This article first appeared in the March, 2016 edition of SportsCar Magazine. SCCA members can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here after logging into their account; To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.
Sue Green
Blackhawk Valley Region
Member Since 1986
SCCA’s 2015 Registration Worker of the Year
Sue Green had seen Fire and she had seen Rescue, and it was time for a change. “I really loved the work, but I just couldn’t physically do it anymore,” she explains. She had been hard at it for 15 years. Her sister, who herself worked Fire and Rescue, had lured her into the Club. She met her husband at the track. He worked Flagging and Communications and later raced a Sports Renault. “That’s how long ago it was,” she laughs. “It wasn’t a Spec Racer.”
She was at Blackhawk Farms about 15 years ago when the Divisional Registrar hung up his boots. “His girlfriend didn’t want any part of the racing scene and he said that’s it. They looked around for someone else, and I raised my hand. I’m still here.” Back then, she says, you hauled around a ton of paper files. Now what she hauls around are laptops. “It is a lot easier, but you still need to do a lot of prep work. If I’m chief for an event, I’ll be working on an event a month in advance.” She has nothing but accolades for her co-workers. She says that over time they have built a core group of people who genuinely support one another and want to help racers get registered quickly and easily.
In her neck of the woods they are fortunate to have an abundant supply of talented volunteers. She works mostly at Blackhawk Farms and Road America. “It’s not unusual for us to have between seven and eight volunteers working an event. At Road America for the June Sprints, we had 16 registrars on duty. We invite a lot of folks and they step up.”
Their ethos is to make the system work better and to have a good time doing it. It is her gang that is making tie-dyed tee shirts and playing Yahtzee at the Sprints. “One of the really nice things around here is that everyone in the Division approaches registration in the same way. We share whatever systems we see might work elsewhere. It’s a win for the drivers as our registration is smooth and quick.”
Sue uses what she calls a registration concierge to direct drivers and workers to an open registration person ASAP. “When we are working you don’t see groups of people standing around talking. Our customers are happy because they are moving quickly. We bend over backwards to say yes.”
A crew person can register on one computer while the driver is on another. Beginning three years ago, they instituted a prep shop list. The prep shop calls and says who will be at the race and they get registered that way rather than having to match a crew person with a particular driver. This is an efficient system that is moving into other Divisions.
No system is immune from calamity. “If the Wi-Fi goes down, we are in trouble. It can be hours before things are back on track. I’ve seen it be down at Road America for a day or two. It’s electronics – things happen.” Sue now carries her own hot spot with her. “We can be back up and running in 10 minutes.”
“To do the best job, you surround yourself with the best people, so you can do the job the way you want it done. I’m certainly not doing this on my own,” she states emphatically.
She says that receiving the Worker of the Year Award at the 2015 National Championship Runoffs was wonderful. “It was a very nice honor, and I’m glad the Club recognizes the work that we do,” she says. But you can hear the emotion in her voice when she tells of the times that drivers have come over at races and thanked her for all her crew does. “It’s so cool when they do that. It’s just one big family. I love the camaraderie. I don’t get to see a lot of racing, but my family has expanded dramatically.”
Story by James Kearney
Image by Jennifer Hinton
