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"I'm just trying to help the team wherever
I can"
Tom Moore, Media Rep, Petersen
Motorsports/White Lightning Racing
By
Margot Orenchuk
Photos courtesy Margot Orenchuk
 LA
SARTHE, France (June 7, 2004) --
One of the
people of the teams behind the scenes in any team is the PR person; or
“public relations” guru. The PR person’s job is a balancing act unequalled
anywhere; part babysitter, part human day-timer, always a diplomat. Words
are how they are perceived as making their living, but in a team like
Petersen’s/White Lightning, valuable people like Tom Moore always become
much more than just the limited scope of the original task to which he was
assigned. Tom has become as much a valuable member as any other on the team,
as he sat down with me today before all of the hoopla began; to discuss his
role in how he helps the push towards victory lane on every given weekend
(or in this case, any given week).
Margot Orenchuk:
Tom, how did you get into
the Public Relations business?
Tom Moore:
It’s kind of a long, drawn out story that is actually odd Internet
relationships; that started out; I was always a big fan of the sport. Now by
sport, I mean the sport. I didn’t care if it was here at Le Mans, or it was
the Indy 500 (which was actually my first love) or NASCAR or anything; I
watched it all, short of monster trucks;
if it had 4 wheels and moved I was
watching. So as I was going through college, through high school I wanted to
be an engineer to design racecars. And then math got in the way. So I was
going through an Econ degree (these are the long-winded responses I tell my
guys not to give) and I met Sylvia Proudfoot on the internet (a PR person),
Sylvia started talking, and then I met David Seicer, and David is, amongst
other things, the unofficial Ferrari motor sports representative, and
handles all of the Ferrari Challenges, and things like that, and he lived in
Atlanta, so we got together quite often. So both of them kept suggesting I
get involved in this, and introduced me to other people.
When
I left college I pretty much went straight into work in motor sports
PR. I worked for Metro Racing Systems for Sylvia, and then my first Full
Time gig was with the ALMS.
MO:
How long have you been working for Petersen /White Lightning? How did you
get involved with them?
TM:
Ironically again, it was
Sylvia. Dale and Mike wanted Sylvia, and she had another commitment, and she
recommended me for the team. Mike did not know me at the time and that was
in Sebring 2003, about 2 weeks before Sebring as a matter of fact. And so
I talked to Dale, and we hit it off. I showed up at Sebring, and I have
worked at every race since except Le Mans last year.
MO:
Do you just work PR for Petersen/White Lighting Racing? Or do you have other
clients that you take care of race weekend?
TM:
Actually, I have a couple of other clients. Here, this weekend is just
Petersen’s, but I have Shane Lewis as a client, and
this weekend he is running in the 24 hours of Nurburgring driving a Porsche,
so I am trying to keep up with that as well. So that is 48 hours of racing
in one weekend, it’s sort of mind-boggling, but we will see. I also work
with Jimmy Kite who is a 4-time Indy 500 starter, and Naykid racing which is
an SCCA Corvette racing team; which has one of the most successful female
racecar drivers racing today Cindy Lux. And I’m working with Ritchie Hearn
that is running with the Star Mazda series that had his first race at
Mid-Ohio this year.
MO:
How would you describe
your world?
TM:
Ever expanding and changing. When I first came on board, and this is quite
interesting because Dale [White] and I were speaking about this yesterday.
It’s just been one of those things, I originally came on board, and their
relationship with PR people had pretty much been they had wanted press
releases written before and after, and maybe show up for a couple of races,
and we slowly started to expand that, and now I’ve been heading hero card
design and all the things most PR reps do, including the website and a
couple of other things - and in Sebring I was even in charge of keeping the
driver’s logs; which was interesting, and a little nerve-wracking when you
hand it in and hoping to God you got it right or you get thrown out of your 3rd
place! So like I say it’s ever-expanding; if I’m not physically doing
something with the media or the drivers, doing promotions or something like
that I’m just trying to help out the team wherever I can.
MO:
So you said this is your first
time at Le Mans?
TM:
Yes, I have been over
here once before, I came over in 2002 for the pre-test with Shane Lewis
trying to find him a ride, unfortunately we were unsuccessful at that that
year, and I was here this year for the pre-test. This will be my first
actual race weekend.
MO:
Have you ever been here as a fan?
TM:
No. I watched it as often
as I possibly could on television, it’s sort of tough because this is the
same weekend and if memory serves I was usually at Indy Pike’s Peak right
about now. I remember getting up early at Pike’s Peak and watching the end
of the race before heading to the track.
MO:
What was your first impression when you arrived at Pre-Q?
