T1B

Ok, I went to my first race this past weekend. I sat in the right seat on a flight for a title sponsor from their headquarters to the race and return. The other pilot and I were invited to hang out in the pit and garage area. Met a bunch of the pit crew, driver, garage guys and the transporter driver.

We arrived at Willow Run airport about 5 hours before the race and the passengers walked about 50 steps and were on a helicopter to the track. About 45 minutes later another group of people from the company showed up and we rode to the track with them in another helicopter. Got to the track about 3.45 before the race started. We didn't see the last quarter of the race because we headed back to Willow Run to prep for the return flight. All in all it was enjoyable mostly because of the people. Saw about a quarter of the race from different vantage points.

Couple of questions though.


1) Why was there a yellow flag after 20 laps? The team radio called it a competition yellow or something like that. There wasn't a crash or stall or fluid on the track. What the hell? After this artificial stoppage, there were accidents on the restart and then the restart after that.

2) What are the rules on the pit being open or closed? Seems a team would want to pit as soon as the yellow came out but everyone had to wait. Also, some damaged cars or cars with flats still came in despite the pits being closed, how is that allowed?

3) What is the deal with all the officials that go over the pit wall? It has to be for some sort of safety thing I guess, because they could check the tires or wrenches or gas can etc after the fact.



Oh, and Roush Fenway has a nice 727 that I guess takes all the Pit Crew and support staff from race to race or race to home to race.

Wouldn't practice or qualifying make a better time to try a new product?

Bringing everyone in at once would seem to make it more dangerous and more likely cars get damaged and people get hurt.

But how are pit crews cheating, unless they are using illegal equipment, which could be checked behind the wall.

the pit officials also make sure the car is in the pit box.
they check that all lug nuts are on,
they check the correct number of people are over the wall
and they also make sure the car is not moving away with any parts attached.

the cars that come in when pit road is closed, go to the rear of the pack. but if you need immediate repairs, so be it.

other wise, they open the pits first time through for cars on the lead lap only.
next time around for others.

as for the competition yellow papa willie hit it.
though I see what your thinking, why not figure this out in practice.
teams are pretty careful to not pile up cars in practice and might not run long runs.
for race set up, they also tinker with air pressure and they would rather error on the side of safety.
this is not done very often.

sounds like you had a pretty sweet deal and opportunity to get up close.

I know nascar doesn't go over big with everyone,
but when you are at the race, its quite an event.

Ive had garage passes before and that's the way to go.

Left Seater wrote: I sat in the right seat on a flight for a title sponsor from their headquarters to the race and return. The other pilot and I were invited to hang out in the pit and garage area. Met a bunch of the pit crew, driver, garage guys and the transporter driver.

[zy] I'm good friends with Ron Capps who is a super nice guy, so if you ever want pit passes to NHRA Drag Race just hit me up.[/zy]

Loved NASCAR racing back when they ran real cars. Save your photos of Model T's clones, I'm not looking at them.
Here's an example.


The race cars had production parts that were on cars available to the public. My first new car, 1963 Dodge Dart GT had a MoPar 3.45:1 rear axle.
I went to the first NASCAR race at Watkins Glen in 1957. I think that was where Lee Petty's car was late arriving and he raced his family Olds with
borrowed tires. Loved the races on the one mile dirt track at the NY State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Saw Tim Flock and the Chrysler 300 among many
others. They started building the modern high speed tracks and I began to lose interest.

PL wrote:the pit officials also make sure the car is in the pit box.
they check that all lug nuts are on,
they check the correct number of people are over the wall
and they also make sure the car is not moving away with any parts attached.

the cars that come in when pit road is closed, go to the rear of the pack. but if you need immediate repairs, so be it.

other wise, they open the pits first time through for cars on the lead lap only.
next time around for others.

as for the competition yellow papa willie hit it.
though I see what your thinking, why not figure this out in practice.
teams are pretty careful to not pile up cars in practice and might not run long runs.
for race set up, they also tinker with air pressure and they would rather error on the side of safety.
this is not done very often.

sounds like you had a pretty sweet deal and opportunity to get up close.

I know nascar doesn't go over big with everyone,
but when you are at the race, its quite an event.

Ive had garage passes before and that's the way to go.

So if Goodyear wants to introduce a new tire, why not pay someone to run it around a track at full speed for a few hours. I know teams to testing at times like this on their stuff. Seems pretty bad to test crap out on a race day. Further I would be pissed if I was taken out in the restart after a yellow for no reason.

I still don't get the closed pits either. Why make it exponentially more dangerous to have everyone pit at once? Further what if a driver slowed up to pit and then the yellow comes out. They would have to stay out and then lose standing based on slowing and then being locked out.

Let's not get into the stock car discussion. There isn't anything stock about them.

I did hear someone say that NASCAR is all about the drivers not the cars this weekend. If that really were the case the cars would be owned and maintained by NASCAR and a random draw would happen before each race.

Papa Willie wrote:Jack Roush is an aviation freak. Would hate to guess how many planes that fucker owns, but it's a lot.

Two less than he might have.