Team finds Mansfield very helpful
www.nine11design.com blog under Pro Racing
“New’s from Mid-Ohio”
Mid ohio
We have been impressed with the people of Ohio – they are friendly and extremely helpful. You see, Team 911 had a rough start off the line. (good to get that over with before the race!) We arrived very late to the hotel on the Tuesday night and we all looked at each other in a beautifully synchronized tone “oh…expletive”. That’s all that came out – in my car and Loren’s. It seems the race teams for this event book hotels in September the year BEFORE and is why we couldn’t find a hotel within 30 minutes of the track. (With the exception of a bug-ridden, barely inhabitable motel. UGH!… now what?) To give you a visual, the office ceiling was so short that I could touch it (I’m 5′4″) and there were so many mosquitoes in the office – I walked OUTSIDE!!
Well, as any good team coordinator worth their salt..(oops –not in Salt Lake anymore) I immediately ventured out and spent most of the first day, begging and pleading to find an “inhabitable” property, worthy of a race team. (By the way, for those not familiar, when you travel with nine men who work exceptionally hard all day, they are VERY easy to please…clean room, shower and bed. That’s it. Not even a Hampton Inn is required!) I hop out of bed (literally to get the hell out of there) and have Loren promptly call the team and tell them to pack their bags, we are NOT coming back. As I proceed to drop the “boys who didn’t sleep the night before for fear of “things” crawling on them” off at the track, I promptly did a U-turn and set out on a mission to find a new hotel. Not as easy as it sounds. Six non-smoking rooms for four consecutive nights where people book almost one year in advance…..hmmm?
After going to six properties with no success, I end up at the Best Western Mansfield where a young man – hotel manager Josh Maurer and his associate Laura Fugitt voluntarily spent 45 minutes calling around for me (his hotel was booked to house the Indy Racing League). Damn! Would have loved to stay at the same property as Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti! And of course Loren and Doug would have appreciated staying at the same hotel as Danika Patrick! Anyhow, they put me in touch with Ms. Molly Green, a travel agent specializing in IMSA and IRL race teams. Honestly, I am ashamed to admit it, but I resorted to the “it’s my Birthday tomorrow, please, please, please, I can’t imagine spending my Birthday at that hotel” card. Well….this wonderful woman, called back to say “Happy Birthday!”…six CLEAN rooms at The Quinta Mansfield. Whoo hoo! All I can say is Thank God…our tired, hot, sweaty warriors had a clean place to come back to last night.
I must say, working for a race team is tough in Southern CA, but imagine the heat and humidity of Lexington, OH (where the track is located) it’s truly brutal. The pits aren’t even on asphalt – they are on grass! We always bring our own flooring however making it level is another challenge. (Try aligning a car on a hill….nope, it’ll never happen. They brought 4 pieces of 1″, 4′ x 8′ plywood to literally construct a flat platform.) These guys are incredible. They must love this profession an awful lot to work like the dogs they do. They are awesome and I am proud…..
More soon from lovely, hot and steamy Mid-Ohio….
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