Jump to content

Race day Checklist Pre and Post-Race


Recommended Posts

I'm trying to create a race day pitcrew checklist combined with race strategy, notes and maintenance log, and post race checklist . Looking for ideas, or if any of you have a good checklist they want share. 

 

Pre-Race: The idea is to help the team members (new and old) get the car ready before you leave the pits. A safety checklist more or less.

Set tire pressures, torque lugs, check fluid levels (fuel,oil,etc), remove fire bottle pin, hood and trunk pins, working brake lights, clean windshield, radios/cameras installed, load pitbox, etc..

 

Race Strategy log: A spot for driver list/order, time in/out, competed laps, green/yellow, Fuel used.

 

Pre and post Pitstop checklist:

Outgoing Driver: Helmet, Hans, Gloves, Shoes, Urinate, Hydrate, seat foam, etc

Crew duty briefing, who is doing what, who will refuel cans, generator, etc

 

Post Race Checklist: things that need to be completed before the next days race.

An initials column of who completed it, what the vehicle hour meter reads, and % remaining/quantity remaining for tracking wear/consumption items.

 

Event summary notes: track, date, drivers, weather, consumption notes,

Starting Position/Finishing.

Points/Vehicle log notes...

Other track/pit/paddock notes

 

The idea is to keep all team members easily engaged, and prevent one guy from having to remember (or forget) everything. 

There is ALWAYS something that can be done to the car and while in the pits.

 

I'm gonna work on something, please share some of your ideas/input, things your team does. Bonus if you have a editable file you want to share.

 

Thanks,

Shane:  DirtE-30 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like you got it.

 

I do all of this stuff in excel so I can just change a few cells here or there for specific races and save each sheet from each race with notes, fast lap, etc...

 

Unfortunately, I lost all of them when my computer went to the great motherboard in the sky...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At home before you load and again at the end of each day- Jack up each corner one at at a time and give the wheel a good shake. Up/down, front/back, in/out, then spin the wheel and check it rotates smoothly. Next have a team member step on the brake pedal and try it all again. We also like to take the wheels off at the end of the day and give it all a good visual once-over, make sure to check brakepad thickness while you're there.

 

Overall sounds like you have most of it.

 

If you go digital, set up a gmail account for the team, install google drive on the computer and set up your racing folder to sync with the cloud as a just in case. Anything you can automate, do so. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a column for initials on my pre-race checklist as well, easier to find out whodunnit.

 

Not a bad idea to have a few track maps printed out so drivers can debrief themselves each time they get out of the car by adding notes and also conferring with the other drivers. Trends can be seen when comparing the maps/notes during and at the end of a weekend, and they're a good reference for new or returning drivers next time you run that track.

 

As mentioned, I do an event summary a few days later once I've had time to review everything.

Edited by mender
Link to comment
Share on other sites

in my experience, and this goes for almost everything... you make a list gather it all up and hit the road. You will still need something you didn't bring, of course you won't know that until you need it. Meanwhile 95% of the crap you packed you will unpack when you get back. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 One little item that most checklists don’t have: After checking fluids, let the car idle till warm with the hood up, I normally do this both Friday and Saturday. 

 

 At Charlotte we had that freak windstorm Friday afternoon, I didn’t do this,  I said to myself “no big deal I drive this car weekly “

Saturday morning pre-race, I found the fuel return line had disintegrated internally, This would’ve definitely been a on track fire.

 

Thank you Huggy for taking a minute out of your pre-race prep to get me some fuel line!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest E. Tyler Pedersen

Day before the race at the track I like to have a meeting with my team to go items on the car. For example, how to check oil, where should the oil be on the dipstick, where is the extra oil in the pits, where to jack up the car, etc etc.  @wvumtnbkr has taught me a lot about this so other team members can help out. 

 

I am also developing a manual to send to my driver's before the event. I have a dash with warning lights and what. @enginerd has helped me with this as well. 

 

I have learned a lot just driving with other teams and seeing their prep. I need to do a better job on keeping track of driver in and driver out. Usually my wife writes it down or we look at race monitor. 

 

Also I have data I compile and send to drivers after the race. Charlotte was the first time I did this. It shows fastest lap, avg top 10 laps, avg top 20 laps and avg time for all laps over the weekend (excluding cautions). Also data helps me see if something is going wrong with the car (low oil pressure, high coolant temp, etc). After Charlotte I saw voltage dropped down to 12V during the last hour so I changed some things on the car before Indy. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@wvumtnbkr I hope I'm not giving away any secrets but our end of day 'failure analysis' I think has been extremely helpful in building a stronger team.  We all get together and go around the circle highlighting what we did well and what we could do better on.  The rest of the team piles on positives and negatives.  We even do it after a garage day if enough of the team is involved.  If it's a two day event I don't think we've ever spent less than 2 hours going over the car Saturday evening to nut and bolt everything, bleed brakes if needed (it's always needed), and make any changes to the setup.  Also beer......

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...