Toxic Paddock: Part 1

Champion

I was recently inspired by the returning Australian Supercars Champion, Scott McLaughlin’s comments on, how he was going to celebrate his Championship with close friends and family and avoid the ‘toxic paddock’.  Now having worked ‘in and around’ the Motorsports paddock for the last few years, I felt it was time to share some of my own experiences of this observed toxicity. Congratulations, Scott. Here are some examples of the absurdness I encountered. In isolation, one might not consider these to be of any great significance, however they’re adding up to the overall ‘de-professionalization’ of the sport and industry.

“I don’t know what I did to piss him off, but he is apparently… stupid”.

Petty Shit

As a mountain man, a gunslinger, I was ready for it. I finally made my way. I finally made my way from the ‘wild west’, rust belt, of back-marker Xfinity teams, and what have you, to civilization, to the ‘promised land’. A mecca of Motorsports stood before me. It was a lot of things and nothing at all depending on your perspective of it. In fact, it was spring in Concord, North Carolina.

There was opportunity in the air, I could smell it, or at least I thought I could. It was more likely last night’s trash I brought in from ‘home’ and threw into the cans at the workplace. Perk of the job, when they are paying you absolute peanuts. You tend to forgo modern, civilized, essential services, like waste removal when you are one of the underlings of our industry. Having taken out the trash, it was time to do what any good cowboy would do, so I put on my hat… It was time to go to work.

Well, try to go to work, anyway. I didn’t last too long with these jokers. Here is yet another company in this world that provides a service that truly benefits our sport, giving fans and non-fans alike, an opportunity to get a taste of what the racing experience is all about, yet the organization itself is a total meat-grinder. One example, in particular, comes to mind.

So in this example, there was a challenge involving the team communications devices we used on a day-to-day basis. They weren’t always charged and ready to go when necessary. This was a source of frustration, and understandably so. The ‘two-way/walkie-talkie/push-to-talk’, whatever you call them, radios we used, would dock in a charger that stayed in the merchandise trailer, which doubled as a base-of-operations. Now, I’m a technically minded person, and I took a look at this thing. This charger holds about 10-15 or so, handsets. I noticed that the handsets did not sit snuggly in their respective slot, so in order to make sure they are charging you had to be mindful when placing the your handset in the slot. This is a bad design of the product here with loose slots, but nothing we can’t get over. Now, with people being people, coming and going, new people all the time (especially if you insist on operating a high turnover organization; kiddie wages, no training, etc). Whether anyone likes it or not, at the end of the day, the ground crew are going to come in drop the handsets in the charger, take off home, get something to eat, play some Fortnite, and not think about it again until they come into work the next day. Well this caused many members of staff and senior members of staff to become very vocal, particularly the supervisors; ‘Captain Boat Payments’ and ‘Ms. Obese Affirmative Action’. The Captain was a real tough guy; I would love to see his credit rating. I watched in astonishment as member of staff after member of staff walked into the trailer and started shouting, crying, and moaning, usually with raised voices about the radios not charging.

How emotional. They kept saying how everyone should do a better job of this. Well the solution is simple, that you add a procedure to the checklist of the team member that closes up the trailer at the end of the work day. Before they leave for the night, they spend what would honestly only take less than half a minute to look over each handset in the charger and make sure they are charged ready to go for the next day. The important thing here is that the two-way radios are ready to go for the next day. Not whether everyone has good walkie-talkie bedside manners. That’s called ‘getting over it’, or the ‘greater good’.

This is really embarrassing for these people, truly pathetic, and very immature. I guess they do not realize that there is more to being an adult than just having a job. I’ve met a lot of children with jobs. These people should be ashamed of themselves. Is this common behaviour around here? Motorsports, ‘The South’, America? I wonder. This is straight out of the dark ages. These unenlightened, unreasonable people can’t figure it out, and get over it. Or get over themselves, for that matter. Stop! Think! Are you a half-wit? Use your brain. Stop being so emotional and try being reasonable. Being reasonable means,  you are able to reason. That’s actually what it means. Can you reason a situation? Emotions have a place in this world, but there is nothing emotional about how you store your radios. Pull your heads out of your backsides and join the 21^st Century; you are a few years late, and your holding the rest of us back.

It wasn’t too long after this incident (and another in particular) that I realized I am wasting my time here, and I was being disrespected. Not to mention the fact that I was overqualified. I have an Associate’s Degree in Spatial Information Services, among other qualifications, and have worked with Surveyors and Engineers, building highways and digging mines. On top of that, I remember while getting my metalworking ticket down in Greenville South Carolina, one of my classmates was surprised to learn I already had an Associate’s Degree. Yes, my young, presumptuous, American chum, as it turns out, I did in fact have a life before I met you. Well, I said he was young, so in the spirit of that popular Boomer phrase “Give me a break!”, ok Boomer, we will.

I wonder if those clowns running that side show are still out there somewhere endlessly shouting, pissing and moaning, about how their walkie-talkies are not sitting in the charger properly.

Need For Speed - The Movie

Need For Speed is a good movie; perhaps not a great movie, but a good movie. I almost didn’t see it in the theatre, I’m glad I did. I didn’t know what to expect, being in a notoriously hard genre to get truly right, without coming off like a total douchebag flick. Playing the video games growing up, I already had a vested interest in the franchise.

