DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When you enter the infield or grandstands at Daytona International Speedway, it’s clear you’re not witnessing your average roadway.
Cars whip by at speeds nearing 200 miles per hour, you can feel the speed in your chest — and it’s not a tough leap to make that if something were to go wrong, it could go horribly wrong at those speeds.
That’s why the International Motor Sports Association, or IMSA, has its own track services team. Track Services actually encompasses a lot of things that go on before, during and after their races, but when Trooper Steve went out to the Speedway, he wanted to find out specifically how they respond to incidents on the track.
To get a full picture, he spoke to IMSA’s Senior Director of Racing Operations Paul Walter and Senior Manager of Track Services Roy Spielmann. During a race, Walter is up in Race Control, which is really the heart of the race track. Every single thing that happens when cars are on the track is controlled by the people in that room, they hold all the keys. One of the big things that gets coordinated in there-- track services.
PAUL: Track services is an all-encompassing term, because of all the responsibilities those groups have on the race track. It’s not just responding to incidents. It’s about wall repair. It’s about track cleanup, and getting us back to racing. I’m typically in Race Control, we have dedicated dispatchers for track services and Race Control. Our primary dispatcher Fallon Tucker, it’s her responsibility to keep an eye on the entirety of the response group. So we’ve got IMSA Track Services, which is Roy and his crew, on their trucks. And then whichever facility we’re at, we have the local track services team that is operated by that track. And these two groups work together. So our dispatcher in Race Control, is responsible for coordinating between both the groups. And everything goes through Race Control. So we’re certain we know where everything is, and when, so we don’t end up with vehicles or people out on the racetrack where they don’t belong. Track services falls under my responsibilities. But the reality is that Roy and his team do 99% of the job on the ground.
ROY: We’re out there to mitigate whatever happens on the track.
STEVE: So in like normal terms, you’re the equivalent to a Road Ranger, all the way up to a full-service fire department response.
ROY: Yes, we are. We’re ready because we’re going to recover the race car also. So the hard part of our job is to make sure the race car gets back to the paddock area. So we’re going to help loaded on the roll back, get it here. And then of course, if it’s a fire, we’re prepared to fight the fire. If we have to extricate the driver, we’re prepared to extricate drivers. So we’re prepared on the medical side, we’re prepared on the firefighting side. The prototypes, we can generally get the driver out without even having to cut the car. But all the GT cars, if the driver’s got some serious back injuries, pelvic type injuries, we’ll get a board, we’ll secure them, and then we’ll cut the roof off the car and we’ll bring the driver out. And then at some point, we transfer them over to the local medical care.
STEVE: So you say you’re a manager, but to me, you sound like a first responder, firefighter. You’ve got that kind of tone to it.
ROY: Well, I actually became a firefighter in the United States Air Force. Yeah, for six years. I was a paramedic and a firefighter and I absolutely loved it. It treated me really well, took care of my family, absolutely loved what I did. But I knew I wanted to get started and do it in the racing side. I just had a passion for this right from the beginning. And I still do today. You know, and I hope that passion continues for a long time. This is a great series to work for, and I got a great team.
Steve: Yeah, everyone so far I’ve met is super cool, it’s a cool vibe.
ROY: Yeah, we do. Currently I have 14 members on the team, every one of them has been hand-selected through an interview process, very picky about who we bring on a team. We look for people that have strong firefighting and medical background, and would be really nice, too, if they also have a strong racing background. And then once we bring them on our team, it’s kind of stepping it up to the next level, or it’s one of the big things I emphasize, ‘Okay, you might have done well there, but now we’re expecting another level here.’
STEVE: You guys aren’t playing when it comes to your response. Now obviously, great sponsorships come with really cool toys. But this is more than just a Porsche, you guys are fully equipped in this stuff.
ROY: Yeah, the Porches that we have there, we have tools in the back. A lot of hand tools in the back, I got some Sawzalls back there. One fire extinguisher, you can’t carry a lot of firefighting equipment on the Porches, but you can definitely get on the scene quick. We got a rollover bag in there, we roll a car over, we’ll actually set the car on an airbag and set it down. We carry some extrication equipment in the in the Porsches, we have a doctor in one of them. But the Chevys that we carry do the heavy lifting.
STEVE: The fact that you’re bringing the same equipment, you’re shipping your emergency response to each local area.
ROY: It’s very important to have that consistency. And everything we do and how we operate on the racetrack is consistent too. And what’s really unique about our team is we also work very closely with the local team. So they told us got their own track services team, Sebring will have their own track services team, we incorporate them into our system. So when we get to their track, we will train with them. We will have meetings with them, and then they work with us out on the track. We can’t do it on the big race track by ourselves. So that local resource is a huge, huge part of our program.
STEVE: So you guys show up on scene whether it’s Sebring, or here at Daytona International.
ROY: We usually get in the day before what we call the track going hot for a setup day. We’ll have a team meeting usually about 90 minutes before the track goes hot. Once the track goes hot, we go out to station, we’re parked strategically around the track and then it’s just like it’s been in the fire department, you just wait for dispatch from the tower, our race control group. They’ve got cameras up there, they’re watching everything.
STEVE: You guys train and you train for a driver’s worst day. Talk to me a little bit about some of those experiences for you.
ROY: Unfortunately, I’ve been involved in some very serious wrecks, I’ve seen the fatality. You do your job, and I don’t know how to really describe that to the layperson. You’re just you trained for it. And when you actually get to do it, it just happens. You know, it’s a team effort, and everybody does their job. And I think everybody’s going to process it differently. But again, I work with professionals, they are used to processing it on the other end of their careers. So I think here, the difference here is you’re doing it on TV, you know, it’s going to be the people watching, there’s a grandstand behind you. There’s cameras everywhere. But honestly, when I’ve been in those situations, I never thought about any of that, you just you focus in on what you’re doing. And that comes back to the training, so that’s that muscle memory. So when it does happen, we’re ready.
STEVE: You took a passion as a kid of racing and a career as an adult as a firefighter, and got to put it together in a retirement gig. Like I think people dream about that.
ROY: You know, I tell people all the time, I feel like from the day that I went and became a firefighter in the Air Force to the moment we’re standing here now, I’ve lived a dream. I’ve been fortunate to work a job that I’ve always wanted to go to. I’ve never had to get up in the morning and go, ‘I got to do that again.’ Not a lot of people can say that. And I’ve been very fortunate. And I am very thankful that I’ve been blessed with having the opportunity to have that great career in the fire service and have this career here. It’s absolutely incredible. Even the officials I work with, all the people that I work with in racing are just the best of the best. And I’m part of that, right? I don’t know how you cannot get up in the morning and be thankful that you’re part of that kind of program. When I put on our fire suit to go out and work, to me, it’s no different than a hockey player putting on that sweater or a football player putting on his jersey. I’m proud to put that on, it’s game day. And it’s exciting.