SPEAKER_02: 0:08

Okay, okay, okay. Welcome back to Track Dying Podcast from Marshalls. I'm Jamie Osborne.

SPEAKER_00: 0:22

I'm Jessica Alfred.

SPEAKER_02: 0:23

And uh we are continuing our exploration of all of the crazy things that Marshalls do in this episode of the podcast. So I've been looking forward to this one for a while, Jess. We are interviewing our friends Nadja Pollard and Tony Berkey. And uh for those that have worked F1, WEC, Moto, those are familiar names. Those are the Chiefs of Pit Paddock and Grid for most of all of the FIA events and a bunch of STCA events and all kinds of things for a while now. They are the the pit chiefs and uh the the two pit chiefs in North America. And um we've had Denis Castillo on the uh podcast previous, who is sort of the pit worker extraordinaire. He told us about all of his experience working in Pit Lane for Nadja and Tony and also elsewhere in the world, uh at Lamont and other places like that. But uh now we get to hear from the ladies themselves, and we're gonna take a deep dive into all that makes up Pit Pit Grid. It's uh something you're very familiar with.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Yeah, no, it's I've I've worked with them many times. They're always awesome to work with, and it's an honor to be selected for their team. You know, they kind of talk about how they you know recruit, and you'll kind of hear about that and what they look for. And so it's it's always uh, you know, I think it's kind of alluded to, you know, you're you're only as good as your last performance. So it's like that's always such a fun team to get to work with and and like a family, as they'll say. So I'll always, if you're ever interested in working PPG, as they'll talk about, um, definitely make sure that you you bring your A game because uh it's it will be worth your while to want to stick around with them and they work really hard and uh yeah, really, really thrilled to get them on the on the show. They're good friends of ours. And uh yeah, they're always uh, you know, they're so professional with everything they do. There's always business first, but they're also like some of the funniest people we know in this biz. They're hilarious and they're just cool people to know, and they kind of get into some of their crazy stories in this.

SPEAKER_02: 2:43

Absolutely. So just a word of warning, we're gonna smash through our record of the longest podcast, as you've probably looked at on the uh on your phone or whatever gizmo you're watching listening to this podcast in, and I'm sure you're going, wow, this one's a long one. What are they gonna talk about? Well, trust me, you're about to find out. But uh, you're right, Jess. They they are exceedingly professional, they they are very good at their job, but when all is said and done, they know how to have a good time. So you're gonna get a little bit of all of that in in this uh episode. Um let's just roll it. This is the interview that uh just and I did with uh with Nadja Pollard and Tony Berkey, the pit chiefs of pretty much everything.

SPEAKER_00: 3:41

So we have the dynamic duo of PPG, also known as Pit Paddock Grid, on our show today. Uh, I think between the two of them, they might have to fact-check me on this, they are the chiefs of that team at all of the FIA and FIM events in the country, I believe. And they're just awesome, awesome people. We're thrilled to have them here, and they're good friends of ours. Nalya Pollard and Tony Berkey, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_03: 4:09

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_00: 4:10

Yeah, so uh usually we talk, we've the first thing we love to talk about is the origin stories of how everybody got into this. Um, you know, it's all we have such a diverse, we've had a lot of different interesting stories of how these people do this. And so there's a lot, it's always interesting to hear everyone how they got into it, because not everybody's a racing fanatic, as we know. Um, so let's let's let's start. Tony, do you wanna you wanna kick it off?

SPEAKER_05: 4:37

Sure. I will start off. Uh I actually got into doing marshalling in 2011 in Indianapolis, which was my original home track. And I started out in the corner and really loved it. And then I was invited or asked to go into the pit grid team. And this was for Moto GP when Moto GP actually started and came to Indianapolis. And I started doing grid in 2012, the next year, and have not really gone back to any other specialty since then because I just fell in love with PPG. And once Moto GP moved to Circuit of the Americas, I was asked to go down for quote unquote one year to train everybody at Coda for Moto GP, and I never left. So Coda is now officially my home track, and I've been doing Moto GP and F1 and WEC. I did Le Mans in 20, was it 2016? We had it there. I think. Okay. So I whenever that was a long time ago, I did that and just really enjoyed it. And here we are.

SPEAKER_00: 5:50

So yeah, she is the unofficial, official Texan, even though she lives in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02: 5:55

She has the longest commute.

SPEAKER_05: 5:57

I have I also have a track cat from Coda on my arm. So it's it's official now.

SPEAKER_04: 6:04

It's official.

SPEAKER_00: 6:04

That is hardcore. So what led you to do be the do the corner that first time? Were you just a racing fan? Is that what it means? Yes.

SPEAKER_05: 6:12

Um, was really into Moto GP and I'm a motor or was a motorcycle safety instructor in Illinois. So when Moto GP came to Indy, they were looking for marshals and they came to the motorcycle safety group in Illinois and said, Hey, since you guys are obviously into motorcycles, would you be interested in marshalling? And that's how it started. So there were a few instructors that marshalled in the years before I did, and they were telling me how much fun it was. And so obviously I'm never going to turn away a fun time. So I was like, Yeah, let's do it. And I got hooked. I literally started out on two and ended up on four. Um, still do the two wheels, obviously, but uh it's hard to give this up once racing gets in your blood. It's in your blood.

SPEAKER_00: 6:57

Yeah. What a great way to recruit at a school. That's that's that's awesome. Yeah, very cool. All right, Naja, how about you?

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

So um I started uh autocrossing actually in college. Um my father had really been into racing, but had never done it himself. So he followed a lot of stuff and so was very much into cars. So I just kind of picked it up and it uh I was lucky enough to go to AM, which has Texas World's had Texas World Speedway next door to it. So through auto crossing, um, I just started flagging at the track there. I was not really a member of anything other than just it went out and flagged. Um and then later on, uh when uh I guess it was MSR Houston in 2004, 2005, when they started up, um, I was in Houston at the time and started working races there. Started flagging, um, actually did my my captain's uh checkout when we had a car roll over on its roof right at my station. And I had had two students from U of H who were working my corner with me, who I had to direct and everything. And, you know, having having such a violent act at your at your corner when you're in this little club race at this new track at the time, um, you know, was kind of a uh an interesting event for me to do my corner checkout or my captain's checkout. So um as it was, I then got recruited by James Rogerson to go work timing and scoring. He was trying to get a lot of people with software backgrounds who had a little bit of savvy on computers to go work different, um uh like registration, timing and scoring. So I went inside and then I started racing. While I was doing timing and scoring, I started racing through lemons, um, and then um started doing SCCA. And that's when I really started a lot of work with SCCA. Um did got my grid pit um national license, uh timing and scoring divisional. Um uh I'm now a steward, I've been have a national steward license, but still my F and C license is still a little baby regional one. And it's just because I got pulled in different directions. But you know, the the cool thing is always saying yes to somebody with new opportunities, sort of like Tony explained on hers, has led to me being uh, you know, on the F1 team. Like Tony, um, I my first race for F1 was 2012 at Coda, and luckily um I started out on the PPG team because um I knew Lisa K. Foyle um and James Foyle. James Foyle was a clerk of the course at the time, and Lisa K had said, you know, being on PPG team, you you I think you'd be a good fit. So I have only ever worked an F1 event on the PPG team. I have no idea, you know, it's like the Stephen King Langaliers, nothing else happens outside of PPG. That's true. It's true, and and you know, it's it's not for for lack of trying, it's just I really, really enjoy PPG. We have such a unique opportunity um at the track during those events to be in our location rather than on the corners. But we have a lot of people who come from the corners who then go back, you know, they they enjoy it, want to do another experience and go back to corners. I I totally get it. Um, and it's the same thing with MotoGP, you know, they people come back from the corners are invention, and then they're like, okay, I've done it and I want to go back. Um, but I'm not saying anything disparaging about PBG, it's just a completely different beast, and it's kind of hard to get experience to go into that because you know, I only started doing a lot of pit lane and uh pit lane work because of Coda. It's a unique track that has a very long pit lane. We almost always have somebody working pit in and pit out, even on smaller events, yeah, and that's where the experience comes from. So folks who are interested in coming to PPG don't really get a lot of opportunities, but we've also brought in people who don't have a lot of experience, you know. Um, they come from different walks of life, and they just say, How do I get involved? And we talk to them. And I mean, you know, Tony and I have been on that team as our we were we little babes on that team. And I mean, uh, you know, it's it's all like family, it's like family now, and and you know that that's I I love PPG, I I think it's a great, great, unique opportunity that we have, and um, I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

SPEAKER_02: 11:57

So those are great origin stories, and we always love finding out about how people got started in motorsport. Naja, could you go into a little bit of uh sort of the technical details? What does the pit grid team do?

SPEAKER_01: 12:15

So when uh basically when Tony and I started, and this does bleed over into Moto GP as well. Um, the the the first P in Pitpad Grid is Pit Lane. So we monitor pit lane for safety, we monitor the track surface, make sure it's free of debris. Um, if there are any issues with the gates, like it I'm specifically talking about um Miami, Coda, and um Vegas here. We have very, very large gates that we open up in between pit lane and the front straight. Um we call it the hot pit wall, we call those the hot gates or something. Um, but we have to open these giant, giant crash gates that have heavy bars on them. Um and we can actually push cars through there if they're disabled on the front grid. We'll push them back through. Um we have push teams as part of that as well, which I guess should be another P on the PPG team.

SPEAKER_05: 13:16

Um gosh, our acronym's so long already.

SPEAKER_01: 13:20

I know, I know. More letters. Yes. Um, but um, you know, as far as pit lane, um, that that's mainly what a cover. We do pit in and pit out. Um, we also will unload um disabled cars that come to us for F1. You know, if somebody uh uh breaks out on track, they will get picked up by intervention team and high lifts and the recovery team out there, and magically they are deposited um usually at our pit in area. Um at yeah, at all three of the tracks. It's usually in that area. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:58

And um uh we actually have folks on our team who have recovery backgrounds who have trained others on the team who are interested in recovery efforts to go unload those cars. Every so often we actually load cars as well. Um, so we have folks who are part of PPG, PPPGR, who are here are recovery specialists. Um and um uh the second P in the first version of the PPG is the paddock. Um, at all three of the locations we have support paddock. Now Vegas is a little put an asterisk by Vegas for everything, it's a little different um from both Miami and Coda, but we do support paddock. The main paddock that we have for F1 is usually where all the hospitality suites are. So we don't do a lot of work in paddock for those events. Um every so often we'll get pulled in to do something, but it's mainly what we call the support paddock, and that is for the support series. Um, usually it's uh Porsche Club or uh Porsche Challenge, MSA events, yeah. Um, we have Academy as well. Um we'll have events, and then we have uh some master's historics that'll come. Um so each one of those is a completely different vehicle from F1. So we have to train on how to handle those vehicles as well. Also, because they are basically in a satellite area, especially with the asterisk of Vegas, it was on the complete other side of the track from Pit Lane. We have to do what's called transiting, um, which is transiting the cars from the support paddock to the main paddock. And that is uh a big handful in itself because our support series during F1, while they are, you know, Jamie mentioned IMSA, it's an IMSA series. These are these are big players in their own event. Well, they come to F1 and they are given usually one practice session, one qualifying session, and one or two races, is basically it. And when they say at 11:05, your cars are moving, at 1105, your cars better be moving. There's there's no ifs, ands, or buts. Um, so they basically are small fish in or yes, they are small fish in a very big pond at that point. They are at the whim of what F1 wants. So we have to coordinate, release it. We have a whole separate team that handles the support paddock. Um, we like to rotate people through because personally I love working support paddock. I always used to ask for that, you know, before I was chief, because you get to meet a lot of people from different uh series, you get to meet fans. Um, I'm not gonna say it's a little more relaxed because it's not, but it just it's just a different vibe working in a support paddock. Um so we have you know, paddock folks. Um, sometimes they are traffic cops as well. So uh, you know, support paddock gets pulled in a lot of different ways. Um, but then finally the the the G in the PPG is the grid. And that's I believe was our original purpose of this team was the grid is the most important thing. And um some of the series, like the Imps of the Porsches, do a rolling start, meaning that they do, you know, they come around, they go off on their um formation lap and they come up to a green flag at a set speed. This is normally what club races do a lot. Actually, I would say the majority of races start that way.

