superstroke
05-01-2009, 05:03 PM
Here is a little change of pace. Being on the Chesrown race team was a very demanding job. Rick Carelli and Joe Garrone worked full time to prepare the cars and Rob White, Pat Smith and Ron Briscoe were expected to participate in the preperation of the cars as well as working their full time mechanics jobs at the Chevrolet dealership. I would try to help whenever I could. The members who went over the wall on pit stops were expected to practice once a week. During these practices (which started around 6pm) we would run several stops, some 4 tire and some 2 tire stops. We were always on the stop watch. We became very efficient. Pit Stop Competition was a way of gaining capitol for the guys that were doing this voluntarily. The purses would vary, but each man could walk away with $100.00, if you won. With Joe Garrone and Rob White on the impacts, we could smoke almost any other team. These guys could fly. Pat Smith was not too bad either. Pat was the tire specialist. His job was to pick sets to be put on the car, very vital, and could make or break you. My job was to carry tires. This sounds like a pretty easy job, but there were some drawbacks. You had to be sure which tire you were dropping i.e. RF<>RR and also, should a lugnut come unglued, you would need to start the nut for the impact man. Your fingers took a beating during these occurences, because those guys on the impacts did not stop, they would just hammer those lugs. Spare lugs were carried by myself and Ernie DiCroce on our belts fastened to a nylon tie. Also, at some tracks, you had to perform your stops in reverse. In other words, the car would enter the pit from the left instead of the usual right. You had better keep track of your tires. One of my jobs was to glue the lugs to the wheels before each race. Again, sounds like cake. Wrong. I found that if you glue them too late they would not set up, or if you glued them too early, the glue would not stretch correctly. Also, humidity would cause the glue to fail. It drives you crazy when those lugs pop off, but when more than one pops, holy @#%*!
The schedule was crazy. Take a look at the statistics and the cities that were visited in the time frame. It was nuts. Sleeping on airport floors was not uncommon. In fact, on back to back races, Bakersfield being the first, we were at LAX waiting to catch a plane to Washington. Myself, Rob White and Ron Briscoe were lying on the floor, catching some z's when suddenly the whole airport began to shake. My eyes opened fast. I first looked over at Rob and saw the same look of horror that I am sure I was displaying. Suddenly, people were running everywhere. As quickly as it started, it stopped. I had witnessed an earthquake here in Colorado in the 60's, but this one made me squirm. Crazy, CRAZY!!
The schedule was crazy. Take a look at the statistics and the cities that were visited in the time frame. It was nuts. Sleeping on airport floors was not uncommon. In fact, on back to back races, Bakersfield being the first, we were at LAX waiting to catch a plane to Washington. Myself, Rob White and Ron Briscoe were lying on the floor, catching some z's when suddenly the whole airport began to shake. My eyes opened fast. I first looked over at Rob and saw the same look of horror that I am sure I was displaying. Suddenly, people were running everywhere. As quickly as it started, it stopped. I had witnessed an earthquake here in Colorado in the 60's, but this one made me squirm. Crazy, CRAZY!!