Sadness at Suzuka

I woke up early on Sunday morning to go to the track and when I opened the curtains in my hotel room, I saw a hot air balloon moving very slow and low over the Suzuka suburbs. It did seem to be very close to the houses and electric power lines and looked quite dangerous to me. Danger has been all around us this weekend. On the Saturday evening at the race track, an unfortunate accident occurred when a man fell off the balcony above the garages. The Suzuka ambulance staff were there almost immediately but due to the severity of his injuries, he did not survive.

Police forensic team on the saturday evening.

Sunday morning, in the opening Super Taikyu race, a local driver also died after skidding on some oil and his car lost control and impacted the guard rail very heavily. The Air Ambulance arrived but despite every bodies best efforts, yet another tragedy occurred.

The rest of the racing resumed later on Sunday but the atmosphere around the paddock was a strange one due to these two events. As a mark of respect by the winning drivers of all the races on Sunday, there was no champagne celebrations.
 

Air Ambulance arrives on sunday.

On the Sunday evening, the teams were busy again with loading the containers and getting things ready for the next race in Shanghai, China.
Behind the garages was a very busy and limited space for the teams to load up. The forklifts were all neatly parked up and when the Suzuka circuit officials said it was okay to commence work, the activity was frantic but extremely well coordinated by the Truckies in charge of this.

The circuit had released a bulletin, asking us to keep the container area clean and tidy for the spectators who were walking around. But I have included some pictures of the Super Taikyu paddock which did not seem to have the same set of rules as the WTCC paddock.
VERY STRANGE.

I will leave you with a few pictures of the rest of this weekends events.

Forklifts neatly lined up.

STR staff take a short rest.

A very busy Super Taikyu paddock area

Super taikyu tyre suppliers, Yokohama

Ford team loading containers on sunday evening.

Tuenti team start packing up their garage

Suzuka Photo Extravaganza

My journey to get to Suzuka has been fun but also quite frustrating at times. I arrived at Nagoya airport after a night time flight from Korea. I desperately needed a cigarette after getting off the airplane and I took a picture of the security man as he glided, silenty past me. I have seen them here using Segways before but this something new to me.

Security police at Nagoya airport in strange electric transport

 I decided to take the ferry boat from the airport to Tsu. This was quite easy to do as the ferry terminal is located next to the airport, but trying to find a bus to the train station was very, very difficult. All of the signs on the buses were in Japanese and hardly anyone speaks English. Eventually, I made it to the train station and had exactly the same problem trying to find the train to take me to Suzuka. When I arrived in Suzuka, I could not find a taxi so I had to go to a shop and ask them to telephone a taxi to collect me and take me to my hotel. I think my journey from the airport to the hotel would take a Japanese person 2 hours. But it took me 4 hours.........but at least the Truckie was not late.

School children watching us from the grandstand.

When I arrived yesterday, the sun was shining, but as soon as I got to Suzuka circuit, today, the rain came down quite heavily. As the teams set up the pit wall stands in the rain, local school children arrived at the circuit to watch. We were given some good news and were told that our containers would remain in the paddock, behind the garages. Last year, we had to put everything from the containers, into our garages which just meant a lot of unnecessary work for everyone. But this concession by the circuit owners comes with a strict set of rules. We were given this paperwork that you can see in the picture.

Ford team inside their container.

I can appreciate that the circuit want to project a certain image and the teams realise this as well. Maybe if the circuit owners had realised this before the containers were put onto the ground, they could have made sure that the containers were placed in a nice straight line, rather than waiting until all of the cranes and manpower had finished and left the circuit.
As the rain continues during the day, the hard work of unloading the containers and setting up the garages goes on. Truckies are hard at work as the mechanics prepare the cars after the USA race. The containers only arrived on Monday and the circuit were not allowing teams to stay and work late on Tuesday evening. Everybody was frantically checking all the equipment, repairing damaged cars and servicing engines, ready for the first test session on Friday.

Radio check, radio check !

A new edition to the paddock was the Honda team who seem to have done some very quick lap times in their test sessions.

WILL THEY BE ABLE TO STAMP THEIR AUTHORITY IN THEIR FIRST WTCC RACE   ????????