SPEAKER_02: 17:44

In North America.

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

In uh yes, thank you. In North America, but I was gonna say, but not FIA things. FIA really likes their standing starts. Um, so a standing start is completely different, but we're grid, which means that we do grid and the starts for the support series with the rolling starts, and uh F1 and Academy, which will do the standing starts. And for the standing starts, I've got 20 people, one per car, who go out there onto the front straight um with a yellow flag. And this is why the flagging background comes into play. You need to be able to throw a flag when something bad happens. Um, and people who are coming in from different uh backgrounds don't necessarily act as quickly as they should. Um, so we we that's why we strive coming up through a normal FNC process. But um, you go out there with your car, um, you watch the driver get into the car. If they at any point in time have an issue with the car, they will signal you and you wave your yellow flag. Um, there is more of a deep process to it, but um basically um all of the pretty people leave. You know, this is all the countdown, you heal buzzers, and the pretty people leave, and it's the teams and um the drivers and you. And then at the they take off on their formation lap, and everybody runs for the gates and they go through those crash gates. Yep, through the crash gates, and so you know that's why we have a team there that knows how to handle that gate, make sure everybody's in. They are also looking onto the front straight because during that grid walk and everything, people can drop things. They there's a lot of you know, the little ear earplugs that get dropped out there, wrongs sometimes, phones, glasses, champagne glasses, yes, champagne glasses, yes, glass ones too. Um, not not to digress real quick, but um during a creventic uh 24-hour race at Coda um years ago, somebody had left, and we missed it, things get missed. Somebody had left a jacket on the armco um across the track from where we all are. Um, the cars took off, and there's a jacket there on the armco. Um well, I don't know if we were alerted to it before the guy came up or not, but uh man frantically came up to one of the team members and said, My jacket's out there, it has my passport in it. And so, you know, it went from there's a jacket out there that we need to worry about front to there's a jacket with a passport in it, so it can't just be randomly picked up and not handed off properly. So um, you know, there there's last-minute things that go wrong on on grid starts um like that. But good to know that we actually did get that jacket easily and got it back to the guy so he could leave. Um but um so yeah, the you know, everybody comes running back into the crash gates, and then you know, when you go back, if you have P4 and say Lando Norris is in it, conveniently I picked Lando for four. Um, but you go running back through the nearest crash gate and you go over to these control boxes that we have that handle the light panels, the start light panels that you may see um that have the drivers, the three letters of the driver's name, and then they kind of will automatically um uh tilt out so that the drivers can see it. You go over there and hold that controller. Um, and your purpose is when your driver comes up, as it's coming into the box, you press a green button, which means that the driver is there. It doesn't matter if he's a little bit outside of it or inside of it or where he is. When your driver's there, you do press the green button. If at any time that driver signals you, and again, he knows that you're right there. Um, if they signal you, or when the start happens, if they do not go, you press the yellow button. Um, up and start, and Jamie, you can you can tell us more about what happens up and start, but there is a very large panel up there that the starter is using to tell them that the race is is ready to go. Um, so it is very important that we press these buttons. Um, and then you just sit there with your heart in your mouth going, please make sure my car goes. Because you know, you're yeah, you're hovering your thumb over the button.

SPEAKER_05: 22:19

Should I do it? Should I do it?

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

Yes. So um your car takes off and the world is good, and then you're kind of patting yourself on the back going, okay, I did that. And then you're like, oh, geez, we've got two and a half hours more of things to do. Um, so some of the things we do then, if there is a red flag and all the cars come into pit lane, we help the scrutineering team make sure that people aren't doing anything to the cars that they shouldn't be. Um, scrutineering team is run by Adam Gavala right now, and they are the technical folks who are in the garages, um, intimate knowledge of those cars. Um, so we are there just helping, um making sure everything's safe. Um safety is paramount in the lane. Um, you know, there's there's times that tires get loose and go flying at people. Um, people trip and fall off the wall. Um the walls have, you know, sometimes they're a foot or so higher than the the track, and you're not paying attention, or just whatever happens, you get caught on something, you can fall into the lane, and that's no joke. Um what else do we have? Oh so oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_02: 23:28

And you have the loneliest marshal in the world as part of your responsibility too.

SPEAKER_01: 23:33

We do, we do. We Tony, you want to take over this next one?

SPEAKER_05: 23:39

Well, I was going to highlight some of the Moto GP.

SPEAKER_02: 23:43

I was I was gonna ask you about that, but uh but I've always thought that that green flag at the back should be a starter, but it's okay. I'll let you have them. I'll let you have them.

SPEAKER_05: 23:54

No, that that green flag position along in Moto GP with the red flag position in the front of grid are two of the most nerve-wracking roles on PPG because not only are you standing out there by yourself, but as our fellow race family likes to tease us, the eyes of the world are on you. So don't trip and fall. And so they're standing at the back of grid and they're watching literally the best drivers in the world or Moto GP, the riders in the world going past them and setting up in those painted boxes that Naja mentioned and just making sure all the cars or the motorcycles are set, and then they typically walk across the back of the grid, waving the green flag to let the starter know that the grid is set and ready to go. Red flag, on the other hand, is at the front of the grid for Moto GP. So you're standing there basically holding that little piece of fabric up as the world's best motorcycle riders are headed straight to you, and they get into their positions, and then we usually get a call from the start tower that we are clear to leave the front of the grid, at which point you want to walk run gracefully without falling and get out through that gate so we can close it and start the race. So for the car events, it's the green flag in the back, and for Moto GP, it's green and back and red in front.

SPEAKER_02: 25:17

How else does the um pit grid responsibility differ from what uh on two wheels from four wheels?

SPEAKER_05: 25:27

Well, one thing is we don't have those fancy lights and panels that we use for start. We have the good old-fashioned lollipops, which we lovingly call these wooden sticks, or now they're actually metal with a round piece of metal on the end with row numbers. So for Moto GP, we line up three motorcycles per row. And so what we do is we actually hold this lollipop with the row marker out the openings in the safety gate and so or fence, I should say. And as the motorcycles come in, they know which row they're in. And as the motorcycles get set into position, we pull the row markers behind the wall, and that is a visual indicator to the starter that we are ready to go. And then they'll go ahead and do their warm-up lap and we get our yellow flags ready to go. And we just have to be ready to again throw that yellow flag out through the fence opening so that we can let anyone know that there is a problem in that row with one of the motorcycles.

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

You guys have to be intimately, you know, have intimate knowledge of all the different starting procedures, right? I mean, like the quick starts and this and that, you know. I mean, there's so many different false starts, the boarded starts. We won't, we don't need to get into the details of that, but that's always one of the that's something you guys have to deal with, right? Because that that can happen on a moment's notice at the, you know, whether it's weather or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 26:49

Yeah, the Mono GP race this year at Coda, I think we did every single start in the regulation book in a matter of like maybe a half hour. It really put all of your knowledge to the test. And it there were lots of different factors. There was weather. So that was one of the things that it at Coda, if you've ever been at that track, it can rain in one part of the track and not rain in another part of the track. So we can go from a wet race to a you know, a start, a quick start to uh a full regular uh start, right? Depending on what's happening. And then one of the racers that was in the front row waited till we were ready with, I think within the last 30 seconds and came off the front grid because the track was drying and he wanted to change his tires out from rain slicks into regular tires, and that preceded a whole plethora of riders coming off through that gate, and they were running by us one by one to get on their backup bike, which had the normal street uh race tires on them. And what that did was that facilitated a restart. So typically we would have bikes start in pit lane. So for Moto GP regulations, we actually have 10 little grid spots painted by pit exit for that sort of start from pit lane. But in this case, uh it was decided just to do a restart. So we repeated most of the processes. We did a quick start and got all the racers underway very quickly. And the rest is Moto GP history.

SPEAKER_00: 28:23

No, it was it was executed perfectly. Um, so you kind of have talked about the general stuff that you guys do, but can you maybe talk about how is your both, you know, both of you are have chief roles in the various different F F level events? How have they evolved? Because I know Najee, you said earlier that originally when you first started, it was grid. And now you do all these other things, you know, and I think that's a testament to both of you for nailing it. And you know, they know, oh, we can trust these people, we're gonna give them this and this and this. Can you kind of talk about some of the things that have been added just in your time that you didn't have in the beginning?

SPEAKER_01: 29:01

Yeah, sure. So um one of the ones that popped up that no one has any idea that we do is the anti-doping chaperones. Yeah. So this is a very, very special task that we have been given. Um, and I think I think you know, whatever Tony and I talk about about our new tasks, I think that's all based on trust and how well formed these teams are, how picky we are when we are picking people for the teams. Um, we just it needs to be a cohesive team with a lot of trust. And I think this is why we've been given these additional roles. But the anti doping chaperones, so yeah, these drivers have to go through P tests. Occasionally they are they are they are uh tapped for that. Um the only one that I have experienced in my many years uh was at Miami a couple of years ago. Go. And we have I nominate three men and three women because Academy can also go through that as well. Um who you know kind of basically give up their positions because if they are tapped for that role, I can't also assign them to a grid spot because if we have a restart and that person is off doing anti-doping chaperone duties, then I don't have a person there. So it's it's those folks have have really given up. But the Miami experience, all three of the guys who got to go through the process had amazing stories. Now, of course, of course, they're not allowed to tell you anything and they're not allowed to say who they have. Um, and it was at, I think I want to say it was, I want to say it was Saturday, um, that they were actually told that we were going to be doing this. Um usually we do it every event just to make sure that there's somebody there, and the doctor may call them, the doctor may not. Um so they were called, they were each given a driver and forms. And the moment that that driver came in after qualifying, um, this was not a sprint race weekend, I think. Um, but the moment the driver came in from qualifying, that marshal, that PPG marshal, was at the car and went up and said, you know, whatever the spiel is of, you know, you've been selected. And of course the drivers all their shoulders go down and go, uh. But um, you know, they are with that driver until they are handed off to the actual uh medical staff that does the process. So um if if the driver is dehydrated and cannot provide a sample early, they will encourage him to drink fluids, which means you're there with that driver longer. Well, the drivers have to go do other things afterwards, which means you're with that driver the entire time. So they really they really enjoyed the experience because they got to see things none of us will ever get to see about how pro how teams work, how individual teams work. Um, and it was funny, you know, like I said, they didn't tell us who the names were, you know, even the three people who got it. But when you see one run up to a certain car, we know. So um it's it's really interesting how that actually happened. Um, and the other thing is is post-race on Sunday, you know, a lot of folks want to get out early. Um, at Coda, you can leave whenever you want, but at um, you know, Vegas and Miami, we're kind of bust in, so it's a little restricted. So people don't necessarily have their flight out at an early Sunday time. But, you know, at Coda, some folks may have a seven o'clock flight, an eight o'clock flight that evening. Well, if you're the anti-doping chaperone and we're not done with the race until like four or something, and they still have to do all this other stuff, you may be there for a late night. So another thing we have to plan for is making sure that somebody is going to be able to get that those folks back to the hotel or back out of there. And there's just a little nuances to every little task that we're given. Um uh, we also have a recovery team, and and Tony can go into more detail about um the Moto GT uh recovery team that she's added, but that was something that uh even for let's see, Formula E. Um, it's a very tiny team we have for PBG for Formula E. However, you're unloading electric cars that may experience what, Jessica? Thermal runaway.

