NASCAR: Ford Performance supervisor Patrick DiMarco talks racing and technology advantages

Pat DiMarco offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what goes on during a NASCAR Cup Series race in Ford Performance’s high-tech trailer.

Ford Performance has been dominating the 2018 season of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Heading into the playoffs, Ford Performance drivers captured the checkered flag in 13 of the 26 regular season races.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick drove his No. 4 Ford Fusion into Victory Lane seven times, thanks in part to the Ford Performance Tech Center and at-track trailer. The Ford Performance Tech Trailer is not only the headquarters for Ford personnel at the racetrack during race weekends, but it also serves as a valuable resource and data hub.

“The mission of Ford Performance is to transfer innovations from racetracks to the driveways of new Ford vehicle owners,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance. “The tech center and this new driving simulator are two of the most important steps we have taken to help our mainstream engineering partners make sure the next Edge or F-150 is great to drive – even if you don’t check the performance model box.”

Earlier this season, we had an opportunity to tour the at-track Ford Performance Tech Trailer, which is an extension of the 33,000-square-foot Performance Tech facility in Concord, North Carolina near most of the NASCAR Cup Series racing teams.

The Tech Center includes a driving vehicle simulator, 3D race environment, and a new production vehicle dynamic simulator. Our exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Tech trailer afforded us an opportunity to witness the high-tech innovation communication that takes place in real-time during a NASCAR Cup race between the trailer, the center in North Carolina, and how the information being shared helps in the development of Ford’s consumer vehicle lineup.

Ford Performance NASCAR supervisor Pat DiMarco, who has been with Ford Performance and its NASCAR program for more than two decades, served as our expert guide while sharing in-depth knowledge of what goes on at the racetrack during a live motorsports event. He explained the collaborative efforts that are necessary between the teams and OEMs, how problems are communicated and solved in the tech trailer, and how the development of technology gained from the data obtained helps the race cars go faster around the track.

Here is more of what DiMarco had to say in his own words:

[This interview was edited for clarity]

Patrick DiMarco: Pictures, videos, broadcasts, time and scoring data, it all comes into here; this is our central hub at the racetrack. All personnel on all four teams — ones that have access on a wired network with NASCAR here at Speed Corp — they all access data from the trailer. Everybody at the track gets the data from the trailer here. As part of that, we have our tech center at Charlotte; that’s a duplicate of the trailer, and so anybody from outside the track can access the data from our tech center.

T: During the races, is there some type of networking going on between this hauler, Concord, and them?

Patrick DiMarco: Not just during the races, but continuously. And NASCAR — the cars don’t have –there’s very little data on them compared to Formula 1 or IndyCar or Rally Cross or whatever. The teams use pictures and videos as their gauge for how the car is set up at the racetrack.

T: Does NASCAR try to limit the amount of data that’s being transferred back and forth during the race?

Patrick DiMarco: Yes. They mandate what sensors are allowed on the cars and that’s it. With the Formula 1 cars, they have hundreds of sensors on the cars; we just have some engine sensors, brakes, steering, and throttle and the GPS unit, and that’s all that we have access to on the cars, so we rely on pictures.

We have photographers in two locations and they just shoot high-speed photography of a car coming through the corner. What that does is, if you look at the cars, normally you’ll see dots on the front of the bumpers and that’s what run — dot one is run one, dot two is run two, dot three is run three — so they can always go back and look and understand how the car performed on run three compared to run one. And so the attitude of the car, how much clearance there is under the splitter, we try to provide that to them real-time, so when the photographer takes pictures, they come here to the teams as fast as we can get it to them.

We’ve moved on since NASCAR got the network hooked up here. Before that, we used to have just USB sticks. A practice would end, photographers would come in here, copy everything to hard drives, and then walk them out to the teams and use them. So, we started and then we got into wireless networks, point to point, and we’re transferring over that. That has its issues with all the TVs and networks going on; we got a wired network and we’re able to progress quicker.

T: Would you say Ford is more innovative than the rest of the OEMs [Chevrolet and Toyota], or do you guys have any idea what the teams are doing?

Patrick DiMarco: No. I think we’re a leader in a lot of areas that we work in; some areas we know we’re a little behind, a lot of other areas, we are further ahead.

T: Were you guys the first to have this type of trailer?

Patrick DiMarco: No. This big trailer, actually, GM had a larger one first, but I think our smaller one has more technology than their large one.

T: During the race, how many people are necessary to man this, to communicate all the data back and forth?