The tyre man from JAS Honda was given all the information from the Yokohama tyre company on how to complete the scrutineering process and whilst I tried to get you some early pictures of their car and garage set up, I was asked to wait !!!!
I am sure that they will find my blog very interesting and it will certainly help them if they continue into next year.

JAS Honda garage.

JAS Honda tyre man gets busy.

As Suzuka circuit celebrates 50 years of racing, the Truckies continue the race by race work of ensuring that the mechanics, the engineers, the data engineers, team owners and the drivers have all the equipment needed for the smooth operation of the team. To the fans of motor sport, I really do not think that they realise the hard work and dedication that is put into the WTCC championship.

I know we do not have the money that F1 has but I know that there is so much heart and soul given by everybody who is involved and as Andy Warhol, the famous artist said, "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" For the teams in the WTCC, our races are televised and watched for a bit longer than 15 minutes. Maybe we are famous for the short time we are on television but the hard work to get there is a BIG TEAM EFFORT.

Back of the garages at Suzuka on a wet Wednesday afternoon.

 

My friends from MST who supply the timing equipment for the WTCC races, invited me to see how they operate at each race and I also had the chance to go to the main race control tower at Suzuka, I thought I would share this picture of the race circuit TV system.

MST timing equipment area, under construction

Mission control....Suzuka Circuit

 The work will continue tomorrow and I will be busy making some video of some more behind the scenes action of the WTCC.

This last picture is of a counting device that is fitted to every front and back door in the garages, to monitor how many times that the doors are opened and closed. I have NEVER seen this at any other circuit in the world
                                                         WHY ???????   I do not know.

And finally, due to financial problems for one of the teams, one of the Truckies was not in Brazil, the USA and  will not be at Japan, China or Macau. Myself and many others will  miss him very much.

The sign says, MOTORSPORT IS DANGEROUS

Airport security.....or stupidity

I thought I would share this story, taken from an English newspaper. It highlights the absurdity of the most annoying part of my job which is having to pass through AIRPORT SECURITY. I could write so many words to express my feelings but it is probably better for you to read the story and draw your own conclusions.
The level of stupidity of these people who conduct the so called security checks is summed up beautifully in this story..........



QUOTE.......
It was supposed to be a birthday surprise for his son – but a Wiggles the Caterpillar cake led to an airport security alert as the surprised father was bundled away by armed guards.
Justin Barrett was asked to remove his clothing and was given a through  body search after security staff mistook the supermarket cake for a bomb.
The 41-year-old told yesterday how he was about to fly out with the cake for his son Freddie’s ninth birthday in Spain, where the youngster was on holiday with the rest of his family.
He said: ‘I had the cake in my hand luggage and customs asked to check inside after it had passed through the x-ray machine.
To the officer’s surprise there was a chocolate Caterpillar cake in the bag. He then swabbed the inside of the bag and put it into a machine.
That’s when it ended up going bleep and the customs officer said it had found traces of explosives. They took me to a room and began a thorough search of my body.’
When they realised it was just a cake, Mr Barrett was allowed to go to join his wife and children who had flown out to Alicante a week earlier.
The cause of the positive test was attributed to acetate in the plastic wrapping on the cake box, which can show up on certain airport sensors.

Mr Barrett, who works in the security industry himself, added: ‘I offered them a piece of the cake, but they said I could save it for my son. At least I didn’t have to explain a half-eaten cake to him.’
An airport security spokesman said: ‘While some completely innocent items can trigger the alarms, our overriding priority is to provide a safe and secure airport for passengers and staff.’

                                         YOU JUST COULD NOT MAKE IT UP !!!!!

WTCC Calendar 2013.......Version2.2

It doesn’t matter how many years you have been in motorsport, jet lag will still treat you the same as it treats someone who has just started in this business. It’s a silent voice in your head that wakes you up at 4am when you arrive at a race and tells your eyelids to start growing heavy at 4pm. Obviously that is not an option so you just have to work through it. I’m reliably informed that you get back one hour of time difference per day when you are abroad and the same when you get back home.
Despite my frequent travels, I now have very bad jet lag from my trip to the USA and also have a horrible cough and cold which I have brought back home with me, I am already useing my second box of tissues and my nose is very sore.

