The car should be in pristine condition, and will have new seats with side head restraints on them. I became a believer in those at Oregon last year with Justin as we smacked a bank with MY SIDE so hard I watched the side window just 'pop' out. The amazing part was using a combination of the HANS device and the side movement protection of the seat, I never had even the slightest twinge of neck pain. I'm a fan! So that was one of my provisos in getting into Heath's car this season. We would both have that protection.
Heath's car is well equipped with a Coralba C-Giant Rally Computer. This thing has more computing power than computers the State Department used during the Cold War. The manual which I downloaded from the web is about 1/4" thick. Matthew Johns
on had it's little brother, so I'm somewhat familiar, but this mother can get complicated. It will start a clock at the start line when your wheel first moves (thus eliminating your need to remember to start a watch). At the finish it will give you Time, Distance, Average Speed, Top Speed, and probably current status of the Dow Jones Industrials! If we've stopped to fix a flat (no, no, no, no, no!!!!) it will tell us what speed we need to travel in order to avoid road points (I thought that was MY job!). Anyway, I've been studying up on it and I'm ready!Heath's been reviewing in-car videos of Matthew Johnson and me and Dennis Martin and me just to get used to the cadences I use. They are different for both those drivers, so i hope Heath has an idea what he WANTS. Matthew could hold 3+ actions in advance...so could Dennis mostly. Justin would have to be hearing the action he's just about to enter. So pacing is totally different with different drivers. We'll be working that out.
Strategy? Well Heath's youth has him a little frustrated at his starting position (32 out of 56; 10th PGT car out of 13), but that's of no concern to me. This season is going to be a process. Placements will fall into place when they fall into place. A couple of things will happen at 100AW. First, we'll get a benchmark to build on. Between 100AW and our next event, Oregon Trails, Heath has finals (at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI) and NO TIME to rebuild a wrecked car. So we're certainly hoping that will not happen. We'll end up with a lot of in-car to analyze. I remember after Oregon '06 (first event with Johnson) I spent hours and hours pouring over the tapes and talking with Matthew and it made a world of difference for STPR. Heath and I will be doing the same thing.
Heath and I do get to run recce (see all the racing stages before actually racing them) on Thursday...it's legal....a couple of the national events are starting to allow this. that will give us time to sort out a little about how he wants to hear things, as well as how he actually sees things. The co-driver sits on the passenger side and basically makes changes to the notes that the driver dictates. Neither of us have much experience with recce, so I'm pretty sure we'll mostly just benefit from a day behind the wheel and a good look at the roads. I remember being totally worn out after recce last year with Justin, but we were attempting to do some major eticing to the notes (that didn't work so well!).
So off we go for the '06 season. New driver. New Crew. Lots of old friends in PGT to go chase! And starting on my home turf. Can't wait!
