D.I. COLUMNIST
Tuned Up
with Will Hanna
RACING SMART
A
part of winning races is
not just having a fast and/or
consistent hot rod, but rac-
ing smart. Whether it’s drag rac-
ing, chess, poker, pool, etc., winners
are usually carefully plotting their
moves trying to think a couple steps
ahead of where they are. You can
look too far ahead and lose the here
and now, but lack of planning will
often bite you in the ass.
The first part is playing weather-
man (or woman) a few days before
the event. Studies show that rain
forecasts (what we check first) out-
side of 36 hours are very unreliable.
However, you can get a pretty good
idea of what the weather for a week-
end is going to be usually a week out.
Be sure to check the Monday/Tues-
day forecast to see if there is a big
weather change that could end up
getting to your event quicker than
originally forecasted. Depending
on your combination, this is where
you may need to make combination
changes such as head gaskets, gear
ratio, or chassis changes to suit an-
ticipated conditions.
If you are running a multi-day
event, you really need to have an
idea for the conditions you are
scheduled to run in and come up
with a plan. The U.S. Nationals are
notorious for big weather swings.
Indy that time of year can be 90-
plus degrees at the start of the event
and jacket weather by the end. One
year, we had very warm conditions
on Friday for the first qualifying
runs, with a pretty good cold front
moving through on Saturday. We
only had one run scheduled Sat-
urday and one final qualifying run
Sunday morning. First round Sun-
day evening and Monday elimina-
tions were also forecasted to be cool.
So a killer run Friday would be a
middle-of-the-pack run Sunday, at
best. It also would not give any use-
ful data for eliminations. So with
that in mind, we knew we needed
to be in position to be aggressive in
that final qualifier. So on Friday we
dialed up some fairly conservative
A-to-B runs that put us middle top
half or so. Nothing special. I think
we lost the Saturday run to weather
and were in good position to swing
at it Sunday morning. The track was
tight, the air was cool and we let it
rip. We qualified No. 3 that year.
Eliminations did not follow script,
but we executed a plan based on
looking at the weather.
Sometimes there is a lot of rain in
the forecast, so you may only get one
or two shots to qualify. This is im-
portant not only to consider as the
tuner, but also the driver. In most
instances if it shakes or smokes the
tires, you would just coast down the
track. However, if there’s a chance
that’s your only qualifying shot, the
driver needs to be ready to “do some
of that driver shit,” as I like to tell
them.
Regardless of the conditions, it
is very imperative to go A to B in
your first run. I always tell people,
and myself, to dial up whatever your
best tune-up is that you know will
go down the track in that first run.
Even a slow run or run that may be
close to the bump is way better than
smoking the tires or shaking the
tires out of the trailer. It just puts
you behind the eight ball.
The cars that got down the track,
even if it was slow, have some data
and firm ground to try to get quicker.
If you smoke the tires or shake them,
you’re usually forced to take a step
back and make that A-to-B run you
should have the first run. Some tun-
ers can make that shot and bounce
back. It’s risky because if you miss
on two shots, you may not qualify.
Having a plan is good, but don’t
get married to one plan. “Everybody
has a plan until they are punched
in the mouth.” I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve had it all planned
out in my mind – the weather is
going to be this, the track temp is
going to be this, and we’re going to
do this with the tune-up, only to
have the track end up 10-15 degrees
warmer than I expected. You have to
have contingency plans. If they are
scripted to a degree, it really aids
in decision making. OK, the track
is 121 instead of 110 like I planned,
so I will make changes to X, Y and
Z. That tends to work better than
“now what” type decisions.
Looking ahead and trying to keep
lane choice is important, and could
be the difference in winning and los-
ing at some tracks. However, lane
choice is irrelevant if you don’t win
the round. Trust me, I’ve learned
that lesson more times than I care
to admit.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
Will Hanna
is a tuner/consultant-
DI DI DI
for-hire offering services from run
evaluation to trackside consulting.
He can be reached via email at
[email protected].
TRACKSIDE CONSULTING • REMOTE TUNING • RUN EVALUATION / “Monday Morning Crew Chief Service” Available
[email protected] • 979.415.4959
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