Vision Racing Road Trip to Homestead-Miami, Florida October 4, 2009
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Vision Racing's part-time PR guy, Michael Kaltenmark is going to take a road trip with team transporter driver Sean Hopper, from Indianapolis to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the final race of the 2009 IndyCar Season. Ride along with him on his adventure right here on VisionRacing.com
Vision Racing Transporter Road Trip– Intro
Hi. My name is Michael Kaltenmark and I work for Vision Racing. I’m the minority partner in the PR/marketing team which is headed up by Ms. Pat Caporali. Most of you are familiar with Pat. I’m the guy behind the gal, so to speak.
Anyway, there’s this idea that I stole from the IndyCar Series; might have been the extremely talented “Dot Com Dave” Lewandowski, but I can’t remember. All I know is they stuck some guy who’s good on the keyboard in a semi and sent him off with a truck driver to the next race track…I think it was last season and Richmond International Raceway…and then that guy wrote about it so that fans could see that side of the operation. Brilliant!
So, I intend to do the same thing, only probably not as well and with more useless copy…much like this introduction. I first took the idea to Pat, who probably rejoiced at the idea of FINALLY getting a window seat instead of her usual middle on a plane for once, and then on to our team truck drivers. I wanted to check their initial reaction to the idea and determine whether they could tolerate me for miles upon miles in a closed cabin.
Much to my surprise, the “truckies” were very supportive, suggested we try the overnight trip for the IndyCar Season finale in Miami, Fla. and promptly sent me over to see our team manager, Keven Kaye, to ask for final permission.
This part I remember vividly as the team was enjoying a nice July 4th sunset over a grill and some bottles of suds, but the only problem was, our ladies and loved ones were back in Indiana as we were all celebrating our nation’s independence in a Corning, New York Fairfield Inn court yard, situated below the foot of an upstate New York interstate… hardly glamorous, but that’s life on the road.
Like a kid asking his dad if he can have his next birthday party at the McDonald’s Playland (Ok, maybe only I did this… I was five years old or something.) I asked Keven if he thought it would be cool if I rode in the transporter down to Miami to do a story for the website or something. (I probably phrased it just like that too.)
Again, much to my surprise, Keven was probably the most supportive and encouraging when it came to the idea. Maybe it was the beer talking, though I don’t think he really had any (always playing the father-figure role), but Keven acted like there was no other way for me to get to Miami from that point forward… it was either the highway, or the highway. (You see what I did there… clever.)
Keven has held just about every job and position on a race team, including driving the late night shift back in his glory days with Newman-Hass Racing when the schedule took them out to California and then back east in just a matter of days. He told me that there’s nothing like riding a rig and it’s an experience that I shouldn’t pass up. So the arrangements were made and the deal was done. The only thing left for me to do was to come up with a CB handle and pack my bags. At this point, I’ve done neither.
Fast forward to now and I’m all but ready to go, but now starting to wonder if this was really a good idea… hmm, a city slicker PR guy out of his element spending several hours in a semi cab armed with nothing more than a seatbelt, a laptop, iPhone, and cameras…this could explain why Keven was a little too excited to have me take this trip.
Oh well, I’m committed at this point and I’ve cleared my work calendar (remember, I only work for Vision Racing on a part-time basis and work for Butler University by day), called my Northwestern Mutual agent to make sure my life insurance was paid up, and have been on YouTube watching clips of “Smoky and The Bandit” to brush up on my trucker lingo.
The big red transporter, in the capable hands of Sean Hopper, leaves Vision Racing Indianapolis, Ind. based shop on Monday, Oct. 5th at 11:30 a.m. carrying the No. 20 and 20T Menards/Vision Racing Dallara/ Honda/ Firestone machine and all of the necessary equipment for the team to compete in the IndyCar Series season finale, the Firestone Indy 300, and yours truly is scheduled to be riding shotgun the entire way.
We interrupt this blog to inform you that the Firestone Indy 300 will air live from Homestead-Miami Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. ET on VERSUS-TV…check local listings and IndyCar.com.
In an attempt to add a little something to the Vision Racing new media efforts (listed below)…
www.visionracing.com
www.visionracing.com/fans
www.twitter.com/visionracing
www.facebook.com/visionracing
…I thought I would embark on this trek and chronicle my experience. And if the fans don’t read it and appreciate it, then I figure at least my parents probably will, so what the heck?
So here goes nothing, or at least my attempt to give you another behind the scenes look at Vision Racing and specifically capture what it’s like for our team truck drivers (Sean Hopper, Mike Briggs, Rich Meredith, Ron Christ and Dave Traut) to deliver the team’s cars and equipment from the race shop, to the race track, and then back again.
I mean, these are really the unsung heroes of our business… just think about it for a minute. They leave before everyone else (including leaving loved ones behind), have the awesome responsibility of delivering millions of dollars worth of equipment to remotely located racetracks, work long days at the track, and then when the rest of the team is sipping brewskies at the local airport while waiting to fly home, the truck drivers are already two hours down the road and preparing for a long night of looking at pavement in an effort to get the cars back to the shop as soon as possible so that they can be turned around, loaded back up and sent to the next event. It’s a tireless and thankless job, but it’s one that shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s the least I can do to ride along and give you a glimpse of what it’s like.
Come Monday, Oct. 5th, I’ll be tweeting random thoughts and updates from the road, and all the while I’ll be typing updates and taking pictures to post on our website and Facebook page (hopefully at the end of each day).
Feel free to follow along, send feedback, and enjoy the trip from your computer monitor or mobile phone.
10-4, over and out,
Michael K