SPEAKER_00: 33:46

Yes, yes, she nailed it.

SPEAKER_01: 33:50

Yes. Oh, I've been there.

SPEAKER_00: 33:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:53

Well, yeah, in Portland we actually had had three possible red cars, and a red car is considered uh an energized car that goes through a special process. Um, but um, yeah, so we uh, you know, it's usually team members who have had experience before on recovery who are going to do recovery. But I have folks all the time who said, Is there any way I could be on the recovery team for the next race? And we put them on there and they get really cool experience. But you know, our teams are 45, 50 members now. When when we started, they were what 20, 23?

SPEAKER_05: 34:28

Yes. Yeah, we were bare bones back then.

SPEAKER_01: 34:31

Yeah, I I you know, I look back at it and I am so thrilled that we didn't have two cars crashing into each other on the front straight because I don't know who would run and push them, you know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05: 34:43

Yeah, we have to open the gate, we have to run out there, we have to push, we have to close the gate. There's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01: 34:49

And we used to, you know, rely on the firefighters and also the scrutineers. They basically were the gate team and the push team back then, but now they have so many other responsibilities. Um, and personally, I cannot vouch for what training they've had. So I'm a little nervous about them doing something on my lane. Tony, Tony, too, we get very defensive of our lanes. So yeah. And it's basically because we're the ones whose heads roll when something happens. So we have to make sure that we've got very skilled people. And Tony, you want to talk about your recovery folks?

SPEAKER_05: 35:27

Yes. So that is one of the things that, you know, when we talk about cross-pollination, right? Doing car racing, I bring some of these ideas into Moto GP. So recovery was always one of those challenging aspects with Moto because we bring the motorcycles back into one of the gates that we have coming into Pit Lane, but we don't really have a way to get the motorcycle down Pit Lane easily. So I've added a Moto GP recovery team. And the first year we had them, I think they actually helped assist almost 30 different motorcycles getting back into the team garages. So, Nadja, to your point, I don't know how we did it before. I think the teams kind of had to run up there. And the challenge is we have a really long pit in. So if a motorcycle stalls, we can't have the teams going down there to retrieve it. So we wanted to make sure that we had a safe mechanism to get those motorcycles back to the garages. So that is one of the things that I carried over into Moto, into two wheels. But my favorite new addition is the driver escorts that we do uh for the driver parade. That to me is the most fun and the most challenging because there's typically a pit walk going on. So people pay to walk through pit lane and they get to get up close to the garages and take a look at what's going on. And during that time, we typically have the driver parade. So we need to securely get them from the paddock building through a gate onto pit lane where they can get into vehicles. And we have tons of fun stories about the driver parade to tell. But um, you know, so you have fans right there. So the PPG team, we usually line up hand in hand and try to hold the crowd back as the drivers are introduced and they come out on a red carpet. And we typically try to find little kids and then put them in the front so they can see. And they you just see their face light up. You see the fans so excited because the drivers are so close, uh, you can literally touch them. But it can be a challenge to build a straight line for those drivers to go through because the crowd's pushing up against you and you're up close and personal. But but what a thrill that is. So that was something new. And for Moto GP, we do something similar in that we have a red, we call it the red carpet for the the riders to get out onto the front straight for their parade. But we also have another escort that we do for the overflow series. So with Moto GP, we have so many teams that we had to create a separate paddock behind the paddock building, and we had to devise a way to get those motorcycles onto Pit Lane. So we actually took an empty garage, garage 34 at Coda, and we opened up both ends of it, and we have probably about six or eight tents behind the paddock building, and they come in and out through the garage. So we have to have PPG people stationed there to help escort the riders in and out of what we call the tunnel, and also to keep fans stocked there so that they don't get in the way of the riders as they're coming in and out. And then for some of the larger overflow series, we actually have to get them from the back parking lot behind the paddock building all the way toward pit exit. So that takes a lot more of the PPG resources to again create a safe space for them to ride out on the track. So those are new things, and that's just because the popularity of Moto GP and F1 and WEC and IMSA, all of that has exploded in the United States. So we see more and more people participating, not only um as drivers and riders, but as you know, viewers, a lot of fans coming.

SPEAKER_02: 39:11

So y'all are logistical experts then.

SPEAKER_05: 39:14

Oh, yeah. You have to and crowd, crowd control. We learn a lot about crowd control. Yes. Um, so that can be a challenge. We always work with security our security team at all of the tracks are wonderful. And so that's really that's really a good sign. Um not just you guys can't see it, but she's doing like movement and balance.

SPEAKER_00: 39:39

I didn't I didn't know what she was doing.

SPEAKER_01: 39:42

I think she either was a beer. You remember you have to tell people to get their drinks oh yes.

SPEAKER_05: 39:52

Well, you know, those those are my favorite things because you know, it at all of the events when we're in pit lane, people are like, what do you guys do during the race? Well, we're standing at the wall and we're watching the cars come in and out. We're looking for unsafe releases, you know, we're looking for tires coming down pit lane, kind of like what we had in Miami, um, near misses, right? As um cars come out and sometimes they're not as good with the timing of the releases. But we also have a lot of fans that are in these suites right above, you know, Pit Lane. So when they are leaning up against the railing, sometimes they have a drink in their hand, and these can be glassware drinks, right? So when they're leaning over, holding this piece of glass over Pit Lane, if that were to slip out of their hands, obviously that would be disastrous. Now we have glass and we have alcohol or whatever's in there all over Pit Lane, and we have to clean that up. So we've had glassware fall down, we've retrieved several iPhones, which is very interesting to try to get over there and catch it as cars or motorcycles are coming in and out of Pit Lane. And then comes the fun part of trying to coordinate with that one human being how to get the phone back to them when you've got all these fans. So there are some challenges with the crowd control part, but uh as Nadja mentioned, the team is really used to doing it now and they really step up and they do a great job of maintaining hospitality and yet safety at the same time.

SPEAKER_02: 41:21

Yeah, if one is good.

SPEAKER_01: 41:23

Oh, I was gonna say one of the cool things about the crowd control and just being on pit lane during the fan walks are the fans who, you know, we're around this all the time. This, you know, a car can go by and we don't even blink. We we have seen them so many times. But this may be this person's very first time to Formula One, maybe their first time at a racetrack, period, you know, and some of those people who are on pan uh fanlocks have paid tens of thousands of dollars to be there. And so, as it is, we're always very gracious. But the cool thing is when you get somebody who's brand new and you can see them light up like a five-year-old, and you have some knowledge to tell them, or you actually have something that you can give them. You know, random offshoot on this is the NASCAR event that we used to have at Coda when they still had the lug nuts on the cars, and actually, I guess the the the infinity yeah, yes, excellent. Yes, um, a lot of us who are on pit lane will pick up those lug nuts and they're everywhere, yes, they are everywhere, they're usually painted yellow or pink. Um, I have once picked one up the moment it came off a car because I was trying to be careful, and um, I think my fingerprints just came off on the lug nuts. So whoever I then gave it to, yes. And I the the mechanic turned around and his face was like, Oh my god, what are you doing? And I just tried to be, oh, I'm cool, ha ha, you know. So, yeah, so I don't I kick them everywhere, but anyhow, we pick those up and hand those out to kids, even fans, you know. If somebody's like, here, have a lug nut, and this, I promise you, that person is cherishing it. It's on a bookshelf, it's in a necklace somewhere, it's on it, yeah, anywhere like that. And those little things you can ruin somebody's entire experience by being rude, aggressive, dismissive, act, you know, making fun of fans or something like that. You can ruin that. And so that's one of the things that we both stress to our teams is you know, my my my signature line on my emails are never forget how lucky we are to do what we love with people who feel like family in a place that feels like home. And it's so true is that this team is so good, and everybody in it is trying to make the fans feel at home, the the drivers feel at home, the teams feel at home, big smiles on our faces as much as possible. Yeah, when shit goes down, shit goes down, and I use my mom voice. Um, but 99% of the time, it's a wonderful experience and being able to, you know, bring in new people, even new people on the team. New people on the team are like, oh my god, the whole time, you know. I never knew it could be like this. And that's a really cool experience, too. But you need to make sure that you can balance your fan girl, fanboy world with the job and the task at hand. I mean, you know, we we are traffic cops sometimes, and you have to put your back to the things you normally want to be looking at, like the driver parade that Tony was explaining. You know, we if if you're protecting somebody, you need to make sure they're behind you. So we usually kind of will face the crowd at the beginning of that. You know, once once they start rubbing into the front of your body, you turn around. But um, at the beginning of that, you need to look at the crowd, and that's when you get really cool relationships with folks. That's the the ASN folks from uh Jamaica, you know. Yes. We had this wonderful group at Coda last year who just came up and they were at Miami this year. They they were at Formula E, they were at everywhere.

SPEAKER_02: 45:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 45:13

Um wonderful group, but they came up and said, What was going on during the fan walk? And we go, Oh, the driver's parades here. And they're like, Oh, well, this is great. Well, uh a young woman who was with them, um, you know, was a little bit shorter, and so we made sure she had a front row seat basically. And one of the guys, we said, Well, if you stand right there and protect with us, help us protect this, you can stay right there. Well, these folks, Tony and I have run into all over, they're wonderful. We found out that they are the ASN from Jamaica, and you know, it's it's just a small world when you get when we all become fans, you know. And that's that's one of my favorite parts of this team is I I really like working with the fans and being able to give them uh the best experience.

SPEAKER_02: 46:00

So speaking of the team, how you you mentioned the idea that you have a small team, you know, 40. Now that's giant compared to my four, but you know, that's a whole different thing. How would someone who is an FNC marshal or maybe even not get on? What do you look for? How do you recruit your PPG members?

