IT in Motorsport.
Posted: 09 May 2012, 08:00
http://arstechnica.com/business/coolest ... mpaign=rss
Follow the link for further reading. I wish I could get a job in Motorsport, would be a dream come true...Coolest jobs in tech: from the pits of Le Mans to the dugouts of Fenway Park
By Jon Brodkin | Published about 14 hours ago
When race cars whiz around a track at 200 miles per hour, driving ability isn’t the only factor that determines who wins the race. Behind the scenes, in mobile data centers tucked into semis and behind laptops in the pit area, people like Chuck Houghton use tech to make decisions that can determine whether their car crosses the finish line first.
As race engineer for the No. 4 Corvette C6.R of the American Le Mans Series GT class, Houghton and his squad build sophisticated algorithms to crunch the reams of data spit out by modern race cars. When it’s race time, Houghton is on scene, running calculations that determine when to make changes to car variables like "ride height" or when to let drivers know that they're running a few seconds behind. “It’s kind of like hanging a carrot out there in front of a horse,” Houghton says.
In some cases, it’s as simple as making sure the car doesn't run out of gas. At the Petit Le Mans in Georgia 2010, a 10-hour race, the endgame came down to putting just the right amount of fuel into the car.
“[Both top cars had] stopped at the same time for our last stop," Houghton recalls. "We put just a tiny bit more fuel in our car, so they beat us out of the pit. And on the last lap, the Ferrari ended up running out of fuel. We were in second, and passed them on the track, and won.”
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that would be sheer brilliance