TM:
Actually, I was really impressed. My first impression was actually rather
about the town than about the track. Because when people talk about this
place, they talk about the quaint little village of Le Mans. This place is
HUGE. And that was my first impression. It wasn’t this quaint little
village, like you see in the Le Mans movie. It is just a race track; and my
first impression of the track was, well, it’s slightly more than what I
remember what AJ Foyt said when he came here in I think 1967 and his comment
was it’s like driving down a little French country road; I don’t think I
would go quite that far; the facility is beautiful. I don’t’ know what it
was like in 1967. It reminds me a lot of Indianapolis where a place has so
much heritage, so much history that means so much to so many people, so even
when you start putting in all of these glass buildings, that is the beauty
of a track like this. That doesn’t go away at all. It just complements it.
No matter what they build, you turn around, and there is a reminder of
something that was there in the 40’s. It’s really cool from that
perspective.
MO:
Are you planning to have anyone take you out on the track?
TM:
Not necessarily this weekend, I have been out before. When I was out here
before with Shane [Lewis] he threw me behind the wheel of a Renault car, I
was diving through the chicanes in between the 2 barriers they were using to
keep people out but there was just enough room you could get in there; if we
had been in America I would not have been able to do that. So I got to do
that, so that was really cool to have a professional driver to hit the mark
and go through, it was kind of neat because I have never driven at Indy or
any of those other places so getting to drive here was special.
MO:
What is the most challenging part of your job?
TM:
That is a great question.
That would probably be a better question for my wife, ‘what do I complain
about most?”. That is really tough. I think challenge is the best word….
Because every opportunity is a lot of fun. And is a challenge. I think the
toughest part is the realisation that this team, from every standpoint, even
though, “quote, unquote” it is a GT team, this is a top notch, professional
operation, just like every team here is. And I think a lot of people here
have a tough time looking past the prototypes and recognising that not only
is this racing so incredible at the GT class levels, but that the teams are
so professional. And there are so many interesting stories. That is probably
the biggest challenge is just getting that out to people. Behind the scene
the biggest challenge is just the logistics of getting everything done every
day, you have things pulling you in a lot of different directions.
Petersen/White Lightning is a great team in that most
of the people of the
team understand what my role here is. At a lot of teams you do not get that.
They don’t understand and they just think you are just standing around
talking to people. They would think I am just out in the garage messing
around. But these guys are really great about that. Mike and Dale are great
about that. They give me the headway to do the job that I need to do.
MO:
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
TM:
It sounds really goofy. It sounds sort of trite, but the honest truth is
that just working with the guys, getting to know not just the drivers,
because we have some incredible drivers, not just here this weekend but in
the ALMS, I mean Craig (Stanton) and David (Murry) are incredible. But
Patrick (Long) and Jorg (Bergmeister) and Sascha (Maassen) are amazing, not
just in the car but also out of the car. These guys get it. For a PR person,
that is really neat. I man really the most rewarding part is when they see
something out there and say “hey man, good job, that was really cool to see
that out there”. I got a lot of that about this (RFM’s coverage of
Petersen’s during Le Mans) and it’s really neat. It’s a good feeling because
they recognise because they see what you are doing. When the car rolls out
and qualifies, well, you can see the results then, but for this it’s nice to
see the results.
MO:
When does your job end? Does it ever end? Is it when you leave the track?
TM:
No, I’m on call, it
sounds overblown, but you are literally on call 24 hours a day. Especially
here, because when I am done here, it’s just the middle of the day at home,
and I have a lot of people there. I got a call from Jimmy Kite at 3 o’clock
this morning; he just wanted to talk and give me an update on stuff. You are
really never off the clock. The phone never stops and the clock never
stops and my people know they can call me whenever if they have a good
enough reason; and I will take the call.
MO:
Tell me what scrutineering is all about.
 TM:
There is no difference to what we have in the ALMS or in any other series.
The only difference is we have 2 scrutineering here. The first one is the
pre-test, and then you go through it again at the race. The only difference
is that everything is done here at the track at pre-qualifying. There is 2
parts to it - there is what there is called an administrative part of it,
which is the first section, which is done about 30 minutes before you do the
other. You go in, and make sure all of you paperwork is in order. And all
the drivers’ paperwork is in order; their helmet is in check, the safety
equipment and uniform is in check and up to date. They get their head shot
taken, that sort of thing. And then the scrutineering
of the car, measurements and it’s exactly the same in pre-qualifying as in
the race except you go downtown for the race.
MO:
What happens if something doesn’t pass?
TM:
You go home. If you leave downtown without having passed, you leave. There
is no tomorrow.
MO:
Has that ever happened?
TM:
I’m sure it has; if you are there, and you can make adjustments, you are
fine. If it’s something you have to go away and do, you go away, pack up and
go home. This is not a check it off the list type of thing. This is some
serious pressure. We were here last night until about 11pm. And this team
is extremely well prepared. We were the last people to leave here last
night. Making sure all the measurements were correct, making sure everything
was within the parameters and tolerances. There is a lot of pressure to
make sure this goes well.
RFM wants to thank Tom for
spending not only this time but all of his time with the RFM team this week
– and the time he will be spending with us this week as we continue to bring
you ongoing coverage of this defending GT Le Mans Championship team.
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