Monday, June 06, 2005
WORKING AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Our church has a money-raising project for our youth mission trips. During the months of May, June and August we can work as “volunteers” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In May it is the Indianapolis 500 race, in June the Formula One Race and in August the Brickyard 400.
We as individuals don’t get any money but the racetrack makes a donation to the volunteer organization in the amount of something like $7.00 per hour per person for every hour the individual works.
Our church has been on a waiting list for this opportunity for several years. Finally our name made its way to the top of the list this year. We worked a couple of Saturdays in May. I worked the second Saturday. I was at a college graduation ceremony the first Saturday the group from our church worked. I am glad, too, because it rained everything out that first Saturday by 3 o’clock! I understand that until then most everybody got pretty wet and some of the group caught colds and stuff as a result of standing out in the weather most of the day.
The second Saturday was a gorgeous day as far as the weather was concerned. I have to admit to having a lot of apprehension about doing this before I actually participated. I kept thinking, “I don’t have time for this; I don’t need this.” But I knew I needed to do it. Having done it, I am ready to go back. I’m already signed to go June 18th and I’ll sign for August 6th also.
There were seven of us from our church the day I worked. It was a long day. We had to be at the track at 7:00 a. m. and worked until 5:30 p. m. There were breaks during the day but otherwise we stood on our feet. Our job was to take tickets as people drove in the main gate. There were a few walk-ins but most came in cars.
It was a good job because for the most part the people coming in hadn’t started the heavy drinking so we didn’t deal with a lot of drunks. Some of the people working inside the track as the day progressed weren’t so fortunate!
We saw a variety of people-types and cars as we worked the gate all day long. Both fascinated me! There were “old clunkers” of cars and there were Porsches , Corvettes, BMWs, Mercedes Benz—all variety of automobiles.
The people were fascinating, too. Most were pleasant and happy to be going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Some people were unresponsive to our friendliness. I don’t think I encountered any real grouches. We were told to be pleasant, friendly and encourage people to enjoy themselves at the Speedway so they would want to come back.
On our breaks we got to watch race cars practice or qualify for the race. There were lots of activities in the infield, also. We were able to take in part of a Christian concert on the coca cola stage. Christian artists Sarah Groves. Orlando Ortega and Bebo Norman performed. I only got to hear and see Ortega and Bebo Norman. They were good. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chaplaincy program presented this concert.
It was a good day. I’m ready to go back. ANYONE OUT THERE WANT TO GO WITH ME? WE HAVE ROOM FOR MORE WORKERS. It is a good way to get to see some Formula One racing or some Brickyard 400 NASCAR racing.
I don’t know what our job will be next time. Our leader from our church is going to request we be assigned to the main gate again but that doesn’t mean they will honor his request, They really liked us, though. Several of the Paid Speedway Staff complimented us on the way we did our work. Maybe they'll let us work at the main gate again!
Jim
posted by jim 3:10 PM 0 comments
Comments:
Post a Comment
