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NASCAR Teams Prepare For
Thunder Special In Suzuka, Japan

Dale Earnhardt, One of thirty drivers to race in Japan

The exhibition event on the 1.4-mile road course will feature competitors from the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, the NASCAR Busch Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Winston West Series, along with NASCAR-licensed Japanese drivers.

Unloading the cars, giant toolboxes and stacks of spare equipment from the massive metal containers was not much different than unloading a team transporter at a race in the United States, according to some crew chiefs.

"The way we're set up there now, it's no different than working out of our track at a regular race track," said Larry McReynolds, crew chief for the ACDelco Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt. "We can walk back and forth to them," McReynolds said in reference to the containers lined up evenly spaced in two rows behind the team suites. "It's no different than if we were at Atlanta. We started unloading the container at seven o'clock and two-and-a-half hours later all of our stuff was unloaded."

Preparation for the trip is more important than going to a regular race however. McReynolds said, "A lot of thought has to be put into coming over here, because we don't have a parts truck that we can run to," he explained. "But you see everybody working together. Everybody's here to help everybody and to make this a good experience for everyone."

Tim Brewer, crew chief for the QVC Ford driven by Geoff Bodine, expressed a similar theory. "When you work out of something 32 events a year, you've got it pretty much down to a science as far as where everything's at, what you've got and what you haven't got," Brewer said of the big team haulers that are used to transport cars and equipment to races across America. "You're not limited to anything.

"Here, it's a situation where you only bring one car and you've got a couple of backup motors, but you didn't bring all the fasteners or maybe not all the headers or tailpipes or anything else you might need," he said. "There again, it's makeshift. You've got a lot of people here who have brought a lot of different components. If you need something you simply borrow it."

David Gilliland -- crew chief for the Stroppe Motorsports/Pro Insulation Ford driven by his father, NASCAR Winston West Series 1997 champion Butch Gilliland -- also compared the unloading of the containers to unloading a team hauler.

"It's not much different than unloading for an event in the states," he said. "You still unload all the same stuff, it just takes a little longer."

Gilliland said his team learned from last year's event to be better prepared in packing for the trip. "We knew what to expect and how to prepare for it," he said. "We brought all the stuff we needed. Last year we forgot some stuff. This year we have what we need."

Despite all the preparation, McReynolds did find a few surprises when crew members opened their container.

"It appears than somewhere along the route our container had a rough experience," he explained. "The car had come loose and a lot of stuff inside it had come loose. But we fixed everything and we're back in working order."

Text By NASCAR PR
Images By Terry Callahan

Editors Note: The images displayed in this article (plus many more) can be viewed in the Visions Of Speed Art Gallery.

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