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
MàMEASURE… Make sure you have data that supports your results
AàANALYZE ….. Analyze data before you make any changes
IàIMPLEMENT… Make Changes
CàCONTROL……… 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.
