Meet The Kabort Motorsport Crew!
You've met the drivers and you've seen the team - but there are some unsung heroes we haven't introduced to you yet - and with the mandatory pit-stop being implemented into the COVID Cup series, I thought that there was no better time to meet our 16 mechanics who work tirelessly behind the scenes.
Truck Drivers
Rob Balding (Baldy), Steve Berring & Barry Scottney (Scotty)
These two legendary chaps maintain, clean and drive the Kabort Motorsport truck/s from race to race. Baldy always ops to drive the MAN containing the GT's whilst Berring operates the Mercedes contining the LMP's and HPD's. The GT truck can only just fit four cars, spare parts, whilst the LMP1/LMP2 truck can only carry two with the restriction being on hybrid and technical parts.
Scotty's job is to drive the team's van containing all the essential equipment for the garage including telemetry equipment and anything else that doesn't fit in either of the trucks.
Front Right Gun Man
Kyle Mitchell
"My job is fairly simple, to wave the car into the box, ensuring he doesn't miss the pit-box, replace the front right wheel and make sure the new one is put on safely for the car to be released."
Wheel Gun-Men
FR: Kyle Mitchell
FL: Benjamin (Ben) Bright RL: Jason Winterbottom
RR: Thomas (Tommy) Walker (not middle rear)
Lollypop Man
Anthony Jobs
"When I've not got my head deep in an engine, I lower the "lollypop" for the car when the car pits. This is an incredibly important job as the driver uses the lollypop to both line his car u with the mechanics as well as knowing when to go -saving precious seconds in the pit-lane."
Front Wheel Handsman
Oliver Hardings
"I've got quite a specific job within the team - In races where personell in the pit-lane is limited by the series, I roll the new front left wheel to Ben from over the pitwall, but in less restrictive series, I observe the pit-stops and must report back to the team on what I found to be our weak point to improve and lose less time in the following pit-stop.
Rear Wheel Handsman
Reece Hardings
"I too do the same as Oliver (my brother) but for the rear wheel - I feel having a brother alongside me in the team pushes me as naturally I want to beat him which pushes me to perform better during the pit-stops.
Rear Jackman
Matthew Daniels
"After jacking the car up (In Indycar I used a pneumatic jack, but this'll be much different in skippies when a manual one will be used), I take the wheel off that Tommy (leaving shot) has loosened before returning to the jack, making sure no-one is touching the car and removing it - plonking the car down onto the ground and setting the car free"
Strategist/Analyst/Boss/Managment - Andy Jones, Robin Truswell and Peter Longbridge
"If I (Robin) am not racing, I'll sit beside Andy and just make sure the race is going alright and the strategy is going to plan.
If I'm the one inside the cockpit, Peter who collects all of the data will plop himself beside Andy and they work well together - Andy on some ingenious idea and Peter collecting as much data and information as his little iRapple laptop could store.
Fuel Pump Operator
Jackson (Jax) Fox
Known simply by either "Jax" or "Gas" Jackson has one of the coolest - yet most dangerous jobs in the pit-lane...
"You know it's serious work when I'm the only one in the pit-lane with a full-face helmet - this job isn't for the faint hearted. As soon as that Skippy stops you've got to bang in the pump without spilling a drop - one drop could lead to an absolutely catastophe - before releasing the pump again all under five seconds. It's pretty mental but I wouldn't change it for the world and I'm very lucky to be in the position I am in now"
