ACO and IMSA type pit stop technique question.

[chernaudi]

I don't know where to place this since it applies kind of to road racing in general.

This goes back sort of what make one of the Porsche mechanics a mini-celebrity in motorsport earlier this season, as well as various pit stop techniques with two wheel guns being allowed in the ALMS and such.

There was a piece in the Three Rivers (I'll butcher spelling that track's and city's name in French) 2002 ALMS race on how both Audi Sport Team Joest and ADT Champion Racing did their stops.

The technique was go to one end of the car, loosen the wheel, go to the other end, loosen and remove that wheel by the tire changer while the tire carrier replaced the other end's wheel. Then the tire changer would tighten up the wheel nuts on one end, then the other.

Eventually, Audi Sport and everyone else who were doing similar (such as Corvette Racing going from side to side in a similar manner) abandoned it for a long time and just did one wheel at a time. Porsche did seem to re-introduce a variant (with one wheel gun per ACO regs) of the old Audi Sport and Corvette tire change this year.

I do wonder which method is faster or better? Audi stuck with their method through out the R8 era and into the first half of the R10 era. Corvette stopped doing their old method in early '05. BMW in the ALMS with the LMR also used the Audi Sport method in '00 at least, and probably actually originated it.

Also, an interesting point was that Audi Sport (and presumably others) would mill the wheel nut detents off the nuts so they could come out of the socket easier. I wonder if that's made a comeback?