I have just seen a revised calendar for next year and it has put a smile on my face. Version1.1 was definitely not attractive to me and the other Truckies.

Please read this blog entry;  http://racetruckie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/41300-kilometres-and-counting.html

I am praying that the first race in Spain will be at a different track, not Valencia, for the sake of the fans more than anyone else. And it looks like we will be doing 13 races rather than the 12 in this years calendar. Where we could possibly go to between Italy and Slovakia? I really do not know.
The gap between Portugal and Brazil does seem rather a long time but the Italian(organisers), do seem to like their holidays!
Also, Shanghai seems to be before Suzuka.?????? I think that this is a typing error on the FIA website which is where I got my information.
The present world economy is a major consideration when it comes the WTCC calendar. Spain and Portugal seem to be in the news everyday, concerning their economic status. The rest of Europe is not in a brilliant position either. The cost involved for the teams, the organisers, the circuits and the television company is HUGE. And whilst I know that the WTCC is still gaining momentum around the world, everybody is struggling to find the money to go racing. This has been very noticeable in the paddock this year. Teams have not been spending as much money on new equipment, wheel rims, bodywork, tyres for testing, boarding for the garages, etc. Motor sport is one of the last businesses to suffer when a recession happens and it is the last to get back on its feet when the economy picks up again.
Anything that the Truckies can suggest to help their respective teams save money for next years racing will definitely help. When it comes to the logistics of moving everything around, we have a much better understanding than maybe someone sat in an office in the teams factory.

10/03 SPAIN.....to be confirmed
24/03 ITALY Monza
07/04 ?????.....to be confirmed
28/04 SLOVAKIA Slovakiaring
05/05 HUNGARY Hungaroring
19/05 AUSTRIA Salzburgring
09/06 RUSSIA Moscow Raceway
30/06 PORTUGAL Porto
21/07 BRAZIL Curitiba
15/09 USA Sonoma
13/10 CHINA Shanghai    I SUSPECT THIS SHOULD SAY SUZUKA !!!!!!!!!
27/10 JAPAN Suzuka       
17/11 MACAU Macau

I am sure that the WTCC calendar, Version3.3 will not be too far away. In the meantime, I just want to get rid of my cold and cough with some pills and vitamin C.

Statistics do not lie.

There is a saying in English, "BLOW YOUR OWN TRUMPET"
If someone blows their own trumpet, they boast about their talents and achievements.
I started this blog with the intentions of giving you a behind the scenes look at the life of a Truckie in the WTCC. It was not meant to be anything more than a written journal of what we do for a living. But I have been amazed at the interest that you have shown. The statistics that I get from Google have shown that the interest has gathered speed as each month has passed. The readers of my blog come from all over the world with many of you signing up for email notifications, every time I post something new.
I can see that Internet Explorer is the No.1 browser that you use, closely followed by Firefox and Safari.
Windows is the No.1 operating system and Android is No.2. The amount of people using a smart phone to view my blog is increasing all the time. Iphone is No.3
Referrals to my blog seem to come from Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully this is because you are finding my blog interesting.
The UK is where most of my page views come from but I suppose this can be expected as I write in English. Surprisingly, Russia is No.3 so I can only say that there are many fans of WTCC there and if we race there next year, I think we will have many spectators turn up.
Recently, the amount of views coming from the USA, actually exceeded the UK. It will be interesting to see if these figures remain high now that we have raced there.
The Translator option does get used very often and I hope that the people using it can still get a good understanding of what I am writing about. A mechanical translation is never perfect but should enable the reader to understand 70-80%. I have found that in my years of travelling around the world that more and more people speak some English. In an ideal world, we should all be able to communicate in a single language but for those of you that use the translator, I hope that it helps you understand me.
As the WTCC is coming close to its end of season conclusion, I aim to show you more interesting aspects of what the Truckies do using more video and hopefully telling a better story than I can ever do with words.

THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.

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.

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.

