This article was written by Justus Venter (Team Dell) and appeared first on glog.glendellaerobatics.com.
Windsor Ontario - most dramatic race this season
PRETORIA, South Africa - Windsor Ontario was definitely the most challenging track so far and the change in wind direction on Race Day surely played a significant role during the final session as it was responsible for probably the most dramatic race this season.
Team 45 had very high expectations for the Windsor race, but it obviously didn’t go as planned. We need to take a deep look at ourselves and ask a couple of questions. We are not looking for excuses, no, at this stage we need answers. The Team’s mood was expectedly not too good after the race and it gave us the opportunity and state of mind to discuss the things that we need to address.
The 80-20 principle
First of all, we are 2-3 seconds off the pace. Even though we are flying very similar lines to the other teams, our aircraft is not performing the way it should, despite the fact the we actually thought is did. This is where the basic 80-20 principle needs to be applied. It takes 20 percent effort to achieve 80 percent performance requirement, and it will take another 80 percent effort to gain the remaining 20 percent.
The weather during the race week was great, even though the first training session was postponed until the next day due to rain. That made the second training day quite tough with four scheduled flights in the one day. But this also meant that we couldn’t go back in between the flights to study and view the racing lines and make small adjustments and even try our new wingtips before the Qualification Day, but then again most of the teams had the same problem.
Mistakes through the chicane and problems with smoke system
We have also hit an unforeseen glitch relating to our track analysis and it turned out that we have not done our homework the way we thought we did. Over and above that, obvious mistakes through the chicane during the Qualification session weren’t even an issue, until Glen made the same mistake during the Top 12 session which probably cost us quite a couple of championship points.
We weren’t without technical issues either. Leon was kept quite busy by a leaking smoke system and he was forced to revert back to the old and heavier smoke tank.
"Canada is a great place and the people are amazing"
Something that may not remain unsaid is how the Canadian fans reminded us why we do this sport. Even though this is my first season and I have not yet experienced a race at places such as Budapest and Barcelona, Windsor will surely go down in my books as one of the greatest venues. We have not yet experienced such friendliness, interest, enthusiasm and hospitality at any of the previous races. Canada is a great place and the people are amazing. It will always be place we will want to return to...
Hard work will be rewarded
So, we now have a long break to plan for the remainder of the season. There are lot of things that we can do differently, and even do different things, all in an effort to achieve an additional 20 percent performance improvement, both inside and outside the track. Hard work will be rewarded…
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