The White Falcon - 02.03.2006, Page 11

Navy and NASCAR
By JOl Sonja Chambers
Today’s Navy is the most high-tech Navy in the
world.
Navy and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s JR Motorsports
(JRM) have brought similar cultures of teamwork
and high-tech excellence together in pursuit of
NASCAR’s 2006 Busch Series.
To get this partnership up and running takes a
trained group of mechanics, engineers and infor-
mation technology professionals very similar to a
team of Navy Sailors that work to keep ships and
aircraft running smoothly.
The scope of engineering and technology skills
used for mission success by Navy and NASCAR
spans nearly every high-tech discipline.
Mechanical engineering helps NASCAR
engines achieve 700-plus horsepower at 9,700
RPMs for 500 miles.
Micro-tolerances and near perfect metallurgy is
achieved through sophisticated testing methods.
These rigorous methods are similar to that used
to produce reliability in high performance Navy
aircraft, marine gas turbines and nuclear propul-
sion components.
In addition, aerospace engineering help race
A high-tech team
cars and Navy aircraft achieve maximum per-
formance through wind tunnel testing and com-
puter-aided design. NASCAR rules require their
cars to remain stock in appearance but advanced
aerodynamics play a role in reducing wind drag
and improving safety. High-speed airflow cre-
ates aerodynamic factors that JRM technicians
and Navy Aviation technicians must understand
and harness for performance and safety advan-
tage.
NASCAR engine builders, much like Navy pro-
pulsion and aircraft power plant engineers, test
and analyze a variety of synthetic lubricating flu-
ids that provide optimum performance. Custom
formulations are being continually chemically-
engineered to achieve reliability and speed gains
under competitive conditions, and for the Navy,
under combat conditions where losing is not an
option.
Both Navy and JRM information technology
professionals are the heart and soul of the opera-
tion. During a race, pit row computers help the
JRM team make rapid operational decisions based
on data such as tire wear, fuel loads, track condi-
tions, weather and engine sensors. Navy engineers
and combat systems technicians use computer
technology in a similar way to monitor critical
system performance for battle space dominance.
As the Navy and NASCAR team grows
stronger, the Sailors and JRM technicians
that make it work show that anything can
be accomplished with pride, and world-class
training and teamwork.
During the FCPOA Bowling
Tournament Sat. Feb. 25, the Iceland
Defense Force (IDF) Officers boasted
upon their alley abilities for days prior
to the event. The IDF Enlisted, led by
Chicago Cubs fan Yeoman 1st Class
William Pagan couldn’t stand the self
horn-tooting seniors. A challenge was
laid down as to whether youth was bet-
ter than experience. As with the Cub’s
sporting legacy, the enlisted followed
suit and lost by 280 pins.
(Photo by J02 Matthew Bradley)
25 medals from 2006 Winter Olympics in Tornino Italy
U.S. Brings home
Special to The White Falcon
Across 16 topsy-turvy days in
Torino, Italy the U.S. Olympic team
teetered somewhere between tor-
ment and triumph, each step up to
the medal stand tempered by one
step back somewhere else.
There were unlikely Alpine golds
from skiers Julia Mancuso and
Ted Ligety. And the disaster in the
mountains that was Bode Miller
and his tattered reputation.
Speedskater Joey Cheek set a
standard for Olympic class, win-
ning two medals and donating
his $40,000 reward from the U.S.
Olympic Committee to a charity
for children trapped in war zones.
Teammates Chad Hedrick and
Shani Davis typified something
less than class, fussing and fighting
like second-graders in a sandbox.
A kid dubbed “The Flying
Tomato,” Shaun White, sailed into
the sky above Bardonecchia to
claim a gold medal in the snow-
board halfpipe. Another snow-
boarder, Lindsey Jacobellis, hot-
dogged her way out of a gold
medal in a still-stunning turn of
events that typified a growing
Generation X Games gap among
the Americans.
By the time the Torino two-step
was done, the final medal total left
the U.S. somewhere between total
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success and perceived failure. The
collection of 25 medals — 9 gold,
9 silver, 7 bronze — was far less
than the record 34 of 2002, but
nearly double the previous high of
13 from 1994 and 1998.
It was the most medals ever won
by the Americans in a foreign Winter
Olympics, and left the U.S. second
only to Germany’s 29 medals.
The head of the USOC was
quick to spin it as success, while
acknowledging others might see it
differently.
“This has been an incredible per-
formance,” Jim Scherr said. “It’s
probably a little bit our fault that
this team has been viewed as a
little less than that because of the
high expectations we all had com-
ing into these games.”
The U.S. medal haul came from
their domination in men’s long-
track speedskating and snowboard-
ing, with seven medals apiece.
Short track skater Apolo Anton
Ohno added a gold and two bronz-
es, one of the latter in a relay event.
The news wasn’t as good else-
where in the Piedmont region.
Hockey was a dual disappoint-
ment: The professionals from the
NHL looked like amateurs, win-
ning a single game. The women
— gold medal finalists in 1998 and
2002 — settled for a bronze. The
women speedskaters were shut out.
Michele Kwan, plagued by a groin
injury, never reached the ice.
The Alpine team, the self-pro-
claimed “Best in the World,” boast-
ed of a potential eight-medal haul
— and won two.
The games’ most enduring
moment was also its most bizarre.
Jacobellis, on the next-to-last jump
of the first women’s Olympic snow-
boardcross, grabbed her board in
an unnecessary bit of showboating
— and then crashed, blowing her
gold medal.
The stunt was endlessly replayed,
with Jacobellis alternately cheered
(by the snowboard community) and
chastised (by everyone older than
40).
The disagreement demonstrated
a generation gap involving the
age of the sports, not the athletes.
The new wave of U.S. Olympians
on snowboards or skis wanted to
put on a show ... and maybe get a
medal, too.
Take aerial skier Jeret “Speedy”
Peterson. A seventh-place finish in
the aerials couldn’t wipe the smile
off his face. “I came here to do the
Hurricane,” he said, referring to the
difficult maneuver, “and I did the
Hurricane.”
Never mind that he botched it. Or that
an easier stunt might have won a medal.
The mindset wasn’t universal.
Tanith Belbin, a Canadian who won
American citizenship on Dec. 31,
came to Turin and won a surprising
silver medal with ice dancing part-
ner Ben Agosto on Feb. 21.
There were other stunners, too:
Shauna Rohback, cut from a medal-
winning sled before the 2002
games, coming back to win a silver
with teammate Valerie Fleming in
the bobsled. Three-time Olympian
Rosey Fletcher, a self-described
“dark horse,” grabbing a bronze in
the snowboard parallel giant sla-
lom.
The U.S. men’s curling team
swept through the competi-
tion to grab a bronze — the first
American Olympic medal in the
sport — when skip Pete Fenson
delivered a clutch shot on the last
stone of the match.
March 2, 2006
Page 15
The White Falcon