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American LeMans
ALMS: Petit Le Mans Friday Notebook
A day in the life of a tire man, Surprise front row in GT2, Drayson Racing and BMW Rahal Letterman Racing firm up 2010 plans and more!
John Dagys  |  Posted September 25, 2009   Braselton, GA
Sean scrapes away excess tire buildup. (John Dagys)
A Day In The Life Of A Tire Man

John Dagys spends a day working with Drayson Racing to learn the insides scoop on what it takes to be a team's tire technician.
 
A tire technician is one of the least glamorous jobs in the paddock, but an integral part of every American Le Mans Series team. I quickly found that out first hand, as I was transformed into a Drayson Racing crew member for the day on Wednesday.

My day started off bright and early at 8 a.m., when I reported to Vanessa’s, the team’s hospitality service, for breakfast. There, I met team manager Dale White and the rest of the Drayson Racing crew as they geared up for the day’s activities. I was puzzled to see one of the team members dash out just minutes after sitting down for breakfast.

That person turned out to be Sean McGarvey, Drayson’s tire technician and truck driver, the crew member I’d be working with for the day. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was in store for quite an experience.

As I made my way down to the team’s paddock space, Sean was already hard at work checking and resetting tire pressures on the seven different sets of tires in the tent. Since the ambient temperature had dropped overnight, the tires had to be readjusted for the test session later in the day. Sean said it’s vital to get the correct pressure in the tires as soon as possible, and that’s why he’s usually one of the first in the paddock each morning.

While at the track, Sean is not only charged with managing the tires, but also tasked with maintaining the team’s professional appearance in the paddock. One of his usual jobs every morning was to clean the crowd barriers in the front of the paddock tent. It turned into my first task of the day. Getting on my hands and knees, I sprayed and wiped the half dozen or so units, and quickly realized that every little detail adds up, especially when it comes to a team’s appearance.

Once my first task was complete, Sean had me go outside with a portable thermometer to take the ambient and surface temperatures. Sean kept a detailed log of temperatures, as it’s important to have readings for the entire day, especially first thing in the morning when they’re at its lowest.

Meanwhile, Sean quickly got me up to speed with the team’s tire procedures and setup. After continuing to monitor temperatures, he had me stack and re-stack a few different sets of mounted tires. Let me say that handling the tires was more awkward than imagined, although not as heavy as some might expect.

Sean had me constantly checking temperatures, whether it was ambient, track or tire. (Martin Spetz)
And again, there was more attention to detail, with Sean having a precise order of stacking each set. The right rear went face up on the bottom, then the left rear, right front and finally the left front, turned vertical. I thought I had it correct in my first try, but Sean quickly pointed out that the Michelin logo on the sidewall of the tire was not facing in the right direction. By the end of the day, I turned into a pro handling tires.

As Sean took tire pressures, I noticed he wasn’t using PSI (pounds per square inch) but instead Bar, a more common unit of pressure in Europe. It’s similar to how the team also records all temperatures in Celsius and not Fahrenheit, as being British and conforming to SI units. While that initially threw me for a loop, it was another easy adaptable procedure.

The team had seven sets of tires in the paddock, spread across four different compounds: softs, mediums, hards and wet weather. There was also one set labeled “trans”, which was the transport tires Michelin gave the team to use on the car when pulling it in or out of the pits before or after a session. Sean made sure the wheels on the transport tires were sparkling clean since those would also be used as the car went through scrutineering, where the brand-new prototype would likely be in the limelight of photographers.

After getting a lesson in tire strategy, Sean put me back to work, this time by getting my hands dirty cleaning wheels. Four rims, off a set of wet weather tires used in Sunday’s test, needed to be cleaned, before being sent back to Michelin to be mounted on a new set of tires. I was given a pair of latex gloves, a plastic pic and a spray bottle and went at it, cleaning all the dirt and grime off the 18-inch BBS wheels.

Sean discusses the team's tire strategy for test day. (Martin Spetz)
It was one of the most tedious jobs I had ever done. Mind you I usually don’t bother cleaning my 18-inch rims on my street car! Two sets of gloves and 30 minutes of intense scrubbing later, Sean told me it still wasn’t good enough. So I went back at it for another half hour, and was amazed at how additional dirt I was able to scrub off.

During my cleaning adventure, two IMSA officials came in to talk with Sean and glued bar-code labels on the team’s two wet weather sets of tires. He later explained to me that teams are only allowed to have six sets of dry tires for Thursday and Friday’s sessions, and that IMSA closely tracks each tire with a specific bar code. He said they would eventually put bar codes on the dry sets, too.

By 10:40, the car was in the scrutineering line and I was just finishing up my second round of wheel cleaning when John Church, the Michelin tire engineer allocated to Drayson Racing, showed up. He, Sean and Graham Moore, the team’s engineer, discussed tire compound options for the afternoon’s test session.

They had decided to go with a mixed compound option, which was ordinary when a tire on one corner of the car generally wears differently than the others. Sean was thus forced to change the markings on the tire because of the different compound combinations.

