A winter topic I dont recall seeing before

During your down time between rounds, how much down time do you usually get. Assuming a normal race day that is.

DO you get to sit back and relax waiting for the next round or consatnatly trying to find that last, elusive .001

Or perhaps just normal between round matainence.

Just wondering how you guys spend your time between calls.

pretty easy, let the fans and water pump run, check air in tires and fuel every three rounds. the worst for me is i think too much between rounds and make my own stress within.

After a run I put the charger on...record my weather data...and relax....before I head back down I set the tire pressure,check the weather and fuel if needed. Pretty boring stuff..

when you drive someone else car
yuo thinking of everything hopeing for the best
,thinking of the worse,,
STRESS OOOOOHHH MY
then start to remember what it would be like
to win with someone elses car
then you go and check everything on the car
AGAIN for the 10th time hahah
tires, temp, air, leaks if any,
charge battery , check fuel ,
try to listen for lane call,
cant hear it ,, so the buddies that are in 2 classes are gone ,, so you think well
must have missed the call ,,so you head up,,
only to find ,, not youre call yet,,go back to the pit,,, do it all over again ,, stupid stupid

Well as you know first time we made it was a couple of weeks ago.

I think we were none stop and there was no pressure at the time. Here is a little vid of how busy we were


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlFw7R9NPs

30 sec wow you said it when you said not really busy

During a TnT I do all sorts of stuff between runs
but at a race its just the normal stuff... fuel
every third round, check the tires before I head to
the lanes just to make sure they are high enough so
I can set them to the final pressure in the lanes,
check the weather, set the dial in, check water temps...
just your normal stuff... I try to sit in the trailer
(in the AC as much as possible... or doing some cooking)

Yeah, but out of those 40,000 people that were running around your pits.....I only saw two people actually working !...

What was that, some sort of State DOT job or something. You need to give some of those guys shovels to lean on instead of your tent.

As you know, it WILL get busier as you go along with that car. Things will get very hectic when you start the racing. ( and you;ll want LESS people around...lol)

What you need is some of Hemifreds Philly " entertainers" to come assist in the pits during the downtime. Maybe sell some posters...

Have a great Xmas...good luck on the next outing.

still havent got my car to the track but i help a friend out as a pit crew on his low 11sec nova and since it was put togheter by someone else that honestly never should even try to build a car,no i change that to shouldnt even change his own sparkplugs, relaxing time in the pits is absolutely zero since we have to check the whole car over betwen rounds,making sure its not falling to pieces,its scary when you cant thrust the guy who put the chassies togheter...

Input my timeslip data into my ET predictor. Fill it with fuel when needed. Hook up the battery charger. Cool down the car. Check the tires before we leave. Check the weather station an ET predictor before I leave the pit stall. Does not take long to do this stuff so there is plenty of time to do nothing....

Unload car,fill out tech card, take to tech on the quad, ( I have ETI, no need for car tech every week) warm up car, check air pressure, unlock buddies trailer and open for him, make first time shot, decide if stop needs setting, change if needed, put dial on window for 2nd time shot bogey race. sit , relax, and B.S, with buddies until 1st round. I don`t do much between rounds just add fuel if needed. My car is pretty consistent every run after more than 25 years racing the same car I finally figured out not to mess with it while racing on a points day and just concentrate on driving. Any testing I do is on a Test and Ruin ( Tune) Day. One of my big mistakes is changing my throttle stop before the bogey race and during eliminations to try and run close to 11.50, I`ve done my best when I just left it alone all day. If it runs 11.60s so be it I just dial accordingly.

Alot, 6 guys help me.

Ok, I have a question for all the bracket racers that are trying to be super-consistent. Why don't you add fuel after every run? I know it may be only a gal. or two, but doesn't every pound and hundredth count? Just my ignorant .

I check the torque on all four wheels every time, check the air, connect the battery charger, top off the fuel - keeping about the same level for each pass (keeps the car weight the same), record/analyze the time slip.

I occasionally get some help from friends, but I tend to like to do everything my self, that way there is no one to blame if anything gets forgotten. Here is a pic of how hard I work my crew.

Race day - not that hectic. If the car's first pass(es) look "right" given the conditions, I don't mess with it. All I do is make sure the tire pressures are where I want 'em and check the weather conditions to see if I need to adjust the dial-in due to any changes. Pretty boring, really. On race days it's the waiting that kills me.

Test & tune day - If there's a crowd and I have a lot of things to test before leaving that day, it's pretty hectic. I try to plan all the tests ahead of time to know exactly what to change between rounds. As long as something unexpected doesn't happen, it's usually get in a baseline pass or two (depending upon how much the conditions that day vary from the last track day), then start w/ the changes.

We were even busy at the staging lanes adding weight
to the clutch when the track started to hold more traction.



It's always busy in the pits

Don't do much between rounds, unless my car is slinging belts. Then I leave it to my crew chief/head mechanic (husband) to fix it while I go talk to Plastic Fantastic's dad.