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Instant Gratification: Robert Brooks brings a unique perspective to his role as manager of Ford’s Truck Racing Program
For Robert Brooks, NASCAR Truck Program manager at Ford Racing Technology, racing is about more than just being competitive and winning. “What I find really enjoyable is the fact that you get results right after you race,” says Brooks. “You know how well you performed, and you can take it back to work with you the next day.” But, Brooks adds, that instantaneous feedback can be a double-edged sword. “When you’re running well, it’s great,” he says. “When you’re not, it’s painful.”
As program manager, Brooks’ job is to be the liaison among the Ford Racing teams, Ford Racing Technology and NASCAR. He is constantly monitoring the teams’ performance, receiving input from drivers and crew chiefs, and making sure their equipment is comparable to and competitive with what the other manufacturers have. If he thinks Ford needs a competitive boost, he lobbies NASCAR for a change. Brooks also provides teams with support from Ford Performance Technology engineers to help them improve their race trucks.
And if that wasn’t enough, Brooks has taken on chief engineering duties with the Circle Bar Racing No. 14 F-150 team and driver Rick Crawford, dividing his time among his Dearborn, Mich., office, NASCAR Craftsman Truck’s 25-race schedule and Circle Bar’s Concord, N.C., shop. “I spent a lot of time earlier in the year down at the shop,” says Brooks. “When you stop to think about it, all races are won or lost in the shop. It’s all about preparation.”
 “In the truck series, you really have to show up ready to race. Our races are short compared with NEXTEL Cup races. You don’t have the option of tweaking the truck as the race progresses to make it competitive. You have to unload, fast.” Though Brooks’ job may make him the envy of most race fans, he doesn’t consider himself one of them. “I’m pretty much a guy who might watch the Indy 500 now and then,” says Brooks, “but I was never really a race fan.” His career path has been purely engineering driven. Armed with a degree in acoustical engineering from Purdue University, Brooks went to work for Boeing Co., “making airplanes quieter.” Searching for more gratification, he attended a Ford open house and accepted an offer to join the Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) Department. “At Boeing, you would never know the fruits of your labor,” says Brooks. “It may be 10 years before the plane you worked on ever got off the ground. Working at Ford allows you to connect with the customer. You know your customer, you can talk to them.”
Brooks found his way into the racing program through a former NVH manager who invited him to join a motorsports engineering group the manager had been tapped to run. Brooks worked as a vehicle dynamics engineer on Formula One cars, Champ cars, and NASCAR trucks and cars. It was at this group where he got his first taste of the type of engineering gratification that comes with racing. Applying his engineering expertise, Brooks worked with the 1997 Formula One team. The team had been struggling that year and came to Ford for help. “They brought their car over for us to do a battery of tests on it,” Brooks says. “We put it on what’s called a four-poster, a machine designed to evaluate shock absorber performance.” Brooks worked on the vehicle dynamics to determine the best shock settings to give the car better grip. “I came up with a setting that I thought was better than the one they had,” Brooks says. The team went to the next race at Montreal with Brooks’ shock settings, and driver Rubens Barrichello qualified third.
“That was real neat.”
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