SPEAKER_01: 46:29

So uh I and and Tony will I'll let Tony talk for herself after this one, but I'll tell you what I do is um I want to make sure this person is really into what they're wanting to do. So I I've had people on my team who have had zero race experience before. They are recommended by somebody who is already on the team who said this person would be perfect for this role because we are security guards, traffic cops, you know, logistical extracts. Yeah, all of that stuff. You know, I need somebody who hustles, somebody who's going to take the job very seriously and understand this position that we're in. I mean, like you said, but you know, we can touch these drivers. You know, the very first year that I was on the team, I was on the Waybridge team, which is the one that used to push the cars in and off of the scales at the end of the race. And after qualifying, my gloves touched every F1 car that year. Like my mind, that first the very first day that I did an F1 race and in this position, I was like overwhelmed with how wonderful and how lucky I was. And it's it's hard. Like I said, you've got to separate the fangirl from from what you're doing, and you've got to be on task. And so, people who have that kind of attitude, I will easily give you a shot on the team, you know, and especially if you're recommended by somebody on the team. Um, for folks who just reach out to me who are corner marshals and intervention marshals and just different series, um, I usually give them my information and say, you know, because it happens a lot at events and there's so many things going on, I will never remember who that person is. So I say, here is my email address, contact me and tell me a little bit about you or how we ran into each other. Say, oh yeah, I was the one who talked to you in the lobby at the hotel. Um, and send it, you know, send me your race resume, and I may, based on what the experience is, I may ask you to get some more experience. Um, we have one guy who was at Miami who asked about being on the team, and I said, and this was this was uh actually he was at Coda first, but he asked about being on the team in Miami, and I said, Well, you know, you need to get some more experience. He went ahead and signed up for a Ferrari Challenge race in Miami, working the homestead SECA race, uh, working a C bring race, doing all that stuff, and he was ready for the Miami F1 race by then. And those people who go out of their way to do that extra stuff, I know are gonna have, you know, are gonna be an easy fit on the team. Now, once they get on, sometimes personalities don't work. And and this is a family. There are times that we all lose our shit on each other about stuff, and I do it. And and you know, you've heard me all yell on the radio. It happens. There are stressful things that are going on. Um, but afterwards, it it is like family. I I yelled at you. We you we all get over this stuff, you know, we all realize whatever happened, you know, we try to make sure that that doesn't happen again. You know, we we are we have people who step out in front of cars. We have um, you know, that just there are very dangerous situations that go on in where we are, even in the support paddock. Um, one year for Masters Historic, there was a car that drove over one of their crew members' legs and broke his leg. You know, that stuff happens. So I look for people who do have some sort of savvy in the situational awareness. Um, but I will encourage people to go get some experience. I'll I will reach out to people who know them or who have worked with them. And the number, well, not the number one thing, but a very important thing I do is I check their social media. Um that because they don't know who I am at the beginning or they don't know what they're interested in, there are some people who have a great resume, but I have seen very negative aggressive behavior on uh in a Facebook group, uh, you know, or or anything else that I've just seen that I'm just like, I I don't want to deal with that. So you feel like you deserve to be on the team with all your experience. I have 20 years experience being on this team. I've done it in the UK for the past 25 years. I see that you have a really bad attitude and stuff on social media. I'm sorry. I I I can't even take the risk. You know, we have we have 20 people who have grid spots. Well, 22 coming up soon. Yeah. We have we have a green flag, we have people who are are coordinating, pushing uh pushing cars in, which takes a lot of coordination. We all have to trust each other. Um, we all have to make sure each other eats, drinks. You know, we like I said, we are family at this point. And I look for I I've put people on the team with gut feelings and they've worked out brilliantly. I've put people on the team who have wonderful resumes who I had worked with in other capacities, and I put on the team, and then it just doesn't work. It can suddenly just not work after five years, you know, it it's it's very different. Um, when I was on the team, I never assumed I was going to be on it for the next year. I always worked my ass off as if every single year is an audition. You know, I'm auditioning to make sure I can be here for the next one. And you know, it's it's it's a lot of hard work. So making sure that those people all gel together well is paramount. And Tony, if you want to tell me how you pick people.

SPEAKER_05: 52:11

Yeah, well, I I actually depend a lot on Naj and the other specialty chiefs, right? So sometimes people will do corner workers like I did at Indy and express an interest to a chief and say, hey, I would like to do pit pad at grid, and the chief will put a good word in for you, right? To Nadja's point, if you're a good worker and you take directions, and and that can be a challenge because you know, PPG, lots of different things can happen, right? You've got pit in, you've got pit exit, you've got gates, you've got cars, motorcycles. So it's it can be a very intense environment and it's not for everybody. So I do rely on my fellow chiefs to help me not only find people that want to give it a try, but also to Naj's point, if there's someone that isn't a good fit for PTPG, we want to find a good home for them because maybe they're a better fit in one of the other roles. So that's a big way that we look for people is just interest, letting your chief know. We also bump into people, like we have a longtime person on our team that actually goes back and forth between scrutineering and PPG that actually worked, I believe, in hospitality, wasn't it, Nadja? And we got to know the person very well. And he he came right up and said, How do I get started in something like this? I've been watching what you guys do and I'm really interested. And so we actually encourage people to get started in their local chapters. Um, go work at SECA, go do an IMSA race, go to a track like here in the Midwest. We have Road America, we have Grotten, we have all these really wonderful tracks. Go volunteer. Mid Ohio's right here. You know, go volunteer, start off, do some club races, get some experience, learn about flagging, take some of the certification courses, and then come back to me when you've got some of that experience behind you. Um, another way we bump into people, this happened to me in Vegas. We were doing some training in a parking lot behind the Luxor, and I happen to have my Vegas shirt on that has a really big race operations logo in the back.

SPEAKER_02: 54:20

And I call that my flex shirt.

SPEAKER_05: 54:23

Your flex shirt.

SPEAKER_02: 54:24

I want to wear that when I'm gonna flex that I work at races.

SPEAKER_05: 54:28

Yeah, it's it's it's a really big logo. So we were standing in the parking lot and we were doing hands-on training with cars, and this gentleman walked up to me and he's like, Do you work with the race? And I explained my role. And he went on to say, you know, me and my wife uh worked and uh did races in the Pac Northwest, and we did it all these years. We took a few years off, and we'd really like to get back into it. And so now both of them are starting out doing Moto GP and now car races, and they're moving into hopefully F1 as their experience comes back to them and they get back in the saddle. But that was just a random chance meeting in a parking lot that came over. And then, you know, other things like we sometimes have to escort from the support paddock the racers out onto the track through a gate in the middle of the track. And there is one person on our team that actually was a corner worker right there, where they would help us with the gate and getting the drivers on and off the track. And they expressed an interest during one of the many times we were there and said, Hey, I'd really like to get on your team. And so I usually put them in one of the support series races first or in support paddock, see how they do, and then we move them into a more technical role, like a grid role, as their experience with Pitgrid gets bigger and bigger, because that can be very stressful to be on the grid, even for those of us who have been doing it a few years. Um, you have to be able to handle intense stress and things changing at the blink of an eye. And it's not just PPG, it's pretty much every specialty, but that can be intimidating to a lot of people. So we try to see how they handle the pressure and also work with where what they want to do. You know, some people love doing gates, other people love doing support paddock. We try to fit them where their interests lay.

SPEAKER_00: 56:21

Yeah, definitely. I think it's one of those things that you can't necessarily teach some of these things, right? It's like you could have all the experience in the world, but if you're just there because you want the cachet of being inches away, it's yeah, no, keep keep moving, right? I mean, I think that's yeah, we've seen that before. I've seen it. I've you know, people that are taking photos the whole time. It's like, no, no, no, you know, yeah. Um but uh yeah, no, that's that's really good. Yeah, didn't now didn't you uh meet someone at an airport once? Was that you?

SPEAKER_01: 56:52

Yeah, I did actually. I was going to um Pittsburgh, or or I'm sorry, I was flying into Philadelphia to go to a race at New Jersey Motorsport Park, and my flight was canceled, and I was just standing in line trying to get my my my new flight, and a woman behind me tapped me on the back and said, What is this keychain on your bag? And it's one of the just a little keychain because I don't I don't flex as Jamie was talking about that that jacket. You're missing out. I I wear I wear nothing race related to any when I'm traveling, you would have no idea that I do that. But I have the little keychains on my backpack, and one of the guys on our team makes cool little keychains for every event as well, and so she just asked about it, and I said, Yeah, well, I do this. And this was still in Austin, so um, and it was it was a mom and her daughter, and the mom had asked me the question, and the daughter was the one that's totally into it, and uh she said, Well, how do I get involved in that? And I said, Here's my information. Um, you know, send me a note afterwards, remind me that you met me in the in the airport line, um, and then we can go from there and I can get you set up and we can figure out what you want to do, you know. And and she easily would have been interested in a hospitality gig to start off with. You know, I said there's lots of ways to get there. And and I even said, you know, when you volunteer, you sometimes get a ticket. So that's always a good draw. Um, so I haven't heard from her yet. This was just uh uh recently, so I'm I'm looking forward to hearing from her. But like I said, you know, if I I always make the onus on them to reach out to me because if they don't even want to do that, then I'm not even gonna worry about it, you know. So um, but yeah, you know, it's it's like we were saying, you know, when Tony was saying how stressful it was, you know, I mean, the the number one stressful job out there, period, is like we earlier mentioned, the green flag or the red flag. You were the only person out there with the cars and the bikes, period. And for a while, you're the only person standing out there where the cars are driving around. So everybody's watching you, and you can't fall and all this stuff. So um, Tony, isn't there an interesting story that you have about I was gonna say you guys have been behaving yourselves way too much?

