and it is wonderful to work with such talented folks.
I attach a pic of our car during the night practice. Private me for more pics. Thanks to Dick Hackman, Kin Mitra, Jim Baumann and Mark and Maria Hicks for stopping by and saying hi at the race. Great to see everyone again.
Our Thursday went badly as we dealt with big problems. An unlatched rear clip blew off the rear bodywork in the esses, destroying our super lightweight tail and part of the rear wing. We were lucky this did not happen at top speed or the car might have gotten airborne and caused a large accident. We had to get the spare tail and wing and fit them to the car, not an easy process. After this was completed we lost a wheel in turn 1 - a high speed corner at Road Atlanta. This turned out to be a manufacturing defect on the lug nut and all of them had to be re-machined at the track. The drivers were very unhappy with the balance during Thursday's night practice and we were concerned about making the race at all.
With the car running more reliably on Friday we were able to start adjusting it to the track. Two hours before qualifying we decided to change the gearbox and the rear springs. I did one spring then helped with the gearbox which we assembled incorrectly the first time. Things got tense as we did it again but luck was on our side because our tardiness meant the weather was drying for our run and the driver recorded a great lap to place us 11th overall. We practiced pit stops after qualifying.
We skipped the practice Saturday morning. With the temperature around 5C (45F) and the race two hours away we felt there was nothing to be gained and much to lose on such a cold morning. The grid was cleared of spectators, the SpeedTV cameras rolled and as the teams lined up for the national anthems this was a great moment for me, I had to remind myself I was really working for a race team and that many people would give their right arm to be in my place. The race went well, we refueled every 40 minutes and changed tires every other fuel stop. My job was to replace the RF tire after the jack man loosened the wheel lug nut, then hand tighten the nut, throw the used tire on the pit wall, retrieve the used LF tire and hop over the wall with that. It is so exciting to be in the hot pits. I realized the team was gradually letting me have more responsibility, and my 'promotion' to tire changer was due to doing a good job and staying calm at the last race. It's important to be calm and methodical, they drill it into you over and over. For instance if you forget to lower your goggles you get a time penalty, so you must remember everything. After a stop you remove your balaclava, gloves and eye protection. This seemed like a good idea until the radio malfunctioned and the team manager yelled HE'S COMING IN with no notice. A flat tire was the cause and this was changed quickly, apparently I was visible on the TV coverage at this stop. Things continued going well and we worked our way up the field as others had problems. This demonstrated the importance of calm driving - our drivers stayed on track as others spun off or hit other cars, creating their own problems. We had an ongoing problem with our replacement tail working loose, you could see it flapping on the car. The rear-most latches had failed on both sides and we had to use washers and safety wire to make it stay put. We did not know the movement had created a bigger problem - the wiring to the rear lights had chafed thru on both sides. When we discovered this I was aghast, I thought our race was over. I removed the tail and took it over the wall where the electrical engineer re-wired the lights. But that didn't fix the problem, the lights had been damaged too. So we ran to get the smashed tail, removed those lights and hooked one up. It worked! and we were back on the track. This 20 minute stop cost us 2nd place to the Dyson team who beat us by 4 minutes, quite a lot on the track but not if you look at the time we spent stopped. Interestingly no team member begrudged the time spent stopped, when I whined that we could have had 2nd they said not true, that would have been a different race. Good attitude.
The drivers brought the champagne back from the podium and shared it all around. I had them sign the bottle and kept it for the office. It says Petit Le Mans 2003 on it. It was terrible sweet fizzy stuff but we all enjoyed a swig. Then we had to pack everything up which took several hours, ending a 20-hour work day at the track. Some teams have multiple crews for long races like this. When you consider that we are 10 people, all volunteer, working against well-funded pro teams of 30 or 40 people you can see how proud we were of our result. Everyone on our team does the work of 3 or 4 people and it is wonderful to work with such talented folks.
I attach a pic of our car during the night practice. Private me for more pics. Thanks to Dick Hackman, Kin Mitra, Jim Baumann and Mark and Maria Hicks for stopping by and saying hi at the race. Great to see everyone again.