02/10/2012 N 07°06' W 080°42 Panama Canal

Gatun Lock, Panama Canal

Ships position 07/10/2012

As I am typing this, the WTCC containers have travelled through the Panama Canal and are on the last part of their journey to the USA.
I have managed to get a web cam screen shot as the ship passes through one of the locks.(it is the Hapag Lloyd ship in the picture). I spent a lot of time tracking this ship and constantly checking the web cam until I finally managed to get this.

I MUST BE MAD !!!!


Elsewhere in the world of the Truckies, various teams have been testing at Vallelunga, Brands Hatch, Slovakia Ring and Magny Cours.
Engine tests, suspension tests and for the new Honda WTCC team, testing a complete new car.
 
I would also like to thank Paul from  Racingage.com who helped us out by supplying one of his excellent tyre inflation cages at very short notice. This allowed us to meet the very strict Health and Safety regulations when working in the UK.
So as the season continues in two weeks time, I will have chance to update my blog more often and give you something interesting to read. Personally I am looking forward to seeing my Truckie friends again rather than just sending SMS and emails. I am also hopeing that we all get easily through the American immigration controls which I have experienced before.

Racingage.com inflation cage

UPDATE 12/09/2012
It looks like our containers have arrived in Oakland, USA.
HELLO AMERICA

Destination Oakland

Race Circuit Electrics....around the world.

Race truck office

Engineers area in race truck

On our travels around the world, the first thing when we arrive in the garages is sort out the electric power supply for our teams equipment and also for the trucks. I will start first with power needed for the trucks. Whilst some of the race trucks are fitted with generators, we cannot have these running all the time so we need to connect to a mains power supply. This is so that the lighting inside the truck can be used and also for office lighting(some trucks have lovely offices in them). Obviously there may be the need to use the race truck as a workshop so wall sockets for power tools, laptops, TV,s etc. will be required.

Portimao electrics with race truck supply plugged in.

You may have noticed that there is normally a thick electrical cable, on the ground, between the truck and the garage. This will be our power supply to the race truck.

Please try not to trip over it as many people do !!!!

Race truck tail lift and hand control

This will normally be a 3 phase cable, 440V ,32 or 64 amps and will have a large red coloured plug on it. Some teams will use a single phase cable, 220-240V 16amps which has a blue plug on it. This electrical supply can also be used to provide power for the tail lift at the rear of the truck

Once we have power to the truck, we can now
 turn our attention to the garages.

Tyre warmers need power.....and lots of it.

We need to find a way of dividing the electrical supply to provide enough power for additional lighting, laptops, mobile phones, TV,s electrical chargers for wheel nut guns, electronic set up scales, wheel aligning equipment, even fridges and water coolers and most important of all, tyre warmers. If the team has the money, they may have 3 sets of warmers for slicks and 3 sets for wet tyres. Some teams will even have 4 sets of each. And that is just for 1 car. When all of these tyre warmers are switched on, there is a very high current and if the electrical system is not suitable, too many amps can be drawn through the system and trip fuses in the main power supply boxes will shut the whole garage down.

NOT WHAT YOU NEED JUST BEFORE QUALIFYING OR A RACE.

It is the job of the Truckies to set up and distribute the power when it is needed most and in the safest way possible. Some circuits we visit, have very poor electrics and teams may have to use the generators which are fitted to the tyre trolleys. Or if there are not enough garages to give to each car, the teams may have to run 2 cars in each garage. THEN IT CAN GET VERY DIFFICULT. The Truckies will have to use every means possible to ensure that they have enough electricity. Sometimes, we will even have to plug electrics into another teams garage. Thankfully, this is rarely needed. There are formulae to calculate power requirements, Volts x Amps = Watts. But we do seem to find that plug it in, turn it on and see what happens works best. We can also encounter different voltages and amps in the countries we visit. The most common is 220-230V around European circuits but we also have to deal with 110V in Brazil, USA and Japan. Then we have to rely on big generators that the circuits will arrange for us.

Monza garage electrics

Curitiba garage electrics......no good

Generators at Curitiba......Yes please

Electrical boxes set up to provide power for tyre warmers

This job of adequate electrical supply is yet another unseen part of a race teams preparations and yet another job that is normally performed by the Truckies. Some circuits are great, there will be more than enough power supply for everything. But as you can see, at other circuits, we have to be innovative and manage as best as we can.

Fun with an electrical socket