Sonoma Sunshine

The view towards the Sonoma hills

After arriving at San Francisco Airport, I have to catch the monorail train which takes me from the International Terminal, and  finishes its journey at the rental car desks. Whilst collecting the hire car that has been booked, I am already being asked whether I would like a bigger vehicle for the same price.  

OKAY....SUPER SIZE ME !

A pleasant drive from the airport, through the park area and across the Golden Gate bridge towards San Rafael and I arrive at my hotel, which is approximately 20 minutes drive from the Sonoma circuit. I have been trying to stay awake to avoid any jet lag. This seems to have worked as I managed to get a good nights sleep and feel okay when I woke up the next morning. The containers arrived at the back end of last week and are already on the ground, lined up and ready for the teams. Several teams have arrived before us and have started the arduous task of unloading the containers and setting up the garages.

Sidelifter container rig

Containers at Sonoma

As I expected, the team garages are some distance from the pit lane area and will mean that it is essential to make sure that everything is taken to the pit lane area when the cars are on track. i  measured the distance from the team garages to their allocated space in the pit lane and it was approximately 227 metres(745 ft).

THAT IS A LONG WAY TO HAVE TO MOVE SO MUCH EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS.

Also, the issue of electric power supply is currently being sorted out and the local electrians have been very, very busy locating large generators behind the garages and also in the pit lane area. They have managed to supply the teams with a 400 volt, 3 phase power supply, by turning down the output from the generators and they have also provided us with a 240 volt single phase. This single phase supply is making some equipment sound a little bit strange as it is running on a 60Hz cycle. Normally, in Europe, it is 50Hz. But.....everything is working as it should and the electricians have done an amazing job.

Generators being set up behind the garages

Pit lane area in front of the main grandstand

 One thing that is missing in the garage area is a water supply. How are the truckies meant to wash the wheels? The toilet blocks are some distance from the team garages and this means that buckets of water will have fetched and carried and just makes the job much more difficult.
This may seem like a silly point to make but presentation is very important at WTCC level and to have cars going on track with dirty wheels and rims is not good for the overall appearance of the car.
I think that European circuits have a much better layout than Sonoma. The concept of having garages that are some distance from the pit lane is strange. It obviously suits the different American racing formats but makes so much extra work for the WTCC.
With plenty of sunshine forecast, it will be interesting to see how many people turn up this weekend and appreciate all the hard work and effort done by the organisers, the teams, the circuit and everyone else involved.

Garages being set up at Sonoma

                                    Here is a video I took of the circuit from a golf buggy. ENJOY.

I have just received a video from Brent at Kiwi containers. They were involved in bringing the containers to Sonoma and it will give you a good idea of how their truck drivers move the containers around.