Iowa – The Other Side of the Wall – Part 2
Now acting as Crew Chief, it became my responsibility to set out the driver rotation for the next day. We were so close to the top I knew I could not risk putting myself into the mix. So I left myself out and put together a logical driver order, taking into account what driver excelled at what track configuration, who could see in the dark and who couldn't, who was going to be best in heavy traffic etc, etc. Now to put the plan into action!
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, racing all day Sunday! The green flag flew at 9:00 AM and everything was going to plan. Every hour and fifty five minutes we pitted and refueled, changed drivers, added a litre of Mobil 1 and went storming back out onto the track. We were gellin', man! BSD Racing continued to climb up the leader board.
I maintained my pit-wall vigil and stayed there for 12 and a half hours. Eventually you get to a point where you can go no higher in a race and we got there, yup, BSD Racing was in PI! Our last pitstop was planned to take place with one a half hour to go.
From our experiences the day before, we knew our fuel economy on the oval was poor and an hour and a half was all we could go at full speed. The plan was going perfectly, Taras, our "oval guy" (who is also our "night guy") was ready.
But then we started to consider other ideas like ''what if a yellow comes out?" On an oval with 32 second lap times, pitting under yellow versus green can be a huge advantage! Remember the plan? Stick to it! What did we do? We pitted 15 minutes early under yellow. We got greedy. We wanted those extra laps in our pocket and we forced ourselves into the position of having to stretch an hour and a halfs worth of fuel to an hour and forty five minutes. To make matters worse, it was a 'quickie' yellow and we didn't gain a single lap! Arrgghh.
So now my job on the headset just got a little more intense. I had to monitor the competition and slow down my driver to conserve fuel. How slow does he need to go? How long does he need to go slower for? When can he start racing again? I didn't know. It was a guessing game.
As I coached my driver, I became that much more focused. Each time I advised him "the second place car is passing you and un-lapping himself - let him go", I became that much more involved. I was aware of nothing but our car, our driver and the second place BMW slowly erasing our six-lap lead. A bomb could have gone off in the paddock behind me and I would not have known! Every time our driver gave me an update on the fuel level, "Stu, its a quarter tank", my heart rate bumped up a notch.
When the radio talk became "Stu, the fuel light is on now", my world got narrower. My
universe was our car and that stalking E30! I had two stop watches, calculating in my
head the difference between our lap times and theirs and how many laps we had until
they got us again. The intensity was insane!
All eyes were on us and our rivals, not that I knew it at the time. The Beemer passed us again and was now on the lead lap and then ... finally the white flag flew! We did it... or not?!? That white flag was followed by a radio transmission I won't soon forget - "Stu, I am out of gas, its cutting out on me!". The BMW passed us on the back straight. We coasted across the finish line 10.552 seco~ds later. Twenty five and a half hours of racing and we lost by 10.552 seconds. Un-believable. The whole team was despondent; we had lost the race. All we needed was another half lap worth of fuel! Argghh. All the "if only" scenarios over the last 25 and a half hours were running through our heads and out our mouths! My brain hurt.
But then I realized what the upside was; we just finished 2nd in a ridiculously long race against top teams from all over the continent. These people aren't "Chumps", they are excellent, seasoned racers ... and we came in second! And by the closest margin in any ChumpCar event to date. These are things to be proud of. We were and are. It was an amazing race and an amazing experience. The outcome was just 10.553 seconds short of perfection! Hahaha.
This all started with me saying I was a racer. Well, apparently I am a Crew Chief
as well. And I like it.
And now I get why those involved on the sidelines do what they do.
(Note: The team went to Portland International Raceway in October and was
running 3rd when the engine expired at hour nine! The next morning, after an engine
swap, the author went out and raced 74 laps in the rain without tossing his cookies.)
