Agility. To be a successful tire changer, you’ve got to have it. Being able to move quickly and efficiently around the car is extremely important to having fast stops. Besides speed, agility is also needed to dodge obstacles on pit road including air hoses, lugnuts, tires, and other race cars. A lot of pit crew coaches and trainers dedicate time during workouts for agility and footwork drills because they are so important.
Now that I’ve said that, I thought I’d tell a little story about myself from a race a while back. I was the rear changer for the team I was working for at the time and for this specific race we had the opportunity to have an in-car camera on our car. We weren’t really a team that contended every week for wins, so this was something we didn’t normally have. They hooked us up with in-car, roof, and rear bumper cams to catch all the action around us.
Midway through the race, a caution slowed the field and brought everyone to pit road. We were running mid-pack at the time, but for whatever reason they decided to pop up our in-car views live during the round of stops.
I had a clean right side and popped up to go around to the left. What I didn’t know at the time, was that the catch can man and the fuel man had a little problem with their exchange and had spilled some fuel on the ground. Right as I’m passing by the rear bumper cam, my shoes hit the fuel. I tried to plant my foot to turn around the left rear corner and before I knew what happened, my feet were out from under me. I hit the ground hard, uttered some choice words at myself, recovered, and finished the stop.
Even with the fall, the stop was still decent and we maintained our position on the track. (Keep in mind I had no idea our stop was shown live.)
Later, after the race was over, I was getting my stuff together to leave and I routinely checked my phone for any messages. Sure enough, three text messages. As I scrolled through them, I got a sick feeling. All three were from friends who had watched the race and they all had the same question; “Was that you falling on your face during that pit stop?”
Related posts:
- The Anatomy of a Pit Stop
- Eat My (Brake) Dust
- NASCAR Considering Eliminating Catch Can Guy
- NASCAR Pit Crews Rule
- Helmet Cam: Pit Stops Through Our Eyes
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on Sep 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
You was probably a little bitty boy when this nuclear arms race of faster and faster pit crews began in 1989 and exploded in 1993. It’s just a shame that staggered pit stops can’t be made these days. Everybody has fast pit crews these days, the difference comes in the screw ups, and that is a shame (because most races are decided in the pits and not on the track).
on Sep 29th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Did Tony put Vickers’ Gasman on the hood intentionally yesterday? I realize their stalls were next to each other but looked pretty suspect. He should’ve been done for the day in the least. He’s an ok guy but that garbage is insane.
on Sep 29th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Speaking of Smoke,
Did anyone see after he tried to take out Vickers (which the E-git took himself out), he mowed the infield grass and got back on to pit road he flipped someone off ( probaly Vickers crew)?
What a piece of work.
on Sep 29th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I’m telling ya’ll, just wait till next year when he owns his team. It will be AJ Foyt all over again. Throwing laptops, ripping off others headsets and blindsiding competitors in victory lane for those of you that are long time Indy fans. It’s Deja Vu!