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©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
Pit stops are part of what makes auto racing unique as a sport. They demonstrate the teamwork that is inherent to winning performance. They also demonstrate the danger inherent in motorsports. Mixing man, machine and fuel under the pressure of a ticking stopwatch is no trivial task.
Bryan Herta and his Shell crew know first hand that danger, having skillfully managed the scary pit fire that put them out of last year's Sunbelt IndyCarnival in Australia. Thankfully, the important story was not the fire itself, but rather the way it was handled and the lessons learned from its unfortunate occurrence.
"We had a bad day," Herta recalled. "We made a mistake and were very fortunate to have lost only some points as a result. There certainly was the opportunity to get down on ourselves, but we didn't. We learned. We improved. We moved on. What could have been destructive instead turned out to be a defining moment."
In addition to improving its stops over the balance of the 1996 season, the team diligently held weekly pit stop practice sessions during the off season. It also invested in video equipment to monitor its stops more closely during races.
"It's not the misfortune that matters," Herta added, "its how you choose to deal with it."
Source: CART News Service