Do you Life your components when you race?

When I am talking about “lifing” I mean “managing the component lifecycle”, or in other words, seeing how long that brake disc has got left in it before it lets go and pitches you into the barrier.

Many, if not most, of the teams I see in the garages at the circuits around the country try, and succeed, to look and act as professional as they can within the bounds of their budgets and series rules and status. It is very pleasing for series directors, track owners, promotors and spectators to see well prepared and well turned out race cars at the circuits. It is a given for the teams and drivers, since looking the part is intrinsic to their relationship with their sponsors and subsequently the budget.

But, what if the hours of spit and polish and buffing up (Urban Dictionary? Ed) is hiding an element of amateurishness that is costing race finishes, good places and even wins?

How much does it cost you to go racing each weekend – car prep, repairs, entry fees, race support, hotels, food………?

How many times have you failed to finish? Not because you have gone native and got intimately connected to the local scenery, but because a component, large or small has broken, stopped working or just plain refused to do what it is supposed to do?

If that “failed to finish” number is more than zero, or heaven forbid, more than 1 or 2 then you are throwing money, morale and support straight down the drain. Let me introduce you to Component Lifing Software.

Component Lifing Software is a simple yet vital piece of equipment in the racers armoury; By increasing reliability through knowledge of the cars’ component lifecycles and histories, your finishes increase, your team confidence increases, your driver has more faith in his chariot and the cost of finishing races decreases dramatically.

Do you Life your components when you race?

Source: Trenchant Technologies

After all, if say, your racing costs £2,000 per weekend but of the 12 races in the season you only finish 6 times through successive failures, then the cost of finishing is £4000 per race. Increase your reliability by as little as 50% and you finish 9 races at a cost of only £2667 per finish. There are many other ways to measure the cost/benefit analysis of this tool – laps raced per season, top 10 finishes, hours raced…. and so on.

Most of this type of software is intuitive, well laid out and on its umpteenth upgrade and revision to make it better and better. The relatively small cost and relatively small amount of learning time for this most valuable piece of equipment in the racers armoury just cannot be calculated in money terms alone. If you can use an Excel sheet or an Access database then you can use one of these programmes – and if cant then you need to get learning.

screenshot

Source: www.racingprep.com   

Running a team with multiple cars can be a headache, especially when you have forgotten that the crash at the last meeting meant you lost your last 2 uprights on the left side… and forgot to replace them in the 2 weeks between races. Or getting to Silverstone and the Scrutineer comes and gets all pointy fingered at you for trying to put a car though “his race meeting” with out of date extinguishers – Using lifing software properly stops all this happening and makes you way more pro-active rather than reactive.  Here at the NMA we make sure that all our students have knowledge of this “trade secret” – how to use it and why it is as is important as any of the other software your race car now needs to be competitive.

digitalclone app screenshot

Source: NoskeComp

Go to Google, type in Component Lifing Software and sign yourself up for a demo or 30 day download – By the end of this coming season you will be pleased you did.

You can send me a Thank You Christmas card later. (Ah, I get it now, nobody writes to you anymore so this is how you get new friends, Ed)

feature - replace component

Source: Digital Clone

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