Each set of tires had a number on them, 1, 2, 3, etc for slicks, and 100, 101, 102, etc for wet weather compounds. Since he took a different compound tire out of another set, Sean changed the set number for the tire to coincide with the others to avoid confusion. He also took the time to draw arrows on each tire’s sidewall as an extra precaution, in efforts to eliminate the wheel going on the wrong side of the car.

Once complete with the revised markings, I moved the rack outside in the sunlight, so the tires could begin building heat. Sean had me check the tire temperatures throughout the mid-day to gauge its progress. Unlike the LMS where tire ovens are allowed, the ALMS bans use of tire warmers of any kind, leaving natural sunlight to do its job. Luckily there was plenty of that on Wednesday!

By noon, I was emptying out the team’s recycling bins, and took a short break for lunch before heading back to the transporter to see the final touches being put on the team’s stunning new Lola B09/60 Judd.

But there was a bit of drama, or at least I thought there was when Sean asked me, “Have you ever driven a four-wheeler before?” With less than 40 minutes before the start of the test session, he sent me on an ATV carrying the four wheels I’d just cleaned to Michelin, to be mounted. Sean provided me with a piece of paper outlining the tire compound and other specifics which I gave to the Michelin technicians to fulfill the order.
I quickly found out that cleaning wheels is one of the most tedious jobs of a crew member. (Regis Lefebure/Drayson Racing)

The clock ticked, and I realized I wasn’t alone. Peugeot’s tire man was also down at the Michelin compound getting his tire order taken care of as well. I waited for about 20 minutes as the tire technicians mount brand-new compounds, and off I went. Sean ordered me straight to the team’s pit box, as it was now just minutes before 2 p.m.. Luckily I got there in time and rolled the tires into place on the pit cart.

Sean later informed me that the last-minute decision to mount an extra set of tires was more of a precautionary measure than anything, in case the car got an unexpected puncture, or the multi-compound option didn’t work out.

Just as the cars got the green flag and Jamie Campbell-Walter ventured out in the car, Sean continued rigorously checking tire pressures and adjusted the new set accordingly. His aim was to maintain the same consistency with all sets of tires, even though the new set didn’t receive as much exposure to the sun as the other two sets.

My duties died down a bit during the one and a half hour session. I listened in to the team’s radio communications and also continued taking ambient and track temperatures using the portable thermometer.

Each set of Michelin tires have unique markings for each team. (John Dagys)
Sean, meanwhile, was joined by Michelin’s Church, who worked hand-in-hand with him throughout session. He recorded data such as air temperature, weather conditions, lap times, as well as temperatures taken from the outside shoulder, center and inside shoulder of the each tire during every stop.

The car ended up pitting four times, cycling through all four drivers. During each stop, Sean took similar notes and handed a carbon copy of it to engineer Moore.

Unfortunately, time wasn’t on the team’s side. Two red flag periods halted their planned late run to try the multi-compound set. But, the car completed the entire session on a single set of Michelin’s, which had also been used for quite a few laps on Sunday. Church was very optimistic with the results and reckoned there would be no problem double stinting them on race day.

Back at the transporter, as the drivers and engineers went into debrief, Sean was busy peeling off buildup on a section of each tire to gauge its wear. As he used a heat gun and a small metal scraper to clear the buildup off, I couldn’t help but notice three equally distributed dots appearing on the tread.

Church informed me those dots are wear indicators, usually 2.3 mm thick, and located on four to six different sections on the tread. He stuck a depth indicator instrument in the dots and found the tires to have very low wear.

When watching Sean scrape the three other tires, Church recalled his experience as tire engineer with Team LNT at Le Mans this year, as none of the crew members allegedly weren't aware of the rather basic procedure. “I had to teach the guys at Zytek how to scrape tires. Maybe I was gullible!” he said. We all had a good laugh at his expense.

After a thorough tire inspection by Church and consultation with a few other crew members, Sean handed me a scrub brush and pointed to the tire wash station. I thought cleaning the dismounted tires was tough, but washing the mounted tires, fresh from the track, was nearly as difficult. I was amazed at the amount of rubber buildup on the inside of the wheels. I used my nails to pick away at some the embedded chunks of rubber.

A team's tire technician works hand-in-hand with Michelin's embedded tire engineer during each and every session. (John Dagys)
Over two hours had passed since the end of the session, and Sean was still busy at work. I unfortunately had to catch up with the rest of the day’s activities and left at 6 p.m., early by the team’s standards. In fact, Sean told me none of them had been back at the hotel earlier than 11 p.m. all week. It was to be another long night ahead for the Drayson crew.

Overall, I had a blast being embedded with the team and learned the intricacies of running a top-flight sportscar effort. It may not appear to be that difficult from the outside, but trust me, every detail is well thought out. I was very impressed by the squad’s professionalism and was honored to be a part of them for a day.

Special thanks goes out to Paul Drayson, Team Manager Dale White and VP of Marketing and Communications, Tom Moore for making this experience happen. My respect for hardworking crew members like Sean and everyone else in the ALMS paddock has changed forever!



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