Last week I talked about some of the things that need to be during to the week to get ready to go racing. This week I want to talk about some of the things that are done at the track before making a run. Just because you work on the car all week doesn’t mean that things get easier on race day. On a race day there is very little downtime to watch other people since there is always something to be done to the car. Some of the things I talk about may only apply for faster cars since most the time the slower the car the less maintenance you have to do between runs.
When I first get to the track the first thing I do once I get the car unloaded and get the frontend off is get it ready to warm up. Before making a pass in the car you want to be sure that all the fluids in the engine, transmission, and rear-end get a chance to move around and get warm. With most faster cars today, they run a dry-sump oil system which is where they don’t have any oil sit in the oil pan instead a pump pumps oil throughout the motor. Before firing the engine for the first time you must prime the pump so that you don’t turn the motor over dry. Once the engine is primed you can finally start the car.
Everyone does things differently, but I always use a jack to jack the car up of the ground to get the rear tires off the ground. Then I hope in the car and turn it on and run it through the gears. With our car it has a high and a low gear plus a reverse, so I let the car run for a minute or two in each gear to make sure it gets warmed up properly. While doing this I also listen to how the car sounds to make sure it sounds like it should.
After the car is warm the car must be fueled up and checked over again to make sure that there aren’t any leaks. Also, our car has dual parachutes that are run off air solenoids so before making a run you must air the chutes up so that if needed they will deploy. The wheelie bars also need to be set at the right height since they are like an extra set of wheels and can greatly affect how the car leaves off the line. Once all these things listed above are complete the car is ready to make a run which is what next weeks blog post will be on so stay tuned.
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