Sonoma update and High Definition video.

Washing area at the side of the garages

I thought that I would give you all an update on this weekend,s race at Sonoma, USA.

The Truckies and teams had a hard job to get everything loaded and put back in the containers so that they were ready to be collected and taken to the port at 0600 hours on Monday morning. The next stop for the containers is a 5000 mile journey fom Oakland to Kobe, Japan.


A couple of irritating problems for the Truckies were the wash facilities and trying to establish a good TV connection.
An attempt was made by the circuit concerning the wheel washing issue. Large metal washtubs were placed at the side of each block of garages. Apparently, there were enviromental issues regarding allowing the water to go into the drain system so we were forced to use the washtubs. This was ok for the teams who were close to them but not very good for the teams at the far side of each garage block.

Another BIG problem was the live television feed and timing screen feed to the garages and the pit lane area. Considering we were racing in the land where TV is KING. it was diabolical. I do not know how the circuit normally provides TV to the other races that they hold here but if we come to Sonoma again, I think this will the first thing that they have to put right.
I was hoping that I could include some pictures of big American trucks but the support racers did not have the money for this sort of equipment. I did manage to take pictures of one truck that was there. This was wrapped in carbon fibre effect, vinyl graphics. The total length of the truck and trailer was 76 ft.(23 metres) in length. In Europe, this would have not been able to use our smaller roads. Our trucks and trailers are 16.5 metres long. Also, in some states in America, they can drive at 85-90 MPH(140 KMH) In Europe, we are limited to 90KMH. The rules regarding the hours that a driver can do are totally different to European rules. Here, they can drive for one hour, take a 15 minute break, and then carry on driving for up to a total of 11 hours. In Europe, we also have a digital or analogue tachograph to monitor our driving time. In America, it is just a hand written, log book.

The only American race truck at Sonoma

American truck drivers log book

Inside the truck, the driver has a much more spacious sleeping area but, in my opinion, the layout around the drivers seat does not look as well designed as the trucks we have in Europe.

On the Saturday, I spent a long time taking video, with the aim of showing you how far the teams were having to move all of the cars and equipment to the pit lane. Unfortunately, I am totally new to this and did not have the video set to record in HIGH DEFINITION.
WHAT A FOOL I AM !!!!
On Sunday, I tried again, and I have included this video of my efforts. I decided not to try and edit the video, in case I messed everything up again. My apologies if it looks rough and amateurish , but I think you will get a good idea of the distance that the teams had to walk and hard work that they had to do this weekend.

I spent a long time talking to Paul(GIGAWAVE) and also to Stephen(INFINITIS). They gave me some very good ideas of how I can use the video to produce some very different camera angles and hopefully, before the season ends, I will be able to post some better video clips for you to watch.

Next race for the Truckies will be in Japan and I will be updating my blog again from there. As I am typing this, I have just found out that my return flight home has been delayed. It is at times like this that I miss my truck and I just wish that I could get in it, start it up and drive home.