A bob’s worth of technology

What do bobsleigh teams, motor racing manufacturers and the city of Bath have in common? British athletes competing in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City have been given a helping hand in the hunt for medals by the latest aerodynamics technologies developed for racing cars and a practice track at Bath University.

Racing car manufacturer Lola Cars and the British Bobsleigh Association (BBA) have joined forces. To help Britain defend its bronze medal in the four-man bob and to plan for future competitions, the pair have signed a five-year deal to develop bobsleigh designs incorporating the latest in motorsport technologies.

Lola has rebuilt the British sleds using carbon fibres to achieve weight savings. Like most bobsleigh teams, Britain’s uses a standard, off-the-shelf sled, and Lola has not had time to design a new model. Nevertheless, the weight saving is still crucial. When the athletes push off at the beginning of the race, any weight saving will allow them to get away quicker.

More importantly, Lola and the BBA are looking to the future. Only elite teams such as the US and Switzerland have specially designed, unique vehicles, and this is what Lola hopes to achieve for Britain. Christopher Tate, marketing director of Lola, says: “These bobsleighs will be manufactured to racing car standards.”

The partners are aiming to have designs ready for the 2006 Olympics and competitions in the meantime. As well as the manufacturing changes, Lola offers trackside management. When practising, managers can review performances using the latest technologies and make changes, rather than constantly dragging the sled to the top of the slope and trying again.

Bruce Ropner, chairman of the BBA, welcomes the new technical agreement: “Our bob drivers and athletes are already world class in terms of physical, competitive and mental approach. This agreement with Lola should give us, over the years to come, the extra speed we need to compete with the world’s best.

“In Salt Lake City, we will be watched by top engineers from Lola, studying the effects of what they have done in modifications – and working with us to plan the technological future of British bobsleigh.”

While the design of the sled is all important, crewmen have to be highly trained to take into account the split-second nature of the competition. In an effort to help the teams, a unique £300,000 practice track has been designed by Bath University to replicate the opening moments of their runs.

BBA performance director Tony Wallington enthuses about the new facility: “The start is crucial in bobsleigh, and this track mirrors the real thing. Our athletes will be able to practise their starts time and time again, watched by coaches and analysed by biomechanical technology.”

Technology, named Quintic, is a software program that video tapes the actions of each runner and then overlays them upon each other. The best running line and style of each of the crewmen can be worked out and changed to bring the optimum style. The software enables split screen images of performances to be compared and analysed in detail. The distance, velocity and acceleration of the sled can also be calculated and compared with the video and technique of the crewmen of each start.

Additionally, a timing device, designed by German firm Tistronic, provides timing to an accuracy of three decimal places. Lasers embedded in the track walls can measure the speed of the passing sled. Such accurate measurements are vital in a sport where medal positions are determined in hundredths of a second. The athletes travel down the track at speeds of up to 50mph. Athletes who will be taking part in the sports of bobsleigh, bob-skeleton and luge will all benefit from the 125m track which replicates the start of the tracks in Salt Lake City and Turin, Italy, where the 2006 games will be held.

Wallington says: “If a team loses hundredths of a second at the start it is very difficult to make up the deficit on the track. Equally, a good start can make a huge difference to the finish time.

“We are quietly confident of getting good results. Ice-track sports are coming back into their own in this country. We lost the expertise for a while but this track can help us back to the top level.”

The university’s property services department designed the track with input from the engineering and sports department, and its dimensions closely model those on which the athletes will compete. Local firm M J Church built the track. The project was aided by funding from the BBA, Sport England’s lottery fund and sponsor VT Aerospace.

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