SPEAKER_05: 59:15

Oh, clothes are off now. This is this is when it's gonna go off the rails, folks. We're going off the rails. Uh, I'm just like, if you want to stop now, we might be in part two. Part one is the safe part. We're transitioning to part two. So, yes. Um, you know, early on in my career, I shouldn't say early on, but I did hit grid for a number of years with Moto, and we have lots of different things that we do for Moto. And one of them is like being number tent girl, so or person, I should say, but I was the girl for a long time, and we put actually little tents, aluminum tents that have the bike numbers out there. And so I did this job for many years. We have a sub team that handles it, stressful job, and we can talk more about that. But I was asked one year, hey, would you like to do the red flag at the front of bridge? Now that is the most exciting job ever, but it's also the most nerve-wracking. And it hits you that you're walking out on the front straight and there's nobody there. And you know there this is on TV. You have all the fans there and you're standing there. And I was so nervous and I was working myself up. And I I got so scared of being on global television holding my arms up, holding a red flag that I actually went and took like maxi pads and put them in my shirt over the armpits. So if I raised my hand holding the red flag, I wouldn't have these big pit marks underneath my shirt because I was bortified about it. And, you know, come to think of it, it didn't even, you know, happen. But I was walking out there with maxi pads, and then I was worried that one of them was gonna fall out while I was out there. But you know, it's it stress hits all of us in different ways. But I just want to let everybody know if you feel nervous about being in any specialty because crashes happen, tires come off, things happen. You're not the only one, and it's okay. But um, yeah, I know I'm gonna get probably a lot of donations of maxi chats moving forward. Um, but uh I'm very careful to delegate. That was one thing Naj and I like to do is we want to give those positions to people on the team that have really not only shown commitment to PPG, but have the ability to go out there and do that. And um a funny, another funny story is after I did the red flag that one time, one of my friends in Italy sent me this Italian video. I didn't understand a word of what the announcer was saying, but it was a short clip of me standing at the front of the grid with the red flag and then walking out. And basically the translation was she's hurrying off the front of the grid as the pits of hell are being unleashed. And it sounded so, so dramatic, but that's what it feels like because once you get behind the gate and all of the racers take off, there's this adrenaline rush that you it takes a while for it to come down. And so it's exhilarating, but at the same time, it can be intimidating. Everyone who does it has a wonderful story to tell. And I I just love watching other people go through that fun, fun situation because it is exciting and exhilarating.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:29

Yeah, definitely. I think it's one of those things I feel like we've alluded to this in other episodes too. Every specialty has their kind of pros and cons, right? You know, and PPG, you know, it's very near and dear to my heart too. But you know, there are moments when I think you kind of mentioned one of you kind of mentioned it earlier, you know, you are kind of missing out, you know, because like when when the race is going on, and if you have a gate position or you're on the wall, you have your back to the race. You are not watching the race at all. So it's like one of those things that if that's your jam, then it might not be for you. But at the same time, the level of access is unprecedented that you get. And so it's one of those things that that's kind of the trade-off there, right? Like you are, you are, you are literally inches away from these cars. And so it's kind of one of those those things there. And and with recruiting too, it's like that's one of those things you kind of have to think about. Okay, is this is this person gonna, you know, yeah, we there are cameras on us, you know, like you said. So yeah, yeah. Yes. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:03:23

And then you don't want to fall and you don't want the radio to come off your belt while you're running. And yeah, all those things go through your head. And of course, we like to tease each other and go, you know, don't fall, you know. So it is a familial environment there, as stressful as it is. I know if for some reason I'm not paying attention and I do something stupid, and we all have, someone's gonna grab me by the scruff of the shirt and yank me back in a position and go, what were you doing? I was gonna see, I was gonna say the F-word, but I didn't, Jamie. See, I behave, you know, what the word were you doing?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:55

I think we've already crossed the E implicit uh tab. I mean, I think I think Naja already broke that. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:03

I said poo-poo things. I didn't say the F word.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:06

Yeah, no, but still profanity in general. So Tony, go ahead. Yes. No, but we will. We'll be like, what the fuck were you doing?

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:14

What were you thinking? You know, and it happens, it it happens so easily. Like there are there have been times in the support paddock where we're really close corners, and you know, especially in Miami, we have to three-point turn cars, and you've got all these cars, you've got fans, you've got rollbacks coming in, and you can really be in a dangerous situation. And there are always people looking out for you, and they they've got your back, and it allows you to really focus on taking care of the driver, taking care of the car, and your teammates are helping to take care of you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:47

Yeah. All right. So you it's kind of been alluded to all the I think I think they were referred to as the pretty, the pretty people. So tell us about tell us about some of the uh experiences you've had with all the uh the VIPs. Have you ever been starstruck by anyone? Either of you, or any of any other stories?

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:06

Yeah, well, Tony has more experience with them than I do, but uh both of us turned into 16-year-old girls uh during Moto GP when a certain Channing Tatum was in race control and then came out onto the lane. Oh yeah, yeah, he he he looks just as good as you expect him to be. And he's oh yeah, stunningly charming. And you know, here's us who have been through this day of chaos and are sweaty and stinky and gross, and you know, hi, can I get a picture? You know, that kind of fangirly thing. Um, but yeah, he he there's there's a lot of celebrities that come by that honestly you don't recognize because they don't look like they do in real life. So, and you know, I think I recognize a lot of the drivers and a lot of the older drivers who have been around forever, so I get kind of excited about that stuff, and people will not even notice. I there was one that I was dying laughing about that I was next to Nicki Lauda, and people were running past him to go see other people, and you know, I was just staring at it going, This there's Nick, this is Nicki Lauda, and you're running off to go see. I don't know, I can't even.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:23

It was some some influencer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:26

Yes, yeah, no, it was some random European DJ something or other, you know, um, who I didn't obviously has gone from my mind, and it was just interesting to me that here we are at this racing event, and people will flock to whoever else there is, and not necessarily the racing drivers. And that's you know, that's one of the things when you're out there in your grid position and you're supposed to be watching your driver, and you have all of these celebrities going by, it's that's a little part that you get kind of distracted too. Yes, but yeah, Tony has has a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:07

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:08

She gets a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:09

I don't pay attention. That's a softball. That that is the sound of a softball being lobbed. Here comes the swing. Go to it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:17

Oh, yeah, yeah. She sets me up, she teased me up so well, Matt. Thank you. Yes. Um, no, there we have a lot of fun with the celebrities. I actually literally bumped into one full force one time. So we have what people don't know is we have these access tunnels that connect the back of the paddock to Pit Lane, and we use that to transition folks on and off of Pit Lane. And we had some sort of radio call in Pit Lane, and I needed to get out in front very quickly. So the security guards opened the gate. I was running through the tunnel, and there was someone coming out of there's a little hallway, access hallway there where the restrooms are. And they were coming around the corner, and I literally body slammed into them, and they fell backwards. And I was like, sorry. And I was just running, running, running. And I didn't realize until later when someone walked up to me and said, Do you know who you like body checked in the hallway? And I was like, No, I had no idea. They were like, Gordon Ramsey. So I literally like pushed him over, had no idea who he was. And then later he was walking on the grid and he walks up and he says to me, He goes, Uh, you know, I'm still recovering from my injuries, you know, my shoulder is a little sore. And I was like mortified. I was like, Oh my God, I'm so sorry. And he was just busting my chops. He's not like, No, I'm just kidding. But he goes, You got one hell of a right shoulder. And uh, so that was literally I bumped into him. But one of my favorite stories was being on the grid for uh Vegas. And you know, when you're standing there during the pre-race, I don't know, what festivities, I guess, for lack of a better word, you know, there's a word for like 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:05

People don't realize that it takes a while.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:08

Yeah, and you're standing there and you've got TV crews walking around and you've got fans walking around, the teams going back and forth, and you're standing there, and I was just looking down at my feet because I was just kind of trying to, you know, stretch out, and I just saw this foot next to my foot, and it made my foot like look like baby feet. Now I'm close to six feet tall, so I am far from baby feet, but I just remember looking at these feet and then slowly looking up and up and up, and I saw big paddle hands and this big guy, it was Shaq standing next to me. I have never felt small in my life as a six-foot woman as much as I did in that exact moment. That guy is heads literally heads above everybody on grid, and you can just see him bopping through the crowd happily saying hello to everybody. So that was really cool to get to see him. And one of my favorite stories with Nod was with um Shakira. Remember the Shakira situation? So we were standing there Shakira situation, album name, album name. Well, you know, when you're on grid and you're standing there, you're always looking around to see if you recognize people. And you know, Naj and I, as as people are on the grid, we like to walk around to all the different grid spots and especially talk to the people on the team and give them a little bit something to to think about, other than the fact that they're there for 45 minutes. And I go, Nad, look, they're Shakira. She's was walking toward us, and she goes, Forget Shakira, look who's next to her. It was Tom Cruise, and I totally didn't I didn't even see him, you know, and I and I was like, Oh my gosh. And I'm a huge fan of Tom Cruise. He rides motorcycles and obviously, you know, the Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher movies. And so he was walking between me and and the pit wall. And I go, you know, I turned slightly and I said, Hello, Mr. Cruz, are you having a good time? And he touched my arm with his hand and said, Yes, I am. And then he he said, What about you? And I said, Any day on the grid is a great day. And he said, Have a good race, and he walked on. And I literally was cradling my arm. I wanted to get a tattoo with an X that said, Tom Cruise was here. Like I didn't, I was like, He touched me. And and it didn't end there because, like, a little bit later, all these people started texting me pictures because apparently there was a photographer that caught a picture of Nod standing next to me and Tom Cruise, and they were like, Is this you? Is this you? And I was like, Yeah, that's awesome. So I actually have proof that I got to meet somebody famous, but that was a really special moment, and I totally almost missed him because I just saw Shakira.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:54

That's hilarious. It is so I think I have to ask, have you found a cameo yet of either of yourselves in Drive to Survive yet?

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:10

I'm gonna lobby to the case.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:11

I know the answer to this.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:12

I'm lobbing this back to her.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:14

Okay, go for it, not I I was I actually in there doing that. I know I'm uh the Vegas incident.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:22

Well at some point, I don't know if you were in for Drives to Survive, but you have been on the F1 broadcast a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:32

Well, and what's funny is uh, you know, like Tony said, we like to give these premiere roles and positions to folks on the team who have who have worked extra and and uh have proven themselves. And it's a thank you, you know. You the P1 position, the green flag position, that is definitely a thank you. Um, but uh again, you know, we have a team of 45, 50 people, and we only have a couple of spots to be able to give those to. So we try to give a lot of people really cool opportunities. Um but um when I first start, and that's why I also I do it because I just want to be out of the way. I have things to do, I need to watch the team, I need to make sure all these silly little things are done. I have to go empty trash cans. You know, there's the glamorous side of racing that exists in all race events that is going to the Home Depot and buying push bribs, like 25 of them. There's you know, I have a photo album on my phone of the glamorous side of these things, and it's unclogging drains, it's it's all these fun things. Oil spills, it's oil spill, it's all of that stuff. Um, but uh, you know, we we so I try to avoid being on camera as much as possible. And actually, my husband used to make a game of it of where can I spot her? Like he used to watch the whole thing to see where he could see me. And I was super duper successful of not being in anything for a very long time, and then we were given I Viz caps. And what I especially at Coda, this was before we had Miami and and Vegas on the list. I would stand outside of race control or somewhere else on Pit Lane and just look down the lane and make sure that we had good spacing, that there were people covering all the garages, you know, that people weren't doing silly things. So I would just kind of hide over there and watch the team and make sure that they were doing what they're supposed to be doing. And like, and the thing is, I get random radio calls that say I need you or text messages saying you need to be in this room immediately for whatever. So I need to always be accessible and not running back and forth across pit line. Um, so I used to be able to hide.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:49

So now we have high-vis caps, uh, which which then led to the secret society of the yellow cap the society of the yellow caps, yes, yes, and the society of the orange cap, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:01

