First published in the January 2003 issue of Street Machine

The pressure’s on among the V8 Supercar crews, especially now with the compulsory pit stops which have added another dimension to racing. A lightning-fast pit stop can leapfrog a driver up the field, but even the smallest mistake can ruin an entire weekend. It’s knife-edge stuff and success hinges on good teamwork and preparation, so to see these things close up, we went to Oran Park with Craig Lowndes’s 00 Motorsport Team for a round of the V8 Supercars.

The team’s two massive transporters, which were both completely unloaded and carefully repacked after a thorough equipment check back at headquarters, rumble into the venue long before the fans and hot dog stands, and the crew arrives at the same time. 00 likes to keep the pit crew close knit, so they eat together, lodge together and travel together, this time in a mini-van that has picked them up from the airport. In fact, for the duration of the event they literally live in each other’s back pocket, so having an easy and relaxed outlook is imperative to being a successful team member. A few of the guys take it a step further, fielding their own indoor soccer team, and getting together to belt out a mean karaoke. Friction between members can lead to problems out on the track.

Humour is the main weapon against low morale, particularly as this highly-skilled, world-class race team crew has to wash down the two massive trucks in the freezing cold Oran Park morning. But their light-hearted attitude would harden as the weekend wore on.

A good car set-up makes all the difference and no time is wasted as the team prepares to monitor each car’s progress using a job card system similar to what you’d see in a workshop. Tyres are the critical factor and each Dunlop is barcoded so the crew knows what rubber goes on what car, and woe to the bloke who gets the tyres mixed up. Friday’s testing sessions involve assessing each tyre for wear, flatspots and sidewall damage and the results are carefully logged on the job cards.

Come Saturday it was like someone had flicked a switch. The first 15-minute practise session was fast approaching and race faces were on. It was crunch time! Movement quickens and is more purposeful as they work to get the car dialled in – qualify poorly and the weekend’s shot.

After a couple of strong laps the engineer and driver discuss changes over the radio and the car comes firing into the pit garage. Forty kays an hour might seem slow but a V8 Supercar bucking and barking its way down pit lane straight at you at that speed is downright unnerving. In the garage the crew works frantically yet methodically around glowing-hot brakes to change the complete rear spring/shock. This is risky stuff with many team members proudly sporting battle scars from such encounters. More proudly they get the car back on the track in under five minutes – the result of precision teamwork. As a team mechanic you’ve got to get your job done, get it done fast, get it done right then get out of the way so the other guys can finish up.

Saturday is good for the team. Lowndes’s car has plenty of speed and will start from row two for race one of Sunday’s two-race format. The crew’s mood lightens and they begin to open up a bit more. I ask several of the guys how they ended up crewing in a V8 Supercar team. Most reply, “I love motor racing”. They’d have to considering they work their guts out for not much money.

During race weekend, there’s no down time, everyone must be trackside 11 hours a day (sometimes more if things go wrong), and back at the workshop, things aren’t much better with 70-hour weeks the norm rather than the exception. It’s a young man’s job, with little latitude for distractions, so the lifestyle can be very hard on personal relationships. One crewmember likened it to being a top athlete, you’ve got to be very committed.

Not fully convinced I ask about being attracted to the glamorous side of the sport.

“What glamour?” came a quick reply. “Oh, you mean the lousy five minutes you get to flirt with the dolly-babe promo girl standing next to the car on the starting grid?”

Race day does not go well for the team. All three 00 cars get through the frantic first corner melee unscathed, however things soon begin to unravel. While challenging for a podium position Lowndes’s engine spits the dummy, and although he manages to keep the car going through to the end of race one, he’s finished way back in the field.

Back in the garage, a quick inspection reveals the worst, the engine will need changing for race two. The team hauls out the still-boiling motor, swaps the accessories onto a fresh spare stored in the transporter and slots it back in the engine bay in around the same time it takes the average mechanic to change a set of spark plugs and top up the oil. This is frenzied stuff, but there was no yelling and shouting, although pesky journos and their photographers are shoved out the way if they get too close.

With just minutes to spare the engine is fired and Lowndes is strapped in but the elation is short lived, as the garage looks like a bomb zone and they’ve got less that 10 minutes to clean up and prepare everything for scheduled and unscheduled pit stops. Race two goes much better for the team, their pit stops are fast and accurate and all three cars run strong. But it’s hard to shrug off the disappointment of missing out on a top three finish after such a promising start to the weekend.

Long after the last autograph is signed, the guys are packing everything back into the truck for its return trip to Melbourne – one consolation is that pack-up takes around a 10th of the time it takes to unload. It’s then they get a chance to unwind and share war stories with crew members from other teams and die-hard hangers-on before the mini-bus driver honks the horn. It’s time for them to head off as well.

As I fight my way through the hour-long traffic jam that is the exit road of Oran Park the reality of crewing on a V8 Supercar team sinks in. You’ve got 20-odd teams all working their butts off trying to make it onto the podium. For the guys on top, all that hard work must surely be rewarding, but for the crews of all the teams that didn’t get to spray Champagne, it’s just plain hard work. Glamour? Yeah, I can see what they mean. Maybe AVESCO should make the grid display before each race last an hour instead of a lousy five minutes.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’

Those flash team transporters we see cruising to and from race meetings don’t just have a car and a socket set in ’em. They’re packed to the ceiling with everything the team could possibly need for a tough race weekend, including spares, tools, gas bottles, radios, TVs, electrical monitoring equipment and a myriad of incidentals right down to sunscreen!

And organised packing is crucial with everything on hand in its proper place. Searching for the right bit is wasted time and can make a huge difference to a team’s success. All up on the road, a V8 Supercar transporters is worth a cool $1.5m, weighs 38 tons and does up to 70,000 kays during a competition season.