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American LeMans
ALMS: The Absence Of Light
Drivers are used to racing with the sun overhead, but the game completely changes when darkness falls. Learn about the science involved with night racing, courtesy of Michelin.
John Dagys  |  Posted September 26, 2009   Braselton, GA
With prototypes having a clear tint and GT machines running yellow tinted headlights, it's easy to tell the two classes of cars apart on the track at night. (LAT)

Drivers are used to racing with the sun overhead, but the game completely changes when the sun falls below the skyline and darkness descends on a racetrack. Learn about the science involved with night racing ahead of Saturday's 10-hour Petit Le Mans race, courtesy of Michelin.

As a driver, you either love it or hate it. For team and tire engineers, it adds a completely new element to the equation of an endurance race. And to top it off, races are often won or lost in it.

No, we’re not talking about racing in the rain, but instead the equally challenging task of racing into the night.

It’s been a feature of endurance racing since the very beginning, and a staple for all 24-hour races held around the world, but racing in darkness is often taken for granted. To conquer, it requires smart-thinking drivers, well-prepared race and tire engineers, and a bit of luck to conquer.

And with events such as today’s 12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6 getting the green flag in the late morning and ending in the brisk nighttime hours, drivers take a different approach in tackling these type of endurance races.

“There's quite a huge challenge in racing at night,” says two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Allan McNish. “Obviously, your perspective of the circuit changes quite a lot because you don't get any outside references apart from where the lights are from your car, but also the circuit lighting. And that means that each corner is actually quite different in daylight because you'll have some corners that are more lit than others.”

There’s many obstacles drivers must face when racing at night. Visibility is foremost, with each circuit having varying degrees of lighting. Tracks such as Daytona are nearly completely lit up thanks to permanent lighting fixtures. But Le Mans, for instance, offers little to no artificial light, especially on the long Mulsanne Straight.

Road Atlanta lies somewhere in between, with temporary lighting spread out around the 12-turn, 2.54-mile facility. But there’s still enough patches of darkness to provide a unique challenge.

“It’s especially [the case] at Petit Le Mans, because you've got quite a lot of camping around the sections coming down into Turn 10A, which is already a very heavily lighted chicane, through Turn 1,” McNish explained. “It gets a bit dark at Turn 3 because the track’s quite a way from the side of the road from the spectator area. So from that point it is pretty challenging, never mind the fact that you can see significantly less.”  

Seasoned sportscar veterans like McNish honed their race craft over the years, but all remember their first experience of racing in darkness. For McNish, it came at an endurance test for Le Mans, where he watched sportscar legend Hans Stuck blast around Spa-Francorchamps, then got into the car himself while still in shock. Dyson Racing’s Marino Franchitti got his baptism on the very same Belgian circuit, but came face to face with night racing in the toughest of ways.

“I had the best introduction to night driving ever at the Spa 24 Hours race in 2001,” Franchitti said. “That first moment of having no cars around me, the feeling is hard to explain. It was a mixture of loneliness and exhilaration, and I found it very similar to driving in the rain in as much as you drive almost by feel and sense more than by visual reference. I have always described it as like driving on the back roads at home in Scotland, without fear of what's coming the other way!”

Through his years of experience racing prototype and GT cars at some of the most daunting tracks, such as Spa, Le Mans, Nurburgring, Sebring and Road Atlanta, Franchitti says the toughest part of night racing is finding the reference points on the first few out laps. After that, he finds it to be quite an enjoyable experience.

Racing at night can be some of the most daunting conditions a driver faces. (LAT)
“For me I approach it with a very positive outlook and use it to take advantage of those who approach it with less enthusiasm, just like the rain!” he said. “The track is faster in the dark, the engine has more power, we can use softer tires, plus we have more downforce. It's the perfect situation for going fast, apart from not being able to see where you're going, which is a minor problem!”

Franchitti is no stranger to going fast at night, but his fellow Scot put on quite a show here last year in one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in ALMS history. McNish crashed his Audi R10 TDI on the reconnaissance lap and joined the race two laps behind the overall race leaders. Through quick pit work and on-the-limit driving in the nighttime hours, McNish was able to claw his way to the lead and take the eventual win.

“I think today the challenge is the fact that you cannot be any slower at night than you are in the day time,” McNish said. “In fact, you’ve got to be a bit quicker. And that means you have to attack with less total awareness of your surroundings, because when you come into Turn 1 at Road Atlanta and you can't see the tarmac that well, you can see a limited distance in front of you, a limited distance to the side of you, but you’re still going through the corner at 140 mph.

“You don't know if there is a little bit of debris on the circuit or alternatively someone’s dropped some fluid on there and you've got to commit without necessarily knowing what's underneath the tires. And that means that there's a certain amount of stupidity or bravery or risk calculation, dependent on which one you think about. As we saw at Petit last year, races are won and lost in speed in the dark.”

Drivers, though, are only able to push their cars to the absolute limit with the proper setup. And the night racing variable often adds a totally new dynamic for teams like Dyson Racing and tire technical partners Michelin.

Recent technological advancements have made headlights much more powerful than in past years. (LAT)
Preparation begins away from the racetrack, where teams make minor adjustments so their cars are equipped for the conditions. Proper headlight positioning is the most crucial element, as it could make or break one’s race. Dyson Racing and a number of other teams take advantage of Hella’s headlight calibration service available on many endurance race weekends.

“But there's also the good old fashioned method involving a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood placed about 10 feet in front of the car,” explains Dyson team manager Michael White. “Sit the driver in the seat and let him tell you, ‘up’ ‘down’ ‘in’ ‘out’, etc. James Weaver was a master of this technique, and after a few short hours, your headlights would be adjusted!”

White says the lead driver generally sets the headlight position to his or her own liking. Dyson’s electronically controlled mirrors, a component out of Mazda’s line of production vehicles, can be automatically adjusted for each driver. And in efforts to reduce glare at night, the team has added a blue tint to its mirrors for this weekend’s race.

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