Thought I'd outline the steps needed to prepare for a regular FRC race event (excluding setting up the poll and otherwise contacting drivers). Feel free to volunteer for anything listed below.
PREPARATION
- Print race forms at office (can't afford to forget this one).
- Ensure that Debbie leaves work early to:
- Feed dogs early and put them away.
- Pick up dog doo around front yard.
- Mix bleach and water and clean garage area.
- Hose down garage.
- Get power strip from storage room and attach to garage wall.
- Place fans in garage (and plug into power strip) to help drying process.
- Take tables and chair out of storage room and assemble.
- Get cooler from back patio, wash and locate in garage.
- Get waste bin and new garbage bag and place under table.
- Locate and assemble table horses.
- Remove fans. Place one next to driver station and plug into storage room.
- Winch racing surface up to allow disconnection of ceiling stays.
- Get ladder out of storage room and disconnect ceiling stays then put ladder away.
- Lower racing surface to horses, stopping half-way down to unravel power cable and retrieve auxilliary lane-change power supply from pit straight.
- Prepare workbench area - clean up workbench surface, remove slot car storage box, place cardboard bin on ground, put chair and fan in place.
- Get surge-supressor strip, place on garage floor, wipe cable cover and area where it lays then tape it to the ground.
- Get wooden blocks from storage room and place on floor under table.
- Get power supply and place on wooden blocks.
- Plug in power strip and power supplies.
- Unhook cables from table.
- Remove and fold plastic cover, placing it on top of gas cylinders.
- Remove wooden cover supports and dowels.
- Remove silica gel packages from power base.
- Plug in controllers.
- Power up track.
- Calibrate the six controllers.
- Wipe track rails with meth spirits.
- Apply new layer of Inox rail treatment.
- Clip race forms to clipboard and place it on gate hook next to driver stations.
- Place board over folded track cover (on gas tanks) to act as table for laptop.
- Unravel RichG cable from under racing table.
- Get usb cable from storage cupboard and connect to RichG cable then route under power strip cable cover.
- Get laptop with power supply and place on laptop table; plug in power supply.
- Retrieve monitor from storage room and place on shelf in garage.
- Connect monitor to laptop (using appropriate adapter) and plug in monitor and computer power cables.
- Launch SSDC software and connect USB cable.
Basically do most of these steps in reverse order (a few of you usually stay back to help with this, thank goodness).
Just about all of this is done every time we have racing, otherwise we wouldn't be able to race. Please help me out by taking the poll and/or, for those of you who for whatever reason cannot get on to the forum, give me a phone call/text with a simple comment (yes or no) so that I have a firm head count of drivers planning to attend. Once there are enough, we'll race!
Gordon
