Through the Intern’s Eyes: Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio

Growing up in Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world, racing has always been a part of my life in some shape or form. Having the opportunity to travel and work in the sport that has been integrated into who I am is the perfect way for me to spend the summer months. SundayGroup Management has given me exactly that and more with the chance to expand not only my knowledge and experience in motorsports public relations, but also in different forms of racing that I have not been exposed to.

Sports car racing is new to me since I had been primarily just around IndyCar. The class system, the types of cars, and the series specifications were all a foreign language. The Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio was the first time I saw the high intensity on-track action of not only Prototype cars but GT cars in the flesh and not just on a T.V. screen at home.

I experienced the shear amazement of the performance capabilities of these race machines, with their engines screaming through the otherwise peaceful countryside in Lexington, Ohio.  Racing is a love that was implanted in me as a child which grew with the exposure to IndyCar, but witnessing those cars for the first time took my child-like love to a whole new level and made me wonder… what had I been missing out on this for so long?

Sunday Group Management provides a unique structure on race weekends with the number of clients in the varied series that accompany one event. I’ve always considered myself to be a busy bee, but this was a new level of busy. Almost every single session of on-track activity was pertinent to me because we had a client that was driving constantly. If you ever feel the need to challenge yourself in how much you can learn in a short amount of time, do something you have never really paid attention to and learn the facts in a couple 60-minute sessions over three days. Even as a college kid in a full load of classes, I had never been challenged like that ever and I will come out gaining more experience than I could even think of in a classroom setting.

To me, racing in any form is more than just a sport but a community of people. The passion of fans is what drives racing forward. Everyone involved from drivers and crew to photographers were all fans before they became professionals and that first love as a fan is still evident, even under the stress that comes from working in this environment. I have never seen a group of people as I did in the Mid-Ohio media center light up when the conversation of a Rodney Sandstorm (Wayne Taylor Racing Jordan Taylor’s famous alter ego) look-alike strolled around the paddock in Rodney fashion. It’s that base of being a fan that makes people stick around and want to be a part of the traveling circus.

The main take away from the weekend at Mid-Ohio is that IMSA and sports cars will now have a key spot in my racing world from now on. Also, while I will be working at these events, it doesn’t hurt to keep my fan side alive because that is how PR people in this industry continue to excel and produce the best media exposure possible for whoever they are working for– and that’s the material I want to create and the PR rep I want to be.