A team of race control officials constantly watch over the race. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
An incredible amount of effort is required from many different people in order successfully to host a 24 hour endurance race. While the television coverage and website articles often focus on the skills and stamina of the drivers and teams, there are many other crews that work just as hard behind the scenes to organize the event in the first place.
MotorsportWeek.com went behind the scenes with IMSA race control during the recent Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona to see what it takes to put on one of world’s premiere sportscar races.
61 cars on track. Over 230 individual drivers. Record fan attendance. Brand new prototype formula. The 61st running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona set the bar early as one of the biggest racing events of the year. Every aspect of the event had to be meticulously planned out in advance, otherwise the entire operation could come to a halt due to a single, small oversight. That did not happen, however, and the first major endurance race of the season went off without a hitch.
Keeping the whole operation running smoothly, dedicated members of IMSA race control are stationed in a press box high above the 3.56-mile facility. From that high perch the crew could look out the window and have a commanding view of the entire track, although that straightforward option was rarely used. That is because fed into the suite, which covers only approximately 75 square meters, is every single camera around the entire speedway.
The television production and direction happens off-site before being delivered to audiences around the world, but every camera feed is also broadcast inside the race control suite. Multiple large televisions are mounted on stands and split into subsections to give everyone in the room a clear view of any camera angle they need to do their job. Upwards of 50 camera feeds are constantly streaming into the room, and up to 36 are displayed on the large televisions at any moment.
Televisions, laptops, and phones are just some of the ways the officials communicate. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
The group that is tasked with deciding penalties and reviewing incidents has even more control at their fingertips. Each one of those video feeds can be rolled back, replayed, and analyzed frame-by-frame if necessary in order to determine what actually took place. Multiple video feeds can be placed side by side to work out nearly any situation that arises, then the videos are snapped back to the live feed to continue monitoring the race as it happens.
In addition to the camera feeds, each person in the room relies on multiple other forms of communication. Every person reads data from a laptop with multiple windows open, checks and sends messages with their phones, and many have direct radio communication channels open as well. There is so much to keep track of at any given time that only the most talented people would be able to effectively fill the roles assigned to them.
And yet, all of the race control personnel seem relaxed and comfortable with what they are doing. A core group of seven sits in a pre-determined V formation facing the large wall of television feeds. The race director sits in the center chair, with the personnel she needs to communicate with most often sitting to her left and right. One is tasked with talking directly to all drivers on a dedicated radio channel, one talks to individual teams to discuss options and directives, and another talks with track personnel to verify on-the-ground situations.
There is a lot of information to keep track of. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
An example of some of the situations the team has to handle came when the #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW GTP prototype suffered a sudden problem with its MGU hybrid component less than an hour into the race. Nick Yelloly was forced to pull over to the side of the track while IMSA officials and his crew both determined the best course of action. Some of the information race control receives includes the status of the potentially dangerous hybrid components of the new cars. They are then able to use that information to police energy usage, and also help to diagnose problems when failures arise.
Race control officials were able to determine that the MGU was the component of the car that flagged as unsafe, and relayed that information to the team. Even though the system reverted to a safe status a short while later, the team was told it needed to bring the car to the garage area and replace the possibly malfunctioning component. IMSA officials on the ground were contacted over radio, and ensured that the team replaced the parts according to the rules before being allowed back out on track.
All of this happened behind the scenes, and without any breakdown in the procedure. An impressive achievement considering the hybrid components for the all-new GTP class are brand new, as is all the of the verification that is done to ensure the crew would be safe from electrical shock. The #25 was allowed back on track a short time later, and the component that triggered the warning will be taken by IMSA to determine what went wrong.
In all, there are 28 different race control officials brought in to manage the 24 hour race. 10-12 are on duty at any given moment, and they rotate in shifts to give each other a chance to take a break and have a meal. A couple of the highest-ranking officials, Senior Director of Race Operations Mark Ruffauf in particular, do not take a break and are on duty throughout the entire 24 hours.
The view from the suite is commanding, but still not used very much. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
As the lead of the whole operation, Ruffauf is a natural in his role. He joined IMSA first in 1978 and held various roles until he took over as IMSA President in in 1989. Now he has ended up overseeing both the technical and sporting regulations for the series, helping develop the ruleset and enforce it. He builds such a strong team around him for raceday, that he is often able to take time to give personal tours of race control itself to VIPs who are at the track.
Ruffauf received the prestigious Phil Hill award earlier this year, which is given out each year to an individual that has rendered outstanding service to the sport of road racing. With as smoothly and efficiently as his crew works in the middle of one of their biggest events of the season, it’s not hard to see why the award was given.
The efficiency of race control is even more impressive considering that they are not stationed in a consistent environment, but rather have to conform to the venue they are visiting. It would be easy to assume they would bring their own office built into a semi-trailer so as to have the same arrangement every weekend, but that is not the case.
Every track has differently-shaped suites, different power and data arrangements, and varying qualities of camera coverage around the track for the team to tap into. All of these considerations force adjustments to be made not just in the setup, but also in the minute-by-minute operation of the crew. Not that anyone would be able to tell based on the quality of their work.
The highest-ranking race control officials are on duty for the entire 24 hour race. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
Ruffauf told MotorsportWeek.com multiple times during the visit that the goal of his job is to make things work efficiently, but also to stay in the background. He has no desire to have any one of his crew mentioned during a broadcast or actively discussed among the fans. Race control is not part of the entertainment, he reiterated, but is there to make sure that the entertainment can go ahead without any disruptions.
By time the checkered flag flew on Sunday afternoon, it was clear that the entire crew had done exactly the job they had set out to do. The new GTP formula, which brought plenty of new challenges to the table for teams and officials alike, was a resounding success in its first real test, and race was as entertaining as ever for the fans.
The massive task of keeping a complicated, day-long race running smoothly was handled with ease thanks to the combination of a talented race control crew and a bevy of information coming together inside a single suite high above the speedway.
Keyword: Behind the scenes: Race Control at the Daytona 24