As I explained on many earlier blogs, thanks to the support of my family and good advice from friends, I graduated from a Mechatronic Engineering Degree. I will get to this story later. Why am I bringing this up? Thanks to my education and my first few opportunities to work outside of racing, I was introduced to 6Sigma, an approach that has been adopted by a growing majority of the fortune 500 companies.
6Sigma is a 5 step methodology to improve or create new processes. DMAIC is the 5 step strategy to attack a project.
Dà DEFINE……… Make a plan before you shoot
Mà MEASURE… Make sure you have data that supports your results
Aà ANALYZE ….. Analyze data before you make any changes
Ià IMPLEMENT… Make Changes
Cà CONTROL……… Develop a strategy to make sure your changes will stick
There are so many things happening these days regarding my future in racing, so many exciting plans and yet, I´m not ready to talk about them. Not until I tell you how I got here. The first thing 6Sigma taught me is: You need to learn how to walk before trying to fly. To understand the present, I´m going to have to keep talking about the past, so you´re going to have to bear with me for a few more blogs. We´re currently set to Define Mode (DMAIC).
My first time in a race car was in 1995. My brother had passed away in 1994 and my parents were going through a divorce as my mom was dealing with breast cancer. Life was hard as it could be. It was a sunny day in the Monterrey, Mexico racetrack. The Marlboro Series that had originally ran F-2 cars successfully for a decade and a four Race Championship starting this same weekend with a new 350hp F-3000 car in my hometown. With their shiny brand new cars, sponsored by TECATE, my dad´s team (MARTIGA) was ready to start another racing weekend. Dad didn´t know yet, but this would be his last season as a driver and I didn´t know this either, but I was about to run my first race this weekend.
I remember this weekend perfectly, I was 14 years old then. It was a Saturday morning and I was having a usual day at one of the races, fooling around in the truck and joking with the mechanics. Out of nowhere, dad comes to me and asks me if I want to drive. I don´t think I needed to answer that question, I was already looking for a helmet before he finished the question. The old F-2 cars from last year were running as a support series and one of the teams knew about me and had a free seat that weekend. Since everyone had a lot of respect for my dad and had been really supportive since my brother passed away, they gave me that opportunity. I guess this answers the last blog´s question. Was this luck? NO. This was a result of all the work and respect my Dad, Capi and my Brother earned in the paddock and also, I was there and ready. I didn´t know this but after my brother passed away Capi and Dad decided they wouldn´t make racing easy for me unless I showed a great deal of determination. I did show determination and they became two of my biggest supporters throughout my career. More on that later.
Getting back to my first experience on an open wheel car, I was all dressed up, wearing one of my dad´s old suits and my Simpson helmet. They threw me in directly for the warmup on a Sunday morning as everything wasn´t ready for practice. I have to admit, it was a bit scary at first. Obviously I didn´t have my own seat and that didn´t make me feel like home inside a cockpit, as it should be. As I´m sure most drivers will agree with me, warm-ups suck. They´re too short and the track is always green. I didn´t get more than five laps and the race was next.
Going out to the race, everything felt a bit better. The mystery was gone, I knew what it felt like going over 200km/hr on the long straight, and so the race started. Because of my little experience and short track time, I was off the pace and found myself running alone until I had a mechanical issue. When I got out of the car, the best thing happened. Capi and dad were going to build me a car to race in my dad´s team (MARTIGA) and this is where the good stuff begins.
