In the world of motorsports, two things are important – winning races and creating a great team atmosphere. In his role as GT racing boss at Black Falcon, former driving champion Sean Paul Breslin manages teams travelling all over the world to compete. For him, having the right people and the right kit is crucial, and every detail has to be spot on. That’s why Black Falcon uses temporary flooring to keep their drivers, sponsors and pit team happy.
Hi, Sean, Black Falcon is based at Nürburging and work at racetracks across the globe, why does flooring matter so much?
The race tracks we frequent in Europe are older and well-used, the floors are often worn and stained. In practical terms, it would be OK to use the floors to work on, but if you build your pit walling and make your cars look nice, it seriously lets your image down. I think presentation has become a lot more important over the years. But we’ve always focused on presenting ourselves well. It sets the tone for how your people should behave.
It must be very important to your drivers that your image meets their expectations?
It is because it goes to show you care about their experience. As a driver, you wouldn’t want to turn up and find a ratty old car that you are supposed to trust to fling yourself around the track in, would you? Equally, the place where your car is prepared should look organised and smart. Pit garages are sometimes badly cared for with holes in the flooring, oil marks and they’re quite dirty. Laying a temporary floor creates a much nicer atmosphere and makes it a lot easier to find things.
Obviously, hospitality is an element you need to think about to keep drivers and sponsors happy. Do you use temporary flooring for that too?
We do, but it’s a different type of flooring – a wooden floor that’s warmer and looks better when you are serving food and entertaining. It’s a tough job because you are setting up a tent in a paddock and cooking food out of a truck, so creating a Michelin star restaurant is not really possible. The level we’re competing in is growing, and that means it’s more like a Formula One product now. That demands that you keep up with the Jones’, but you have to stick to your budgets.
In the pit garage, what functionality do you need the floor to have?
Firstly, it needs to fit inside the garage itself! That’s something that makes modular systems more attractive to us. We also need a system that is easy to transport to and from each race track. The team have already got a lot to carry, so if you can reduce the expense of hiring an extra vehicle and people, you will save costs. The flooring also needs to be easy to clean. At present, we use a plastic system but also carpet that we have to buy new for each race. The problem with both of these solutions is that when we are wheeling the car in and out of the pit garage using Gojaks, their small wheels often get caught or stuck. That’s manageable during the sessions, but in a race situation, these things can’t get in the way, and you have to cut sections out to give the car a clear route.
Manufacturers are making innovations in their products all the time, what would you like to see from new designs?
It would be great if there were sections in each plastic tile that you could remove to fit in the measuring equipment we use. When you work with cars like ours, you have to measure them down to finite degrees of a millimetre, and so we end up cutting holes to fit that kit. The trouble is, the next time you want to lay the flooring and measure, you have to try to remember where the hole was so you could fit it again. That’s a real pain, and it would be a useful thing for manufacturers to solve for us.
Find garage flooring solutions for motorsports teams in the Floorbox range. Give us a call if you need any advice or information on +44 (0)203 286 7463.
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