TeamD Adventures

If you’d been eavesdropping in the red iX at roughly 9:43.50 a.m. on Sunday morning, you’d have heard:

“Okay, we got here as Car #2, and we would have left 34 minutes later, but the car on a time dec was running almost 16 minutes late, so we’re gonna be, uhhmm, Car #50. No, wait, that’s Car #52, right. Gotta set the 547 clock <sound of switches being toggled>, mutter mutter back it off 16.  Mmm, don’t have to correct the other 547 clock, good, good.   Do have to set the clock in the software, that’s on another page, ah… oh, yeah, click this to unlock the adjustment.  <sound of mouse clicks>  Now mutter mutter back it off …   50, okay, and lock, and go to the section page, and recalc everything, and now Run…    that’s it: we’re ready to go.”

Here’s a shot of the rat’s nest of wires and boxes on the dash: 

That’s two 547Bs with driver displays, a radio, and a laptop on a stand running a custom application. It was kind of a lot to keep track of, for both of us. But sterling precision and endless patience on the part of my driver, Larry Lefebvre, let us get fewer points than the other Limited teams.

It’s humbling to think it took all this stuff to run better than Steve Richards and Gary Reid and their Curta.