ON
TRACK WITH RICK PEARSON
By Rick Pearson
Welcome to the thirteenth of my weekly articles about the National racing scene and my journey through it over the past few years. This week by popular request I am going to talk through the race weekend or (although I promised not to do it): "I showed up, I qualified, I went home", sometimes known as "How to waste 3 days of your life for 20 laps in a racing car. Part I"
The race weekend will normally start with a test session sometime during the week before the race. If the guys organising your championship pull a bit of weight with the organizers, this might be on the Friday. Somehow we usually seem to get Wednesday. Traditionally this test day will be carried out in exactly the opposite weather to that which you will get for race weekend so anything you learn and any settings you choose will be completely useless.
About the most useful thing you can achieve is to play a few mind games with your rivals. No one will ever admit to putting new tyres on the car on a test day, but if you don't, you'll be half a second off the pace which can (for example at Snetterton this year), be the difference between third on the grid and seventeenth!
For me, the joy of getting in a racing car has never diminished, but it is often surprising how many people will pass up the opportunity to get track time in the car. At our first test at Donington this year, admittedly after the Clio 172 race cars had scared a few people at the previous test, track temperature was barely above freezing, the rain was coming in horizontally and doing a suspiciously good impression of snow when I hit the circuit.
What a glamorous life we lead! I put in a 20-lap stint and returned to the pits without seeing another car: The majority of my competitors appeared to be huddled on the pitwall watching me go by. Upon my return to the pits, a small crowd interested in my thoughts on the car and conditions surrounded the car. I thought 'I'll be damned if I'm going to risk my car to then tell them all that I'd learnt' so as my race engineer leant into the car and relayed my comments to the assembled, I shared with them some wisdom I'd learnt as a child. From Winnie the Pooh! No one knows, (big pause for effect) tiddly-pom. How cold my toes, (big pause for effect) tiddly-pom. Are growing!I'm not so sure whether my teammates found this advice helpful in setting up their cars or not, but the guy who relayed it to them verbatim without thinking certainly felt a fool!
Come race weekend, I tend to walk the circuit with my team before qualifying, seeking out ways and places to find an edge. This is best done the night before, although you can look a bit of a idiot if you don't remember how quickly it can get dark. Trying to assess the track at Knockhill only for it to go dark half way round leaves you with a long, useless walk back to the paddock and a severe risk of being run-over by Yvan Muller taking his evening ride on his mountain bike.
These track walks can be very valuable though: early on in the season we assessed the trackside advertising boards as "unlikely to do any damage if hit". I was to be punted through two of them before the end of the year and believe me, as the car span violently off the circuit, it was nice to have this knowledge before the moment of impact!
But if your test day has gone well, you've walked the track and you've got a good idea of your settings for qualifying and the race, it's time to retreat to the truck for a bowl of pasta (or a Pot Noodle if the race team are cooking) and a good nights sleep. Assuming the mechanics don't wake you when they stagger in from the pub.
Next week, I will look at race weekend itself and the tedium that every driver has to contend with! Have a good week one and all.