I think that over the next few years you’ll see a lot of racing activity migrating to Miami. SCI has already talked about Ralph Sanchez’ new track at Homestead, and now that I’ve done some testing there, I’m more convinced than ever that this is a very important facility.
Testing is one of the most difficult things we do, but of course it’s also one of the most necessary. And in some ways, it’s even quite fascinating—the combination of mental challenges and pure engineering difficulties. But the way you work during testing isn’t really the way a racedriver works normally. In testing, you set the car up a very specific way, try it, then change something very slightly and try it again. You build your way up in graphs—literally. To a driver, the usual mindset is very different: "I’ve got such-and-such to work with, now how do I make the best of it?"
As you change parts or balances or settings bit by bit, each becomes a value on a graph and gets plotted against your realized speed. Then, if you get comfortable with some basic setup ideas, you start to focus on problem areas or develop some other alternatives to see if they won’t work better. The idea, obviously, is to be the fastest one on the track: "Good enough" never is.
All these things take time. Lots of it. Time to collect all the data, all the mechanics’ ideas, to test them, collate the results, come to a conclusion, and make decisions based on that about what to do next. So in the end, testing isn’t really...well, it isn’t really fun. It’s just interesting. So the environment in which you work is very important; it can make the difference between a good session and a bad one, or a safe session and a dangerous one.
I’m lucky. Homestead is right near my house in Miami, and when we’re testing there, I can take the kids to school and just commute on into work. At the end of the day I can drive home, or if we’re done early or the car needs repairs, I can go to the office. For me, this track is in an absolutely ideal location. But it’s also just an excellent facility, as I’ll get to in a minute.
Testing is in many ways very stressful, and it can also be quite dangerous. Because it’s so repetitive and because you do it all day for nearly 12 hours, you can get very tired and stop paying attention. To get real results from the car, though, you still have to drive it right on the edge of its performance envelope. Otherwise, the results you get are useless. So it’s very important to be comfortable while testing, and the facilities here are roomy, quiet and well laid-out.
There are other advantages, too. Flying to Miami is easy, and the tickets—because of all the tourism that goes on here—are cheap. There are more hotels and restaurants here than someplace like, say, Phoenix or Michigan, and the prices are pretty good, too. It may not seem like much, but when an entire testing team has to pay its own way for days on end, it adds up quickly. Ralph Sanchez counted on this when Homestead was constructed, and he’s been proved right; plenty of teams are coming now.
This track also has both a road course and an oval, with is another benefit. It’s an extremely difficult circuit and a great place to learn all about a car’s behavior in a variety of corners. And it’s incredibly fast. My nephew Christian had a lap here of nearly 200 mph. (I won’t tell you our speeds, of course, as they’re secret!)
When Ralph and the designers of the track came to us and asked our advice about the design of this course, all the IndyCar teams said the corners should be made as flat as possible. The NASCAR guys, on the other hand, wanted them heavily banked. The compromise was eight degrees of banking, which would work for everyone.
But when the track was actually built, everybody thought Ralph had cheated it a little and made the banks a bit higher. That seemed to be the only thing that could explain our high speeds in the corners. But then one of the teams brought an engineer of their own to survey the course, and he found out that the banks were in fact eight degrees—exactly.
The next problem Ralph encountered was that the tarmac began to tear up in the corners. Originally, when they built this track they wanted to wait a few months before using it, to allow the surfaces to cure. But construction delays meant that the first Busch Grand National race was going to be held very soon after completion. The Busch cars are much heavier than IndyCars, and even though they pull much less lateral acceleration, the lateral shear they exert on the track surface is very high. There are also a lot of entrants in their races, so the result was that the track started breaking up.
I really don’t think this is a reflection on the quality of the construction, which was outstanding. It’s just that the science of tarmac hasn’t kept up with the science of racing, and without the full curing time, the cars were just too much for the surface.
As a temporary fix, Ralph had his crews dig up the corners of the track and re-lay them with an advanced polymer-type tarmac, which is very expensive and difficult to work with. But to honor his commitment to Homestead’s first series of races and tests, he knew it was the only way. Now the joining surfaces, where the new tarmac meets the old, are beginning to deteriorate, and that gives poor Ralph a whole new set of headaches.
The great thing about this guy, though, is that he understands the importance of his reputation. Ralph Sanchez gave his word that Homestead would be a first-class operation, and that it would host all the events he said it would. Now he’s simply going to live up to his promise, whatever it takes. I know Ralph; he’ll always find a way.
At Homestead, reputation comes first and money comes second. And more than anything else, that’s what makes a first-class motorsports facility.—Emerson Fittipaldi
On the Homestead