Patrick DiMarco: It’s one full-time job for somebody here and one half-time job for somebody at the tech center to manage the data. Really, it’s one full-time job for one person. It’s when issues arise that we have to react, that we might need somebody at the tech center to help out, but just to manage data and IT and infrastructure, it’s one person’s job.

T: Is that person you, or is it someone else during the race? 

Patrick DiMarco: No. We have an IT guy that sits back here. We have other engineers that are responsible for checking the quality of the data coming in, making sure that — and then they work with the teams on pictures during the race — if they see something that’s wrong with the car, they’ll communicate that to the team members. To go look at certain pictures, you have to be on the grill, you’re right where the quarter panel has damage to it, so we work with them, the teams, to give them added eyes and ears to radio and communication of pictures.

T: Is there ever a time where something is picked up here in this data center before they pick it up out on the track, and do you guys relay it?

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Patrick DiMarco: Yeah. For sure.

T: Is that constantly, or just occasionally?

Patrick DiMarco: No, we do see things. Our photographers are trained to look for things, so we will see things before they see it. And we might miss something and they call and say, “Hey, can you check this car? Can you look at this?” We’re in constant communication with the race engineers on the pit boxes, as well as, we have the ability just like the Formula 1 guys to work off-site, so all the guys have access to a lot of the data that’s here so we don’t necessarily need to bring 20 people to the racetrack to do our job.

T: So this is pretty much engineer-driven, would you say?

Patrick DiMarco: Yeah.

T: What is the progression from, maybe, working out in the pits to getting in here? Is this something where, if you’re an engineer you start in here, or do you pull people who have worked out [in the pits]?

Patrick DiMarco: It varies.

T: You’ve been here 20+ years?

Patrick DiMarco: I started in 1996 working in the NASCAR Truck Series, and then from there, I progressed through different roles. I’ve worked in IndyCar, NHRA, I’ve done it all.

T: Did you have a background in motorsports before joining Ford and the performance team?

Patrick DiMarco: Yeah. I started in Ford, and I’ve done a lot. I did a rotation in racing for the Truck series and then I kind of never left. It’s what I wanted to do as a kid growing up and going to the Indy 500 every year.

T: So the majority of people here, were they with Ford and then integrated into Ford Performance, or was it random?

Patrick DiMarco: Random.

T: Is there anything I should know that’s important?

Patrick DiMarco: The biggest thing is taking the massive amounts of information that we get and condensing it down as fast as we can and into the best format to do our analyses around. We try and make sure that all our tools are used across all our teams so that they don’t have to do all of it. We don’t need three teams doing a timing and scoring program and three teams taking pictures. We try and do as much as we can of what everybody does so that they can do other things with their money, people, and resources.

T: Is there ever a time where the drivers dictate what you guys are doing?

Patrick DiMarco: They have some input if they are looking for something, or want to use the tools a certain way. They do have input on where some of the pictures are taken.

T: Which driver would you say is the most active in terms of really being into what is going on in here?

Patrick DiMarco: I think they all are. They all use the information because they have to, or else they’ll get beaten by it. So when they’re out there and looking at their tablets, they’re looking at information and pictures and things that are coming through here; videos, we can do some Dartfish of those cameras up on the roof, seeing the overlays of skiers that go downhill. We do that anytime the cars are on the racetrack. They do the overlays for us and that comes to us, and then goes to the teams.

T: I’ve been to Dearborn, Michigan a few times and I know Ford is really into virtual reality on a lot of stuff. Does that come into play with anything that you’re doing here

Patrick DiMarco: Not here. Our driving simulator that we have at our tech center…

T: The Concord?

Patrick DiMarco: Yeah. The driving simulator is like real-life. There are 3D screens so the depth and perception is there; the cockpit is exactly like the car. Our driving simulator was used in an F1 team, the same exact model.

T: I’ve talked to Alex Bowman a few times about using the simulator, but personally, it [driving a simulator] didn’t work out.

Patrick DiMarco: Yeah. Funny story, that is. Our road car guys are using the simulator for production cars now, and one of our technical specialists, the first time he drove it he couldn’t do a lap. We took him out and a little later we put him back in and he could go a little bit more. By the end of the first day, he was able to complete two or three laps. The following day, he got back in and drove for six hours straight. It’s tricking your brain; the higher-end they are, the better you will do in them and also the faster you’ll go. The slower you go, it doesn’t gel with your brain so we try to get people to go as fast as they can so that it’s more real.

T: Okay. So the next time I come down to the Concord, I will go fast.

Patrick DiMarco: [laughs]

T: Thank you. The last time I was with the Ford Performance team at the track in Talladega, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won.