Watching a well-sorted team prepare a nitro-powered race car for the next pass is absolutely amazing. It’s a choreography of tasks that are rehearsed and repeated until they are instinctive, because all of the jamming and thrashing in the pits prior to towing the ride up to the staging lanes doesn’t need to go flying out of the window because some step was missed. From the moment the starter yells out “Fire in the hole!” the team becomes a blur of movement, firing off the barely controlled bomb of an engine, making sure that all of the checks are done, the pins are removed for the fire bottles and the fresh air system, and in the case of the Funny Cars, that the body is down and secured. This all occurs within thirty seconds to a minute before the car rolls into the water box and proceeds to turn the massive rear slicks into a rolling fog bank. Since I’m a sucker for orchestrated work under similar situations (ever turned wrenches while standing underneath a helicopter’s blades while the engine is at 100%?) I couldn’t help but grab some pics of the action. Next time, I need to bring a GoPro…you have to see everybody working as one team for yourself!
CLICK ON A PHOTO BELOW TO SCAN THROUGH THE GALLERY:
