At the servicepark

Have you ever wondered what Petter’s technicians does when Petter and the car is out on the stages? Do they go for a swim or watch a good movie? None of it, working for SWRT is hard work from sunrise to sunset, all year. But I’ve heard they really enjoy what they do. And I’ve learned that practical jokes goes hand by hand with high working moral, and they care a lot for each other, and they might even invite you in for a cup of tea!

During an event the team and the technicians are underlined strict rules set by the FIA. Every service is scheduled beforehand, and you don’t clock in too early or too late. They start with a 10 minutes service each morning, and continue with one or two 30 minutes services during the day. They are only allowed with 6 technicians to work on the car at the same time, and all of them need to have a special arm band showing that they are allowed to touch the car. Without the arm band you are not allowed to do anything with the car, not even putting a bottle of drinking water inside. But you can remove your arm band and give it to another technician, and then he or she is allowed to work on the car – and not you. At the end of each day they have Flexi Service. Now the teams have 45 minutes to work on the car, and they can decide at what time they will do that, as long as the car is in Parc Ferme in time. During Flexi service they can also choose to put all twelve technicians to work on one car at the time.

The crew usually arrives on event on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday they work on the car to make it ready before the start. Every inch is checked and nothing is overlooked. If everything goes as planned they usually work from 0700-1900. But if something happens they could end up working through the night as well. On Thursday morning they meet up early to get the car ready for Shakedown. And they continue with preparations, testing and testing again all day.

It could easily get crowded when 6 persons are working on the car at the same time. But they all have special tasks and places to be. Left front wheel, engine, right front wheel, etc. During the service every second is important and if you drop a bolt or grab the wrong size of a tool you loose valuable time for the whole team. And be careful about where you put your feet as well – do not get in the way. Back in Banbury the crew practises on this between each event.

And then it’s Friday, and the rally begins. While Petter is out doing his best on the stages, the engineers carefully follows it all on monitors inside the SWRT-tent. All data is analyzed, and based on this they decide what need to be done at the next service. At the same time, the technicians starts to prepare for the next service. The tools are placed in order in the correct corner, and every spare-part is checked and put on special places, carefully done not to loose any seconds. When they start working, it’s easy to think that they will all be stressed and maybe shouting to each other, but they don’t. They are all so focused on what they are doing, and they work very fast – but with no stress. Even if they finds out that they need to change the gearbox and they only have 10 minutes left. Those of us standing on the line just watching are now beginning to feel the adrenaline, but the guys just continue with the work, calm and without any stress. And they make it in time. They need 15 minutes to change a complete gearbox with clutch, so of course they manage the gearbox in 10 minutes!

After Petter’s left the servicepark, they have to clean up. Every tool is put back in to its place, they sweep the place and they put the old parts where they belong. Its time to eat, maybe get some rest before they start to prepare for the next service. And there is always something else that needs to be done; equipment that needs maintenance, used parts that needs repairing, etc. But they also have other tasks on event. Some of them drive the trucks with all the equipment, loads of gear that needs to be unpacked and rigged up before a rally can start. And pack it all down again when it’s over.

Pep-talk before the show begins

Ready for action!