I have helped do 2 24's, 4 twelves and a hand full of 3 hour races with the same team/car and the last 13 hour helping 3 seperate cars in two pits. I can tell you that experience will tell you what you need to bring and what you have to prepare for with your particular car. I am looking for one lists of stuff that we bring and I can send it to you when I find it.

K had a pretty good overview and I could say that they did a great job at VIR as I was only a few pits down. To expand on one of the points he made. Find/culilvate/bride people for the "mundane"/non-racing related tasks. Nothing is worse than sending someone out for gas/food/whatever and then have the car come in and that person is the only one who knows where/how something is done.

On the ITS Miata and SM's I help we basically change all the hubs, brakes, swap the tranny for a fresh one (have lost two races from this), put fresh tires on and change all the fluids between practice/qualifing and the race. For the 24 hour races we also bring an engine (did not finish a race because of this) and have actually installed it during the racebut decided it is not really worth it for the shorter raced. We now check the oil religiously.

Brakes will really depend on the car. As will tires, both car and tire brand. We have used everything from BFG's to Hoosiers and have settled on the Toyos. Have done whole 12 hour races on one set(not including the tires for practice and qual. but we have sometime practiced on used tire and qualified on new tire. prac/qual on old tire/ done everything on brand new, etc... so you have to try everything yourself), but have also had to change a few times.

Finally to make this short, find a experienced/good running team with a similar car and ask what they do (then look at everything they say and see if it make sense. We went thru a couple of motors before we went our own way.) The other advantage to this is networking. If you are all going to the same race you can get together and create a ready parts source that everyone can sort out latter. (Finished a 12 hour on a borrowed ball joint one year and helped another team with a radiator, lights, etc..)

Chris Aylward
member of Team CRS

ecit : PS. I could not find an email contact me at
therooster <@> gis <dot> <net>

[This message has been edited by therooster (edited December 14, 2004).]