But then we we we took that to 11 because of an incident. Well, no, it we claim it's because of an incident of our beloved, beloved Kevin, because it's always Kevin, yes, we now have to wear helmets. Um but again, he really had nothing to do with it, but it's fun. Um, but we now wear white helmets, and then Tim Mayer has taken it beyond 11 to 11 plus, and at Portland uh last year for the Formula E race, he presented me with a high viz yellow-green helmet. Highlighter green, yes, but exceptional, and I just went, you're kidding, right? And he said, No, no, it's because I need to be able to see you among all the other helmets. But he had a big grin on his face, so I don't know if he's joking or not, but now I have this even more obnoxiously evident helmet. Um, but the helmet's really cool, it has a little visor-tinted visor that tilts down, and I really actually like it. It's more comfortable than my white helmet. And wonderfully, Tim has now presented Tony with the yellow helmet for her events.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:21

Yes. Well, there is a story there because the very first race that I achieved, I did not have a yellow helmet. But Nadja felt really bad for me. She didn't want me to be left out. So she made sure to remind Tim of the fact that I had not yet received my special little yellow helmet. So my days of being incognito and blending in on Pit Lane are over. So thank you, Ned, for that. I really appreciate that very much.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:52

So was there like a knighting ceremony, like with the sword when he gave you the you have made it, you are the big time, you get the yellow helmet.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:00

Were you there when I got the one in Portland? I I was.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:02

I yes, I think we were there. Yes, I was standing right there.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:06

Yeah, he was very excited to give me that helmet. So, yes, it was it was pretty much a uh a knighting ceremony, but you know, and and so if anybody listening ever sees the obnoxiously bright helmet, it's either Tony or I. So please come up and talk to us about coming on our team.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:25

It's frankly pretty hard to miss.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:28

Yes. Oh, yeah. But you know, they're just the you know, as far as staying out of the camera's eye, there just sometimes comes a point where you can't do anything about it. And I kind of got over, you know, I used to hide a lot, um, because I just didn't want to be on camera. The the it's not about me. I don't want to see me on TV. Um, so I just avoided it. Um, but then we have so many things to do now that I stopped thinking about it. And as a result, yes, I am everywhere. But the incident at Vegas was uh whose car was it? It was Science's car?

SPEAKER_04: 1:18:03

Yeah. Science in the Ferrari.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:05

So yes, so everybody knows about the manhole covers that we had in Vegas. Um, well, up to that point, there had, and in that that race year, there had been a lot of issues. I think Lewis's car was picked up and there were images taken of the underside of the car. The teams really want to protect what the underside of their cars looks like. So our team has been instructed in the past by teams or just requested to make walls or to make it a little hard for for other teams to see underneath or for photos to be taken underneath. So uh, you know, like I said earlier, that nothing else exists outside of pit lane. When a car comes into pit lane, we try to protect that underside. So when that car came in, um, it was on uh a rollback and was came into pit in, and they had shut down, obviously, we had red flag and shut down that whole session. Um so they had to remove the car from the rollback and drop it down. Well, in order to take the car off the rollback, uh a high lift slash telehandler slash big yellow crane on wheels pulls up, hooks up to the car, they lift it up the rollback, which also is a tilt bed or you know, those big flatbed, flatbed wreckers that you'll see on the highways every so often. Um, that will move out from underneath, and then they set the car down on little wheel dollies. The team will take it back to their garage. Well, for that time that that car is in the air and it's off of the rollback, it is completely exposed. And there were photographers all over it. Um, we had been pretty good at getting help from the intervention marshals that were staged there, as well as some of the security folks, um, to keep a lot of them back. However, the F1 TV cameras were there. I don't know who who anybody is when they're taking photos or doing video. I just went into protection mode of the underside of that car. So I then became the bumper for the close of uh Sports Center that night, um, as my husband told me, because he had come with me to Vegas because it was the first year, and he was watching uh the practice uh in a sports bar, and he said he busted up laughing. And the person next to him was like, What's going on? And he said, That's my wife. Um, so yeah, I kind of put put myself in between the camera and the car, but I had a smile on my face the whole time, but then became the end of Sports Center. And now I have a gift that I can use um whenever I need to pop it out there of me putting my hand in front of a camera saying no. So and of course the phone blew up. Everybody was like, oh my god. And even funnier was a friend said, I wasn't sure if that was you, but then I saw this and sent me a still, and it's the back of my helmet that says Pollard on it. So and it had a state of Texas and Pollard on the back. Oh, I don't know if that's her.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:06

Did you feel like you were like uh that was your TMZ like paparazzi moment? Like, it was yeah, putting putting your hand on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:14

Yeah, it was my Lindsay Lohan getting out of the car move. So that was that was it. So now I've just let down my guard, and you know what? If I get on there, I'm on there. But I really try to not be because I I don't want to be on there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:30

Has uh has Xander ever made it one of the broadcasts?

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:34

Oh, um you want to tell everyone Xander the Gander. If you go to Instagram for the real Xander the Gander, is that his name? I think they're not cast. I think so. He is a plastic porch goose that I was gifted by my wonderful friend Sydney Davis Yagle, who's also been on the show, who has been on the show. Um she gave it to me thinking that I was just gonna have this cute little porch goose sitting on the porch. Well, challenge accepted, that thing has been uh went to um not only was at the US Grand Prix and participated in the driver parade, um, went to Miami. Um, James Morales and his lovely family took Xander on an adventure across the South to Miami, and then he actually went to Vegas with me. And he that was his first airplane flight, um, which garnered multiple photos, so God knows where else he is, but yeah, so that's Xander the Gander. But he's been very quiet lately.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:41

Oh, I hope he's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:22:43

He's he's fine.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:44

Okay, it's the stress of travel. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot for a goose, I'm sure. Yeah, especially riding in a in a luggage, probably.

SPEAKER_01: 1:22:54

No, no, he was my carry-on.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:56

You bought a seat. Did you buy a seat for him?

SPEAKER_01: 1:22:58

I did not, but what was funny was um when I got on the plane, I was trying to figure out how I was holding my little bag that has all my charging cables and my uh airpods in it, and my backpack, and the stupid goose who was wearing his T-Rex outfit, which kind of slides off of him. So I was trying to not shirt him while I was getting in the plane. And the guy said, I'll help you with your backpack, but I'm not helping you with your duck. And I went, This is a goose, so I assume you'll help. Um, but he put my backpack up, and then I thought, well, I'll just shove Xander in the seat, uh, you know, below the seat in front of me. He doesn't really fit there. And so I had him kind of wedged, and I was like, if a flight attendant comes by and says, I'm sorry, the goose is gonna have to go somewhere else, but nobody bothered me about it. So and I got two little pictures of him on on the plane.

SPEAKER_05: 1:23:48

So Alexander does have a big ass, so that was what makes it harder.

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:52

Yeah, it's a genetic, it's a genetic thing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:55

So what are there? So you're on the topic of animals, um uh you've probably encountered some of those occasionally on Pit Lane. No, at least not at maybe not at F1, but uh I know Coda's got some uh pets.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:10

Oh yeah, yeah. We we had a radio call for an animal on the track, and it was actually an opossum in the middle of the day, right? So, you know, apparently somebody saw this thing moving across the track. So it was cold at the time, the track was cold. So we got clearance to quote unquote escort this little furry creature off the track. Well, I don't know if you've ever walked up to an opossum, but you scare those guys and they just open their mouth and they just lay down. So we had to be really careful not to do that to them. But there is video out there somewhere of two of our PPG marshals out there kind of shishing this opossum off of the track, which is hysterical. But yes, there are uh stray cats, sphero cats. Uh, we sometimes, when we get to the track, we like to walk up and down pit lane, and we leverage sandbags in some cases to keep like there's access panels that we don't want to have open because we have all these fiber optic and audio cables that feed in through the ground. So we put sandbags on there and we we get little presents from some of the feral cats because they think the sand is their litter box, though we can spend the first day cleaning up pit lane and little doo-doo droppings from our feral cat family at Coda. But uh that's comes with the territory. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:35

Oh man. Yeah, definitely. Well, what else? What haven't we taught what haven't we covered? Um any any uh any instances where you were leading a meeting and something crazy might have happened, you know, in the background. Oh, that only happens to nod, so I'm gonna lob that back to her.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:55

This this is another softball being lobbed in there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:58

Yes, we go back and forth, we feed off of each other.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26:02

Yes. Well, this was hilarious because uh, you know, we do our morning meetings, we have uh our communicators are in there, the whole team is in there, we go over what we're doing today, um, assignments, um, you know, um, one of the the important things whenever we're working is we are sometimes really nice rooms, and sometimes we're in back closets, it feels like. But whatever we're in, we've got to keep it clean. And I always use the quote of, you know, your mother doesn't work here. You know, I'm sure one of these days we'll have a mother and child situation where that will be funny. But um, your mom doesn't work here, so you need to clean up after yourself. You know, some people there's whoever those weird people are who eat a half a donut or a half a cookie. I you can't be on the team. I do not know who eats uh half a cookie and then leaves a half a cookie sitting on a napkin, like somebody else is gonna come by and go, Oh, there's a half a cookie. That's all I want. You no, no, I'm not going with that. But so there, you know, so I'm going over all of this important stuff. I'm using my this is very serious stuff we're doing. Here's the list, here's everybody's assignments. We're all we're under the gun. We have like five more minutes of this, and I'm going over stuff, and I'm realizing that people are not really looking at me, they're kind of like looking over my shoulder. And in Miami, we have a really nice room. Um, it is one of the suites from the Miami at Hard Rock Stadiums for the Miami Dolphins games and stuff, and it has a big bar area and big refrigerators for us to put our lunches in, and um lots of chairs and tables and everything. We also share it with um Miami Dade firefighters and paramedics, which we will not complain about at all because they're amazing, wonderful folks. And they make great coffee, and they make they make us coffee kabano coffee. We're good with that, but I'm realizing that something's going on behind me, and suddenly I I can't even remember who said, I have to interrupt you right now, it's very distracting behind you. And it was some news segment on animal rescues, where they were like picking up kittens out of floods, and then the one thing was there was a was it a boa constrictor or something?

