Among other foolish things…

Posted on July 28, 2018 by plutoe — 2 Comments

I am going to try something of a live blog today, as it’s race day for the 24 Hours of Spa you can read me slowly but surely go crazy!

It’s almost 13:00 here (on Saturday I think). I got to the track at noon today, we just had our Pirelli group photo, and now I’m sitting down to lunch. The race is scheduled to start at 16:30 today, so there won’t be much action for a few hours at least. It’s currently sunny and warm, though not as hot as it has been which is nice. Especially once the nomex goes on! The forecast called for rain today, but appears to have cleared up now. However, it’s Spa, and that can change very quickly…

23:59:46 – And we are green!

22:54:30 – First round of pit stops completed, good to get one under my/our belt

22:10:12 – Safety car brings everyone to the pits once again, a little scrambly but no issues. For anyone wondering, they are allowed as many sets of tires as they like for the race, and must make a pit stop every 65 minutes.

19:05 – It’s dinner time for me. The first 2.5 hours of the race went by pretty quickly. I can really see the appeal of this kind of competition, it’s a very different kind of challenge.

20:37:44 – Back from dinner to chaos. #58 Mclaren was hit in the rear, puncturing the tire and damaging the car. They were running about 8th before that happened. #44 Mercedes is also in the pit replacing some front suspension, not sure why but it can’t be good. Ruebens Barrichello is one of the drivers of this car, and somehow he still looks happy.

18:15:05 – The last couple of hours have been full course yellows and darkness falling. It’s now 22:15 and almost fully dark.

15:31:36 – I am just on my break, I have 1h25 to do something. I think I will wander down to Eau Rouge, it’s supposed to be spectacular at night. And then lie down and try and sleep a bit in the trailer. Any suggestions?

14:04:19 – I just got back to pit lane from my break. Eau Rouge is very cool at night. And I can’t sleep on the bench in a trailer in a racetrack. Home stretch now! Kind of…

13:19:02 – The red flag has come out, meaning the race has stopped. All of the cars are now back on pit lane, and it’s eerily quiet… On the plus side, I have acquired a (sort of) real coffee from my Mercedes team, the first of (probably several during) the race.

11:51:45 – We are past halfway! The race is just about to restart, there was a bad crash in Eau Rouge.

10:52:44 – I just noticed for the first time that it’s getting light outside again. Also another safety car, big crash for a Mercedes.

8:41:12 – That safety car period lasted over an hour, which allowed me to have breakfast without missing anything. It’s now pretty much the next day, nice and cloudy though which is keeping the temperature down.

6:01:04 – Coffee count is now at 2. And the sun is out.

4:00:03 – Back from lunch, 4 hours to go, we are in the home stretch!

0:58:13 – Less than 1 hour to go, and only 2 cars each with 1 stop left….so close…

It’s over! It ended at 16:30 local (obviously, as it started at 16:30 local). I’ve got a couple of debrief meetings that should be pretty quick as it went pretty well from our perspective. Then hopefully some dinner and a celebratory beer! I would guess this will be a 36+ hour day by the time it’s over…

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Charlie and old man, same kind of blue…

Posted on July 23, 2018 by plutoe — Leave a comment

I’m beginning this post in the London International Airport.  I haven’t flown in or out of here for awhile now, and I’d forgotten how great it is.  I really should try and do this more often…

