2006 will be the last time in the foreseeable future we will be working twice a year with our Mexican compadres, O.P.M., out on our posts, ending a 5-year run in which this very enthusiastic flagging group did 10 races for us. I want to extend yet another heartfelt Muchas Gracias to OPM chiefs Fritz Herrmann (who has become one of my very good friends,) Hector Gomez, and all of their assistants, observadores and banderaleros!
They had their hands very full this year, setting up and learning their way through the new changes to the course. We excluded the run through the baseball stadium, resulting in a new, very tight little chicane at the entry to the 180 degree Peraltada corner, which also contained a very tricky-to-observe pit entry. With the chicane shortcuts, the late pit entry calls and the watching of the front stretch “foul line” at its exit, this part of the track is one of the most complicated and labor-intensive to operate anywhere! Carumba!!!
MUY FAMOSA
On Friday afternoon, Hector Gomez had a suggestion that led me to visit our flagging crew at the exit of the last corner, Puesto 17. It turned out the crew were all female, and had gotten full wind of the Katherine Legge “Warriors in Pink” campaign that Ford sponsored in Elkhart Lake. Their captain even went so far as to embroider up her own very well done and accurate copies of the Warriors in Pink patch, which she applied to her gear.
So naturally these young ladies all idolize Ms. Legge, and Hector suggested a meeting be arranged. I did the groundwork the next morning – meeting Katherine and her father, formally, for the first time (he had sent me an email about 10 hours after my Elkhart blog was posted,) and Katherine agreed, hanging around for an extra half hour after the driver’s meeting. It was well worth the idea and the effort as even with the help of Laura Malvaez our recorder/"interpreter," several of the crew were almost too excited to speak! Katherine held up her end as always, and even though she balked at being introduced as the “Muy Famosa Katherine Legge,” we all know better. Thank you Katherine for a wonderful gesture that brightened this corner crew’s entire season, and thank you Hector for such a brilliant idea.
Katherine and the brave crew of 17.
EL CARRERA LOCO
The race got off to a really tightly packed and then rocky start, with contact on the front straight before the line resulting in the aforementioned Ms. Legge clouting the pit wall after a nudge by Mr. Dominguez. Then it became one of those situations where a lot was happening around the track as the yellows flew and I got caught focusing ALL of my attention on the wrong spot.
It turns out Mario shaved his scoring transponder off in the melee, leaving it laying on the front straight before the start line, alongside Katherine’s car. Mario limped away, but scoring data showed two cars left behind. So as I rolled through a series of questions trying to verify how many cars were at the scene, I was notified by Fritz that Ryan Briscoe was taking the short course link from turn 4 to turn 8 and he had some tire damage. No matter, I figured, he was involved in the shunt and will be stopping anyway, and I went back to figuring out what happened back at the start line…
However, it was such a damned big shortcut, he managed to move into the lead as the second pace car we had installed just beyond turn four (it was the second race this year where we employed two pace cars to get the field collected on a big circuit) had captured everyone else, and Ryan came into the pits well before the field and pace car finished the lap. His crew then speedily changed the tire and got him out before the pace car came ‘round and there he goes all the way around to catch the rear of the field, having assumed the lead illegally. Ouch!
Since he had come in to a closed pit, Timing and Scoring docked him a lap, as the penalty for such is taking the restart at the back of the field. That fixed that, but the rest of RC couldn’t quite figure out how the H he had gotten there, as I managed to then forget all about the shortcut. Ouch #2. (Go back and re-read all of that if you are lost.)
Gary Barnard figured it all out several laps later after reviewing our video feeds. Embarrassingly, my light bulb went on and I had to admit that I had been sitting on the answer all along. I still have those moments – or even days – where just a little too much happens at once and I happen to focus on the wrong thing, missing something else in the process. Part of my task is filtering the info that comes off the land line, and shortcuts by damaged cars is something that is normally a non-issue. I didn’t put the whole sequence together as I was too wound up in finding out where Mario went! It could have been the language, but I think it was just my confusion… lesson learned – I hope!!
ON THE WALL
Mexico City is the track where we first did the old school “Checkered flag on the race track” back in 2003, my first year in RC as Clerk. Remember, that was during the regime of Chris Kneifel, and after getting an eyeful of it last year, Tony Cotman deemed it was not worth the risk, thinking of the damage to the image of our series if something went wrong. I saw his point and we compromised that we could do it this year, one last time (as this won’t be the last race of the season next year,) from the top of the wall. And hey, when it began raining halfway through the race, SO IT WAS A GOOD DAY TO STAY ON THE WALL!! How did Tony know?
I watched the final laps from the island between the pit lane and the track, as the the circuit had put together a small platform stairway at the line. As Wilson and Bourdais flashed by under JD’s white flag, I thought that it was going to make a hell of a great picture to have two cars coming down battling for the win (another good reason not to be on the track, I might add.) But it was not to be, as the two banged wheels at turn six, Sebastien got around in the process and came around well ahead. Yet another tough call by Tony, deeming it a racing incident on the last lap (remember Tracy/Bourdais at Denver, please) and being consistent by letting the result stand. They never seem to get easier.
Sebastien remembered where the flag was and duly came WAY over to the inside for the checker, spraying myself and the photographers assembled to capture the shot. A ton of paper also flew up into the air from an advertising decal that was sucked off the wall at the same time and I was really impressed until I remembered that it was leftovers from the first lap shunt!
The resulting photo was something a little different from years past because of the location of the flag, so at least we can say we aren’t stuck doing the same thing year after year.
End of the Trail
IN CLOSING…
So as you read this there are only a few scant hours left in 2006, or 2007 is freshly upon us with all its challenges and promises. All our teams have at least one new Panoz DP01 they are busily setting up for the first test at the end of the month in Sebring. I have plenty to do from now until the season opener in Vegas, plenty of art to assemble on my drawing board, and also a website (cha-ching) to maintain and update. Next month I should be able to bring you up to speed on any changes or developments (like no yellow stripe in the blue flag next year) to our series.
From ALL of us in the Champ Car World Series family, thank you once again for being a part of this great undertaking, a series you and I and we have all come to love with all of our hearts. God Bless you all during the New Year and our best wishes for a prosperous and happy Two Thousand Seven.
See you at the track!!!
JHS