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:27

It was a boa constrictor constricting something like a small animal.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:32

I think it's it was a rag. Well, they were removing it from its mouth. It was a rag, it was a boa constrictor who had eaten a rag mistakingly, and they're pulling this out and attempting to have the snake regurgitate this rag. It's going on behind me while I'm telling all this stuff. And I cannot fault anybody for wanting to know what happened to the boa constrictor.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:51

Or yeah, we were like, move out of the way, move out of the way, we can't see it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:55

But the funny thing was, the damn thing was going on for god knows how long before somebody said, you know, I'm gonna have to stop you there because I I'm invested in what's going on behind you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:05

So always check the TVs behind you there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:10

Yes, it is it is on my list. But you know, it is it's funny. We were talking about um, you know, trying to make sure that people can be in the right places at the right time and everything. When I do my assignments, I actually use little tiny post-it notes and put everybody's name on the little tiny post-it note, and I'll go down the schedule and go, okay, these five people are here at this time. Can they then be over here or can they be over here? So I do this whole big game plan. And then I get to that morning at the thing, and I would say 90% of it is still in use, but then the other 10% just gets thrown out the window for whatever reason, something's happening, somebody's you know, off doing something else, or we have a new assignment or something like that. Um, and it's just it I love doing all the planning, but Then these chaotic things occur. And we we've had so many, many things. And you know, Tony and I after Moto GP this year, when Tony had so, so many things going on. We had the drones.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:16

Don't forget the drone. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:19

Afterwards, she she called and was like, You will not believe the chaos. And we just laugh about it. And there's some things that we can prevent, and then there's others, like the drone.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:31

Like the beer cat, the meerkat incident was another one of my favorite stories. We were on the grid for F1 Academy, and uh we were asked by race control, you know, get out. I think they said get off the grid, right? Um, so we were looking around, Nod and I going, are there people on the grid that shouldn't be here? Because normally we're here and other people may not be allowed to be, but we're there for the safety of the drivers. And they're like, get off the grid, get off the grid. And we're looking around. I'm looking at Nod, she's looking at me, and we're like, who's supposed to be off the grid? And then Nod realizes it was us. So she's like, Everybody, get off the grid. And we're like scampering off the grid. But you know, it's one of those situations where you know things can change at the drop of a hat. And yes, historically we stay on the grid uh when they leave. But at this moment, we were asked to get off, and that was a safety issue for our team. But in that moment, Nod likes to say we look like little mirror cats looking at each other. And uh, needless to say, there were some mere cat memes that were shared by the team. We have some creative people on the team, and that's always your fear that you're gonna turn into a meme of some sort. And uh, I then found a stuffed animal mirrorkat and sent it to Nod to commemorate our mirror cat episode. And that's kind of when you're hoping you're not on TV because we know we were both looking at each other like, who are they talking about?

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:56

The TV people are extraordinary about knowing what and what not to show. It's it's always like I think it's one of those things where you're mortified in the moment and then you watch the broadcast and it's like ah that that's true about all of them.

SPEAKER_01: 1:32:09

You know, I I the number of times that I've just gone, oh my god, that looked so terrible. And then I'm watching the broadcast and it's like, well, that didn't look bad at all. Or there's uh I'll always watch it to see what we look like. Um Portland Formula E is one of the ones because we had lollipops when they have the boards or when we have the electric light panels that we have for F1, it's no big deal because they're all lined up and they all look good as it is. But at Portland with the lollipops, there are people who hold it further out, up, down, angle. You get tired, you see it drooping. There's all sorts of different things. And I watched it, and oh my god, first off, when we go out on the grid, we we go through a we step off based on odd and even numbers, and then we go down the line so that it looks good, so that we're being deployed nicely. And I hope it always looks good. There are times that that is a mess, but we want it to look good. And then um, but uh that one Formula E, I looked at on TV, and there's like drone shots, helicopter shots, or whatever. It looked amazing. Every single Marshall out there looked like the exact same, like drones themselves, like every single one was a was a clone of the one in front of it. And I I watched it and then I watched John Benny, who also will be on show, walk by doing the green flag. And the concern is with the green flag in some locations, you have to jump over a wall or you have to jump through one of the little egress holes that's in the fence. So when you're picking a green flag, you also want to make sure that that person can shoot through a hole at a moment's notice if necessary. Um, and he walked across waving beautifully because you also have to have a special wave. It's there's a lot going into being the green flag person. It's not just I want to go wave a flag. Um, and he walked across, it looked great, and then he jumped over the wall, it looked great, and the cars did their little burnout thing and it looked great. All the lollipops came in and said it was perfect, and that's when I'm just like, oh, that's it, because everything is done for the TV at the start of grid. Yes, you know, we always say safety, but the beginning of that it has to look good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34:26

So yeah, you just told everybody the secret that it's like synchronized swimmers, and there's a choreography, there's a whole train.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:33

I know you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:34

Yeah, but see, I was one of those clones, so I'm very happy to I know I was about to say Jessica was too. So yeah, that would that was a proud moment that and uh a lot of fun. Formula E pits are pretty wild. I mean, yeah, the two years actually I did it for more, but the two years we were in uh um Portland, well, actually, my first year, uh, I remember watching the Mahindra team change batteries not once but twice. And if you've ever seen it, very few people have seen the pit grid team gets to to do this because of our uh the unique location, but they basically underneath the car unbolt it and then they lift the car up off the battery and they take the battery off in a pallet jack, and it's about the size of a dishwasher. You know, it it's pretty cool to watch. So yeah, you being pit grid is a pretty cool little gig.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:34

Yeah, especially for Formula E and WEC and just non-F1, we are always looking for more folks. Every, you know, the F1 and Moto GP go very quickly because there are a lot of people who want that. But WEC and Formula E, you know, we're we're usually looking for folks. Formula E team is much smaller. Tony runs the WEC team, um, so she can tell you more about that. But um, yeah, we're always and that's a good tryout, is is what we kind of consider some of the folks. If if you want to be in F1 and it looks like you can make it, but um, if you want to go ahead and try WEC, I can put you on WEC this team or this year, I can put you on Formula E this year, and maybe next year we can get you on F1 or something like that. And we've picked up wonderful, wonderful people that way. Um, and it it's I love Formula E. I think the cars are really cool. If you've never done it, it's really fantastic. Next year it's at the Miami Autodrome, which is the Formula One track in Miami. Um, I believe they're doing a shorter course. Um, don't quote me on that. But um, and it's at the end of January. So January in Miami is not a bad thing. Um, I I don't know if it goes up against the roar, but um, you know, it's it's doing those other events other than F1 gives you a a little leg in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:04

So that and just even like the small stuff, I think we've talked before, it's like you know, the little stuff, SECA club racing, you do everything, which is a really good foundation because God forbid if all hell breaks loose at F1, you know, even though it's so slick and smooth and every they bring all their people, you know, if you had to leap into action and do something, you've had that experience. Because if you only ever do F1, you may not know what to do. You may not know how to use a fire extinguisher, you know, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:31

So well, and we actually have um at Miami, um, we actually have we staff a um uh a fence hole, uh, you know, get basically a tiny little individual flagging station at uh pit out to warn if there's any crash right at pit exit. That's my team out there. That's not a normal flag station, it's not an FNC worker, that is uh a pit lane person because basically it's still in pit lane. Um, we had another weird one at um uh Vegas when uh the clerk of the course asked, can somebody go down? You know, when they leave pit uh pit exit and they do their uh standing starts. Well, Vegas does not have a pit lane that um is really good for that behavior. It's there's a very uh tight curve there. Other cars can't see them if somebody is further down doing that. So they asked me to find some hole somewhere and go wave a white flag. And that was basically the instructions that I was given. And it was sketchy enough, and I didn't know what it looked like that I went, this I'm gonna go do myself. And it's wonderful to have Tony, Tony in there with me that I go, okay, you handle the T. I gotta go figure this out. You know, I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna do the whole, you know, by the time it gets down to the person who's actually doing it, turns into gorilla bubblegum washing machine. So I went down there and found like this tiny slit in between two fence posts that I could stick a stick a flag out, um, just to warn drivers that there was somebody a little bit further down who was doing a practice start. And oh my god, my arm. I ended up like flipping and just like putting my back to it. And then it was like, because I had started with in fur at the beginning. And this is you know, Jamie, as you give people instructions on how to wave a checker flag, you don't like go, yay, I'm doing this. And then you're like, oh, oh my god, my arms. So that was a really, really long thing, but that's another random thing. At Coda, we have um, I've got two people on the team who uh this was another one that nobody had thought about until someone said, if we have an incident at say turn 15 or something, if you're familiar with with Coda, we have what we call the crossover, and it's basically um just downstream of turn five, between turn five and six, driver's left, there is uh an exit road. It's what we used for NASCAR this year, basically. It goes straight through um uh this random area that has all sorts of crap in it and comes back out at 11 delta or around near 11 delta. So the concept was if we have a medical, if we have a heart impact medical emergency, that the medical car, the the F1 medical car with the F1 doctor needs to get there immediately rather than going all the way around the entire track. They can go off there through the crossover, come back out at 11 Delta and and be on the scene faster. So that was a new thing. They came to me and said, Do you have two people, two or three people who can go there that if something happens, we can let them know that this is happening. And I'm not quite sure how two or three people are supposed to like clear this giant area when it happens, but at least it's about a hundred yards long. It's it's it's pretty good, but at least they're they have whistles, they have flags, and can make sure that that a safety car and and a medical car can come through there um in a safe fashion. So, you know, there there are some, like we were talking about, there are some non-glamorous positions on the team. I try to rotate that. I'm one day you get a sucky position, the next day you get a really good position. Um, I've had attitude from some people going and working those sucky positions, and they usually disappear after that. Um, because you can't always have P1. You can't always be the green flag, you know. So the folks who understand that that day they're in a really sucky position, I try to make it up for them in the next one because um I I understand that you volunteered to come here and be on PitPatic Grid team, but when you're babysitting at crossover or you're waving a flag way down there by yourself, um, it's not the most fun. But I I truly, truly appreciate the folks on my team who do that. Some people go ahead and volunteer to do it because they know that they'll then get something that they want the next time.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:16

Yes. And we do have training available. So Nat and I are very good. We usually have a meeting right before the race. We have a PowerPoint, we go over all the different roles and the responsibilities of those roles. And a lot of the race um control folks have put together some wonderful training videos that we have of different incidents that have occurred, you know, what to do, what not to do. You know, talking about our recovery team, we did a really good video of how to safely recover a car and get it off the track. And that team is so dialed in right now that they can get a car out of harm's way so fast that it's just amazing. And nobody gets hurt. And when you think about the mechanics and the physics of what's actually happening, uh it's very impressive. And you know, we have other videos that happen organically. Like I I was running the pit grid for uh Masters Historic was out in front, and uh I was standing by the gate, we were looking down the Masters Historics, those are the cars we all grew up watching, right? Beautiful cars, and they're maintained by these folks that spend a lot of time and money to keep those cars going. But I was standing by one of the gate openings and just kind of looking down, and one of the drivers was like flagging me like hysterically, like, come, come. So I radioed a race control and let them know what was going on and got permission to go down there. And then as I started running, and that's getting back to what's on camera, you don't realize how bad of a runner you are until you're holding your radio and all of your headsets and you're running down pit lane as at top speed and everything's just flying off of you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:58

Um we don't wear sports bras, there's no team-issued sports bra.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:03

No, so you know, you have to watch out for the girls coming up and you know, black eyes and things like that. So we try to hold everything down and you're running. And as I got closer to this Master Historics car, the driver behind was pointing at the car ahead of them, and I'm looking down and I see flames in the wheel well. Well, at that point, you know, we radio for the firemen to come out, and those guys, I don't know how they do it, but they get through those gate openings with a fire extinguisher, and they are on pit lane so quite quick. Like it was amazing. The minute I made the call, and then we had our push team come out, the gate opened, we pushed the car out, and then we had to use our kitty litter to clean up all of the chemical that was left from the fire extinguisher. So we put the fire out, we cleaned everything up, we got the car off the front straight, closed the gate, and we were able to start the race pretty much on time. And then the very next year, that incident was on one of the training videos for everybody to learn and see, you know, what can happen and how quickly things can happen, because you see a scene of just cars sitting, not even moving, sitting there, and then all of a sudden chaos comes out. So if people are thinking about wow, TPG sounds like a very cool place to be, you know, yeah, there there is danger just like any position. There are things that happen very quickly, just like any specialty has. But we do our best to try to train you, to try to prepare you. We have people on the team who have been on the team for many, many, many years. So we try to mentor people and take people to Nadja's point earlier that may not even have race experience, but they've gone to some club racing, they've done some other events like WEC or Formula E, and we put them with one of our tenure folks, their experienced folks, and so that knowledge transfer happens. And what we've cultivated over all these years, and the teams we've inherited from Lisa Kay and from Ben Coleman, is this core group of people who are committed to PPG and who are doing that knowledge transfer year over year. And I I know I was a benefit of that mentoring myself from Lisa Kay and and Naja and Sydney to the other women leadership. And that's really what we try to bring to PPG is that sense of give us a try. See, you never know if you're gonna like it or not, but give it a try. We encourage people who've done PPG a long time to try other specialties too, because that cross-training can really come in handy uh with those situations like the one I mentioned. So it truly is uh a race family.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:37