Supercars and highways, classic NFS

From the intro, with the imagery of retro Saturday night feature winning short track; trophies, photos and mementos, made me realize right away, this wasn’t going to be an entirely immature man-boy fantasy CGI race ‘em up!

The ‘organic’ nature of the auto action from the initial drive sequences gave it a somewhat raw setting of older-skool car culture cinema. I wasn’t sure about Breaking Bad’s, Aaron Paul as the main man, Tobey Marshall, only because personally wasn’t really familiar with him, but he pulled it off rather well as the strong, blue collar silent type, almost throw-back greaser character.

Female lead, Imogen Poots as Julia Maddon, doesn’t take a back seat, but a side seat or ‘right seater’, in supporting role that gave a certain measured reflection of reality. She wasn’t the over the top in your face type, which would almost be a cliché, strong female lead character by today’s standards. At times, she was a little bit girlie, like when running to the truck stop bathroom for a speedy freshen up complete with big accessory bag, while Marshall gassed up the star car, a Carroll Shelby special ‘stang, on a Cannonball style run, across the country. However, she to, would show her own independent heroic nature, climbing out of a car, precariously at freeway speeds, aiding the support-crew to refuel the car, on ‘the hop’.

What was a PC cliché, was Tobey’s crew and support network; complete with African American Benny (Scott Mescudi), the Hispanic Joe Peck (Ramon Rodriguez) and Arab, Finn (Rami Malek) and Little Pete (Harrison Gilbert) –don’t forget the Aussies! But it’s all good, we’re among friends.

Amidst the shredding metal, end-over-end ‘autobatics’ and lights ablaze; there were Automotive and Motorsport references aplenty, underpinning NFS with a backdrop, set in a 'sim-cade', pseudo-reality . Benny who is a trained pilot, acts as a spotter usually from a little Cessna  plane that would make the likes of NASCAR’s Joey Meier proud and Joe Peck observes a ‘loose setup’ of the hero car in preparation for the big event.

The movie, paid so much respect and homage to a range of motorsport disciplines and automotive culture; it was almost a ‘best of’ what came in decades past including; Vanishing Point, with Michael Keaton’ character, only known as ‘Monach’, as a mysterious romantic racing has-been turned elite underground dee-jay secret race organiser guy, calling the action from his studio booth. Bullitt gets an obvious look in too, at the drive-in movie theater scene.

Where this movie fell down a bit for me, was I never truly seemed to get emotionally involved in the main revenge aspect of the plot, even though I wanted to see the good guys succeed, of course! The side plot of the mild romantic interests, was a bit more believable.

The film, surmounted with the end sequence being the main event race, the ‘De Lion’, is in the style of the original Need For Speed series of video games, illegal street race concept with exotic cars on American two-lane blacktop, set somewhere outside the major cities.

It may not have the serious blockbuster appeal that say, Rush, may have had more for the mainstream, it’s well worth a watch for a bit of road adventure, even if you’re not into the scene and wouldn’t appreciate all the references.

TRG # 005: Ethanol, Electricity and the Environment

In contemporary motor racing, alternative fuels are becoming more and more of a prominent feature. A good example of this is with the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing). As of the late 2000's, NASCAR has partnered with 'American Ethanol' to promote and provide a special blend of race fuel E15 (15% ethanol). You may be familiar with similar fuels such as, E10 (up to 10% ethanol), which you may fill up your streetcar with at the pumps of your local service station, particularly if you drive a more modern automobile. The ratio of ethanol to ULP (unleaded petrol) may vary depending on what part of the world you live in. In Brazil for example, ethanol is made with sugar cane and service stations sell exclusively blends that contain up to 25% ethanol and even up to 5% water.

RELATED: Did you know? NASCAR has been the long-time leading sport in Recycling in the world!

Ethanol is a form of alcohol that you may have drunk at some point in your favourite alcoholic beverage, without even realising! The use of ethanol in automotive transportation and sport can be very beneficial to the environment, by reducing the level of carbon monoxide emitted from tailpipes. It is also a renewable resource, as it is grown from the ground on farms throughout the Mid-west US and beyond. In the case of NASCAR; the 'American Ethanol' used also benefits the domestic economy as the product is locally produced, creating jobs and contributing to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The company 'American Ethanol' even sponsored the green flag used in officiating the start of a race or restart in 2011.

The following is a short NASCAR promotional video of its green initiatives, featuring veteran Roush-Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle:

Another alternative 'fuel' to power racecars and streetcars alike, is electricity. Not necessarily powering a car by itself, it has been successfully used as part of a hybrid system, a good case-in-point would be the revered Audi 'R18 E-Tron Quattro' that has won many an endurance race, including the world's premier motor race multiple times, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It certainly has been the car to beat in the FIA WEC (World Endurance Championship).

Audi R18 E-tron Quattro

A hybrid drive system combines two or more distinct power delivery methods to mobilise a vehicle. There are many different combinations of hybrid vehicles; the most common being, HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles), one that is powered by electricity and say a liquid fuel such as E10. The best selling HEV in the world is the Toyota Prius, which now maintains a good reputation as a reliable streetcar.

Perhaps as a sign of the advancement in electric vehicle technology, the FIA will be sanctioning a racing series that will be called 'Formula E', slated have its inaugural season in 2014/5.

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