So I haven’t written for awhile.  Much has happened, or at least, many miles have been covered.
Since I last wrote, the list looks something like this:
  • Mosport for Pirelli World Challenge
  • Paul Ricard (France) for Blancpain GT Series
  • Montreal for Ferrari Challenge (F1 weekend)
  • Indianapolis for Trans Am
  • Whitewater Rafting in Ottawa
  • Carolina Motorsports Park for an F3 Development Test
  • Portland for Pirelli World Challenge
And now I’m waiting to fly to Brussels (through Montreal) for the 24 Hours of Spa.  Some of you have asked, and yes I am looking forward to it.  Sort of.  Spa is a spectacular old track, one of the few remaining old school style tracks.  But, it’s a 24 hour race, which is going to be exhausting.  And this time of year, I’d kind of just like to be at the cottage.  So I’m a little conflicted, but I’m going.
What do I want to talk about from that list…  It was good to be back at Mosport, I hadn’t been there for a few years.  Though it’s always tough to be there and not racing myself, I really want to be out there.  Hopefully soon…
The Blancpain race in Paul Ricard was an experience, it was a 6 hour endurance race, which to date is the longest I have been involved with.  The cars were pretty awesome, and it turned out to be a really exciting race (last lap pass for the win).  I was at that track for an F2 development test last year, so I knew what I was in for at least geographically, and it’s not the most exciting place.  As with a lot of race tracks, it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.
From there I went straight to Montreal for F1 weekend, where I was responsible for Ferrari Challenge.  I can’t say that racing was nearly as good, it was a little bit of a disaster.  Though not for me, it was actually quite an uneventful weekend on the tire front, that track is fairly easy on them.  The highlight was getting to stay a few nights with my Aunt Jeanette and catch up with mes cousines.
I always like being in Indianapolis, perhaps I’ve been lucky in that I always stay downtown where there are some really good restaurants.  Being at that track is such a special place to be, it feels like it’s dripping with history.  Though not this particular weekend, as all the history would have evaporated in the heat…  It was my first Trans Am race and I really enjoyed it, they are fast cars that are loud, don’t have a lot of down force, big tires for a lot of mechanical grip, and door to door racing.  If you get a chance to catch one of the races on TV I recommend it (especially one of the Indy races).  And the first night there, Boomer and I got to St. Elmo’s steakhouse for dinner, which is one of my favourite places from my NASCAR life.  That shrimp cocktail…
One of the things that I really wanted to do this year was to go white water rafting near Ottawa.  Part of this is just an excuse to see Craig, and part of it is because Alex and Jeremy and I did it in Colorado a few years ago and I really enjoyed it.  So a few months ago a group of us (Karen, JC, Jared, Alex, Craig and I) booked rafting and cabins for a weekend in July, and we had such a great time.  We stayed in cabins (just like adult summer camp!) Friday and Saturday nights, and rafted Saturday and Sunday.  Though before any of that started, we did the escape room at the Diefenbaker Bunker which was so much fun.  I won’t spoil it for anyone, suffice to say do it if you can!  The rafting place had a great setup, a nice outdoor restaurant/bar/common area overlooking the river, they had good local beer on tap and a band a couple of times.  There was a dance floor that we sampled on the Saturday night, and many more amenities that we didn’t get to.  Rafting is a pretty tiring thing, and we didn’t seem to want to do a whole lot of other physical activity.  The rafting was really fun, we had a great guide the first day, and were left to our own devices on the second, which obviously didn’t go quite as well.  I’m happy to report that no one died, and other than a few broken finger nails there weren’t even any injuries.  And we all got wet on more than one occasion…nice try JC…
My most recent work trip involved a two day F3 test at Carolina Motorsports Park, which is just outside of Kershaw, South Carolina.  It is, once again, in the middle of nowhere, so I stayed on the south side of Charlotte.  It was pretty uneventful, if very hot.  From there I flew straight to Portland for a PWC weekend.  Work wise it was also uneventful, that’s an easy track on tires.  And I quite liked Portland, we stayed in the Pearl District, surrounded by many restaurants and several breweries.  I quite recommend the chicken and waffles at Deschutes Brewery, and the Hazelnut Brown Nectar at the Rogue Brewery.
And that’s pretty much up to date.  I’m looking at a week in Belgium, then a race the following weekend in Pittsburgh.  Then there will be a little bit of cottage time, and I’m not really sure what beyond then.
Cheers!
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