Yeah, definitely. And I think you described it well as that, you know, I think the best you can do is is is you know, something happens, you guys deal with it, no one sees it, that's how you know you nailed it, right? When you're like the behind-the-scenes little elves, kind of you know, doing stuff, and it's like that's how you know you did a good job, as if no one saw it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 1:46:58

I mean, it's funny that incident is the perfect one because we all were just like, What happened? Even the starter was like, What happened? It was completely, you know, nobody had told us that we needed to be off grid, and out of nowhere they made the decision because it was Academy and they were having a lot of spins with the cars, they didn't want us out there when the cars were taking off. It was just a safety thing, but it was a game time call. So when they called and told us to get off the grid, you know, get the get everybody off grid, we're like, okay, well, we've gotten all the mechanics off grid. What else are you talking about? So what? Yeah, so we really are just looking around, we're all looking at each other, and I'm like, oh shit, everybody's looking at me. I'm looking at other people that I'm cheating off of their work. And so um it it I you know, I immediately was like, God, that's gonna look so bad. And then I watched it, and thankfully I have access to the coda videos. So I watched the coda video and I went, okay, that wasn't even how you can't even tell really what's going on. We don't look very organized leaving the grid.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:00

It wasn't a choreographed access.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48:02

It wasn't, it was not the best, but it doesn't, you know, we're not all throwing our arms out going, what are we doing? Which is what it's sound. That's how I remember it in my head. Yes.

SPEAKER_05: 1:48:12

Well, like after after photo GP this year, we had the same worry. We were like, what did we look like out there, you know, doing the wet race and the quick start and all of you know the riders coming off the grid? And we're like, oh my gosh, that must look so chaotic. And our PPG team went out for pizza and beer after the race that night, and they actually started playing the race on the TVs in this bar. We were all watching, waiting to see the chaos, and it was edited out. It was edited out. So here we were so worried that we look like crazy people running on and off the grid and doing all these things, and nobody saw any of it unless you looked at some of the live streaming that happened, like on the Moto GP website, the drone incident, everything else was just something that happened behind the scenes. And there are those are stories of lore that we will pass from generation to generation. PPG, it's right.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49:11

Please do the drones story because we've alluded to it. And like we just said, nobody has seen that other than us.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:18

But again, we I think we I think a lot of the people that were there didn't see it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:49:24

Yeah, yeah. No, it it we were standing by gate one, and gate one is like the epicenter uh for most of Moto, right? That's where a lot of you know the teams come in and out, and we've got the the tower there, and it's just all of the celebrities like to be in the front of the grid watching. So this was before the day even started. So we knew weather was coming in, we knew the day might be a little bit weird, and we were just kind of sitting around talking about you know what could happen. And I actually had my back to the gantry panel, which is right there by gate one. But the person I was talking to had one of those, you know, mirrored lens sunglasses, and it was almost like seeing a UFO. I literally saw something on the sunglasses, and then I saw the face of this person like, oh, oh my God. And then you hear this crash, which we're not used to hearing when the track is cold, right? So I turn around and we the person made the radio call, you know, race control. It's like almost like a Houston. We have a problem, and she made a radio control call, race control call about a drone hitting the gantry light. No lie, it hit one of the red lights, which was dangling precariously over the front straight. Now, this is on race day morning, which is race day is always the most stressful day of all. So we're like sitting there, like, what are we gonna do? So I asked race control for permission to go out and retrieve the drone, and it had a little parachute, it was one of those fancy ones. I guess someone said it was worth a lot of money. Um, I won't say how much, but it was in pieces, it was literally in pieces. So we took the parachute and put all the little pieces into it and tied it up with a bow and got off the front straight, but then we had the gantry light debacle, right? So now we have to repair the gantry light, which is dangling there. So we got the track uh officials to come and they got took care of it right away. And that's another thing that can happen on race day, right? We've got track conditions, and little did we know that the drone incident was the precursor to the wet race, to the quick start, to all of the challenges that we were gonna have later that day. And uh, but you know, that's how racing goes. Sometimes it's neat and it's clean and it goes off without a hitch, and sometimes you can have tires rolling down pit lane and fires and just drones and weird things, and you just kind of have to be ready for anything, and stories to tell for hours.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52:07

Yes, yes, but we're always a learning experience with that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:12

We have crashed through the uh record for the longest podcast episode here on Track Side the Podcast. We've been visiting with Nadja Pollard and Tony Berkey, who are the uh pit chiefs of pretty much every FIA event to take place in North America. And um they're great friends to both of us and always a blast to talk to. And uh such utter professionals at what they do too. So if you're on the pit grid team, then uh you'll see all of our four faces live and in front of you. And uh it's always great to talk to you, ladies, and we're really glad you were able to spend some time with us on the Truckside Podcast.

SPEAKER_05: 1:52:58

Thanks for having us. It was a blast.

SPEAKER_01: 1:53:00

It was, it was exactly what I thought it would be.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:07

So we we warned you, didn't we, that it was gonna be a wacky one.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:12

I have been looking forward to this for so long, just because, you know, as we said, we know them very well. And they were making notes. I was watching Tony. Um, we do our our uh podcast on a Zoom and we do it with video. Sorry you don't get to see the video, but uh kept watching Tony looking down and I'm thinking she's checking notes. She was, she was.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:36

They're so prepared. So prepared, they're more professional than we are on this thing with their with you know topics and this and that. And uh um yeah, I I'll be honest, I was prepped ahead of time with some with some topics, and so uh I we we kind of led them into a couple of them, I'll I'll be honest. But uh no, it was it was uh they did not disappoint. Let's just say um yeah, they're they're so cool to work with. And so yeah, if you're ever interested in in getting on the team and you see them, if you know what they look like, they're probably gonna be wearing a yellow green helmet.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:08

Or carrying it if you're at the meeting, they don't wear it the whole time.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:12

But yeah, definitely hit them up and and uh yeah, they're it's it's always so fun to get to work with them. And and they really do. Like they they work so well together at all these events. You know, they have a very similar kind of work ethic and and they mean business, but we also we always have a good time with them and they they make it very special. You know, they kind of you talked about, you know, that the customer service aspect is huge. And I don't think a lot of people think about that, maybe with marshalling. You, you know, especially if you're out on a corner somewhere, you know, obviously we would hope that you'd be a nice person to your other postmates, you know, et cetera, whatever. But you know, you are in a kind of a customer-facing role on PPG because you are dealing with the public and all the VIPs and all the pretty people, as they say, you know, it's so important to be able to, you know, don't forget that, right? Because you could make or break someone's experience, and obviously we want them coming back again and again, and maybe even marshalling next time. You know, maybe they bought a ticket this time and now they want to get into it. So I think it's definitely something that was interesting that they brought up that maybe not everybody thinks about as that is making sure that you're not just being a jerk.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:23

Absolutely. Yeah, and and you have a a safety responsibility. You're you're literally watching everyone else's back on the team because things happen so fast on Pit Lane. Yes, it's great. You have one of the best seats in the in the at the racetrack, but one wrong step, you know, one trip, and things can go bad in a very, very quick way. And you know, there there is a lot of of crazy stuff that that can happen that you have to be ready for. Safety, logistical, you know, all of those things. You know, I I can't tell you how many times I've heard go out over the pit radio, you know, I need three people at gate one right now, you know, and who knows what you're going for, but if you're near gate one, you're moving.

SPEAKER_00: 1:56:13

Yep, yep. And those gates are no joke.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:15

Those are they are heavy and they they they take a team just to know how to do that. You have Armco protecting pit lane, so you have to lift that out of the way. You have multiple bars that lock the gate closed in case of an impact, then the the gates weigh several hundred pounds each. You know, it is it is no joke to open those gates.

SPEAKER_00: 1:56:41

And those cross beams, those diagonal cross beams, yeah, there's like three different points. Yeah. And uh it is like Tetris, Django, whatever you want to call it, you know, putting all that stuff together. So yes, it's it might seem like opening a gate. Uh whatever, no, it's it's like uh yes, it takes several people.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:59

Like a team of four or something like that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57:02

Yeah, definitely. But uh yeah, no, it's uh it's a good time. I I I want to mention something. So on our last episode, we were talk critiquing the F1 film. And one of the things that we were talking about is, you know, you can make a drinking game out of all the continuity errors, or you know, all the all the technical errors. And so they do mention the light panels uh on the grid. And so I will I'm gonna reveal one of mine in the film. There was a moment when I think it was the Brad Pitt character who was like jogging the morning of the Silverstone race, and he walks up to the pit lane and all those panels are on and pointed out. Right. So that was one of mine. Like that would never that's not a thing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:41

It's not a thing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57:42

That's not a thing. So you're keeping track at home for all your technical things that were not correct. There you go. That's what they were talking about was to watch that scene, and that's what they're referring to as those light panels that kind of yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:56

So they think of everything in FYE. Yeah. And they wanted to make sure those panels got their due, but uh they did so at the wrong time.

SPEAKER_00: 1:58:05

Yep, not not uh yeah, there was no race going on when they were they were in the on position. Plus, they were testing them. Maybe I I guess I should be fair. Maybe they were just testing them early in the morning, but I didn't see anyone around testing them in the background. But anyway, but no, they they're always great to work with and uh definitely say hello if you see them out there, and uh we'll probably have them back on again, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:27

Oh they're always they're always uh always always got funny stuff going on.

SPEAKER_00: 1:58:33

So yeah, we're thrilled that they were able to join us.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:35

So well, we have uh wasted a lot of not wasted, we have uh spent a lot of time talking about Pippin Grid today, and uh though it's been a lot of fun, I think it's time to put the wraps on this one. You think, Jessica?

SPEAKER_00: 1:58:48

Uh yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:51

All right, everybody. This podcast is copyright of its owners and creators. Though Jessica and I are employed by Circuit of the Americas, nothing we say represents an official opinion of or endorsement from the circuit or any of their clients or series we might mention. And all opinions are our own. And with that, we will put a bow on this episode of Checkside the Podcast. Just it's always great to see you and uh talk with you again, and uh we'll do so again soon on another episode of Checkside the Podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:59:24

Sounds good. We'll see you then.