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| Roal team get their tyres ready. |
Before I even came to China, I had to apply for a visa. I decided to use the postal application system and after a few worrying moments and costing me over £90, I finally received a visa in my passport. I had a few issues with the chinese embassy as they told me that I did not have all the correct documentation that they required. This would not have been a problem under normal circumstances, but I lost some valuable time due to the weekend and then a 3 day chinese holiday when the visa office was closed. After alot of emails and unanswered telephone calls, I finally managed to speak to someone who then told me that my doccumentation WAS okay and my visa would be given to me. It actually arrived on the morning that I was due to catch a plane. A very close call indeed and one that I do not intend to repeat if I come here again.
I have been checking the Internet traffic to this blog and the amount of visits from china is VERY LOW. My blog has links to Youtube and is blocked by the chinese government. A series of things that I am not very happy about continues to grow.
I have been surviving at the race track on peanut butter sandwiches after discovering this particular brand called "Skippy",
and it is very delicious. I am lucky to travel for my job but after many years, my stomach knows what it likes and what it does not, and chinese cuisine is not my favourite. Last night, I tried jellyfish, I got back to the hotel and vomited. So, hello Skippy and goodbye jellyfish.
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| Air trigger operated air lance, the expensive option |
The area behind the garages looked very empty today. There are no trade stands, hospitality units....nothing. Only the tyre service for the WTCC and CCTC and a Maserati welcome tent. It just looks rubbish.Questions were still being asked by the Truckies as to whether we could have the containers brought into the paddock, on Sunday evening, to help speed up the loading process. We think the answer will be NO. The WTCC containers will make the long journey to Macau by road. I would love to help drive one of the trucks down to Macau but this is not possible for many reasons, but it would be a great way of seeing a bit more of this huge country. It takes almost an hour to drive from my hotel to Shanghai circuit and I cannot describe to you the chinese driving standards and condition of some of the roads. If you are not getting your Internet in china, perhaps you can find some videos on Youtube and check it out for yourself.
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| Petrol powered, twin dive bottle compressor |
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| Electric powered, single bottle compressor |
To continue with my list of jobs that seem to be the responsibility of the Truckies, I would like to focus on the car air jack systems. There are normally 3 air jacks on each car, 2 at the front and one at the back. These allow the car to be quickly and safely lifted during tyre changes or when the car is being worked on in the garage. All of the teams use "dive" bottles to store and transport this air, These bottles are the sort that scuba divers use. The bottles are filled with over 220 bar of compressed air which is fed through a high pressure hose to a connector with either a trigger operated or ball valve operated lance. The ball valve lances are the cheaper of the two and take abit of skill to use properly. Once the car has been lifted up, all that is needed to lower it back down is for the air to be released from the system. This is done by pulling the air connector, on the car, outwards and the air jacks will retract. The Truckies are constantly checking and refilling the bottles throughout the day. It can take 15-45 minutes to fill a bottle with the correct amount of air. Small electric powered pumps are nice and quiet to use but take the longest time to reach the correct pressure. Petrol powered pumps are quicker but make alot more noise. It is very annoying if an inconsiderate Truckie decides to fill up his bottles right next door to your garage. Thankfully, this does not happen too often.
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| BMW air jack connector |
When the bottle pressure is reduced to approximately 70 bar, it is time to change to a full one. The air jack will operate at slightly lower pressure but the car will go up, very slowly. Speed is essential in WTCC. Each car will have a minimum of 2 bottles to ensure that air is available at all times. It is a relatively simple job but also a very important job.
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| Time to refill the dive bottle |
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| Dive bottle and ball valve operated lance |
This race and the end of season finale in Macau is all that remains, but we have already been discussing plans for next year and talking with the shipping companies about how and when we can collect everything from Antwerp after the containers return to Europe. Unfortunately some of my fellow Truckies may not be returning next year. Some teams will not compete next year but new ones are making plans to enter in 2013.
New friendships are still being made with teams that are entered for
china and Macau so the Truckie fraternity continues to expand and grow.
AND LONG MAY IT CONTINUE.............
