Olympia Charger

Dick Pierson on racing at Le Mans Classic

In an effort to try to let your guys know what to expect at Le Mans Classic, I will outline my experience from 2006. Number one rule: You are participating in the biggest vintage car racing dog and pony show in the world: enjoy it and have fun as the French people do! First will be the party at Chiron on Wednesday July 9, that will be a fans, media and sponsors get together. In 2006 there was about 175 people at Chiron, which is located in northern Le Mans, to witness the unveiling of the Charger.

Racing to win: only possible as a team

We were always pretty lucky because Hershel was always a good strong qualifier so he usually started near the front of the pack. Most of the time everybody gets through the first few laps pretty well.

Double check everything b4 the green flag

We bring the car out to pit road and stage it at the ready for the race start. Everything is checked and double checked. Nobody says much, there is allot of tension in the air at this point, we are ready to go racing and now we have to wait for the “Gentlemen – start your engines” command, we are all on pins and needles.

Getting ready to go in the pit area

Now that the team has everything laid out and ready to go to pit wall, we start hauling everything out. Everything has a place in the pit area, the tool box in the center, one compressed air bottle hooked up to a hose and tire gun on each side of the tool box, with enough air hose to go one complete circle around the car.

Nuts on a wire sling and NASCAR pit tricks

Other crew members start out on the car. Making sure everything is tight, every nut and bolt that holds anything on the car is safety wired to insure that nothing falls off the car on the track. Check the front end alignment again, it was OK when we left last night but we need to make sure it is perfect for race day. Check all fluid levels, make sure we have everything full and have plenty of motor and gear oil to take to pit wall. Check the compressed air bottles, make sure they are as full, and fill them if necessary. Sort out all the air lines for the tire guns, make sure all fittings are tight, all guns work properly, all sockets are in place. Set up an extra five lug nuts on a “wire sling” for each tire changer to carry on his belt during pit stops.

On Race Day, first check on the tires!

Tire man, go get our first set, let Goodyear know what we are expecting to use today. In those days we had to take our own wheels to the tire shop and have all the tires mounted and stored until we needed them. Need to make sure all the tires are aired up to 30 lbs per tire, that’s where we will start, if we get a hot day with high track temperatures, we’ll probably have to drop that. As the track increases in temperature and the tires get hotter from running, they tend to expand therefore creating more air pressure, need to make sure we don’t start out too high or we have a very ill handling car. To much air means the car gets hard to handle, creates under steer or loose in the corners. Tires are one of the most important items on race day, they have to be right.

Rise up early on Race Day

What happens on race day? Race days were always tense, never time to do anything but pay total attention to the goal for the day, which was to win the race. Up at 6:00AM, meet for team breakfast at the local café for about an hour or so until the track opens, then off to the track. Once we arrive at the track everybody just sort of rambles around in the garage and looks for loose ends that need to be taken care of. Once everything is sorted out then the work assignments are handed out by the Crew Chief.

NASCAR crew mechanic in the 70s: getting the job done

We didn’t have some of the fancy equipment they do nowadays, but we always seemed to get the job done. I guess that meant that we were the best we could be with what we had to work with and that is rewarding. It always helps to have one of the best drivers in the US on your team however.

You got to make that race in Phoenix

I remember once in Ontario California, we had qualified for the Permatex race to be held on a Saturday (set the track record that stood until the track was torn down in the 80’s). NASCAR decided to make this an impound race at the last minute, therefore once we qualified the car we were done until race day.

Taking care of the sponsor all the way!

Another part of our job was to enhance the image of our sponsor, not just wear the uniform but to enhance their image. We made commitments to our sponsors as far as where we would race and when we would race there. We would always try to correspond with an event that our sponsor was involved in or could be involved in.