RACE DRIVERS FACE POKING AND PRODDING
Monitoring and maintaining health and fitness, both on the track and off, leading to better results for Wayne Taylor Racing
If you’re a car-racing fan, it’s no surprise that every single factor of the car’s performance comes under a microscope. No facet is too tiny to be considered in any sport where fractions of a second can mean the difference between victory and catastrophe.
But what about the driver? For the crew at Wayne Taylor Racing, the focus on the inner workings of their drivers — as they’re driving — is becoming almost as engineered as their race cars. WTR competes with its No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. in the Prototype Class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and it’s the defending series champion. Marathon 24-hour races such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona are not just engineering feats. The drivers swapping out behind the wheel are being tested like any other high-calibre athlete.
With that in mind, technical director Brian Pillar began investigating better ways to help his drivers perform behind the wheel. He was speaking at an industry event for team sponsors when the audience, comprised of many medical professionals, turned their attention to the drivers rather than the cars. Pillar realized the questions he was being asked, ranging from fitness to stress levels to hydration and nutrition, were not something the team had delved into.
“They’re top athletes, but these doctors and scientists made us aware there was far more for us to know,” he explains.
WTR teamed up with Dr. Ed Potkanowicz at Ohio Northern University. Potkanowicz is a professor of exercise physiology. The team at ONU gathered data from the racers, including heart rate and temperature at every phase, from resting to during a race to afterward. Drivers were kitted out with measuring devices, and the information eventually led Potkanowicz to a formula: the Psychological Strain Index of one to 10. Over six is considered highly stressed, and a continual feedback from an arm band drivers wear allows the team to make a call to swap out drivers to maintain peak fitness, both physical and physiological.
Race-car cockpits can reach almost 50 C and a driver is strapped in for hours at peak focus at high speeds, so Pillar knew he had to take advantage of any edge to keep his drivers not just competitive, but safe. Cars have long had built-in sensors, now so do the drivers.
As the feedback mounted, the medical team as well as the race team found themselves looking deeper into the driver component. They were approached by a company, CoreSyte, that wanted to know if they were interested in monitoring their drivers’ sweat. By now, the team had seen the benefits of increased driver feedback and team drivers Jordan Taylor and Renger Van Der Zande were happy to show me the patches recently. The ovals stick to their forearms, and measure electrolyte output during a race.
Everybody sweats differently, and they sweat out different things. Having the ability to study, through the patches, what has been lost has proven to be a boon to the drivers.
“We have a tube in our helmets that draws from a personalized combination when we hit a button on the steering wheel,” explains Taylor.
Some drivers need more potassium or sodium or just water. Specially made Gatorade pods — there are nine different packs — provide bespoke combinations, depending on the individual.
Back in the pits, the crew is always in contact with the driver via a headset, but now they can know it’s time to tell them to take a drink when they need to replenish much-needed electrolytes. The goal is to make the patches work in real time.
The young men behind the wheel laugh at being called guinea pigs.
“Nobody liked the needle thing,” Taylor says with a laugh. Van Der Zande winces a little.
A hard needle attached to a plug the size of a thick dime was jammed into their upper arms to measure glucose and carbs.
“That was a little uncomfortable to have in your arm as your drive,” they admitted.
Then they point to a small, dense capsule on the table.
“They had to swallow it so it could track more information,” says Pillar. It came out the way you think it would come out, but the medical team is exploring other ways to gather data because of the danger of having something metal in the driver-athletes’ systems interfering with an MRI should it be required.
They ’ve had their fingers pricked for blood, they’ve done spit tests, been poked and prodded and measured before, during and after a race. There is talk of investigating the impact of G forces in racing and also concussions in the event of a crash.
We’ve long enjoyed the benefits that elite racing can bring to the cars we drive every day. Similarly, new advances in medical innovation will also lead us to thank the young drivers of Wayne Taylor Racing, who willingly embrace the efforts to understand and protect the most important part of any race team: the drivers.
They’re top athletes, but these doctors and scientists made us aware there was far more for us to know.