A pit stop has many moving parts. Practice doesn’t eliminate the risk of error, but it does mitigate it. The importance ought to be clear by all of the big factory-backed squads doing full scale practice as the very last thing at the end of the very last practice before the Petit Le Mans race on Saturday at Road Atlanta. All the drivers for all the cars were busy doing the same thing.
In the midst of the full dress rehearsal for the Porsche 912 car, Frederic Makowiecki’s hand on Michael Christensen’s back signals the urgency. Unseen in the photo is the ever-present stopwatch used by the Porsche crew chief to time the practice stops.
Even though the time sheets from the morning session were irrelevant, given all the activity up and down pit lane, watching pit lane for this 30 minutes or so on race morning was one of the highlights of the weekend.
Camera Settings – 1/320 shutter speed, f/6.3, ISO 100, 420mm.