VIEW FROM THE TAILGATE
by Carl Rackoff
Preparation and Dedication
OK, yes we all agree that the weather SUCKS! However, the good news is that our parts and tire bills will be lower now. Guess there’s some sort of silver lining to Mother Nature’s madness. So let’s go on with this week column.
Preparation: Means that if you do your job back in the race shop hopefully nothing will fall off at the racetrack (wheels, body panels, steering parts, engine parts, etc.). There is nothing worst then a DNF due to lack of preparation. Here are a few ways that may help you & your race team, as it has done for me and many of the teams that I have worked with over the years. In the early part of my dedication to this sport I love, I used to think that the thrashing at the track was the norm! Then I went to work with Ron Theil Sr.’s racecars and learned quickly that the race track was for racing and the shop was for prep work.
However, you had to be ready to thrash if you had to.
1. CHECK LIST: If you have it –use it If you don’t -get one. There are other teams out there who have them and use them (trust me those are the teams that surely do not have DNF’s due to lack of preparation).
2. Do not wait until the night before raceday to work on the racecar. It is a sure fire way to overlook something.
3. Try to set up days to work on the racecar that is good so that whoever is working on the car, can do so. If you race on Saturday or Sunday, then Monday is a good start. Go over the racecar, see what needs to be done and who is going to take care of it.
4. If parts are needed for the repairs that week, order early and get them A.S.A.P. (OVAL SPEED’S phone is (516) 541-7920 and it’s #1 on my speed dial).
5. One of the things that we do on our race truck every week is something we call “Nut & Bolt.” This means that we grab all the wrenches we need and check every nut and bolt. Believe me you’d be surprised how often we’d find out what we need just by going over the race vehicle in this manner. Hint: Try to have the same person do it each week.
6. Preparation is not just for the week in the shop but also at the racetrack. All the prep work at the shop don’t mean diddle if you can’t “git-r-dun” at the track. Try to be prepared for any thing that the competition will throw at you which they probably will sooner or later.
Dedication: In Latin it means to have your head examined. People just do not understand how people like us, racecar people, can work a forty-hour plus week. And sometimes a forty-hour plus week working on a racecar and that’s not including going to the races on the weekend.
So why do we do it? We do it because we love this sport. Yes, some of us do it for the money and some of us do it for the fame. Some friends and people we know even made it to what I call the SHOW (Cup, Busch or any of the touring level series). But I still believe that we just do it for the love of it just as others do what they do for the love it .
Anyway, with the last few weeks of this weather that we have had, our race vehicles should be prep to the max and our dedication should be at its highest level.
Nevertheless, this is just my views from the tailgate.
Carl Rackoff
Want to voice your opinion, check out our forum thread on this week's View from the Tailgate by going to:
http://www.racerhub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=38874
Want to comment to directly to Carl? E-mail him at CRackoff@longislandjam.com.
