MEET THE SPEEDWAY STAFF
September 15, 2017
Name: Tami Loveless
- Tami is one of the track officials responsible for keeping each program running smoothly. She manages many of the activities in the pits and can usually be found in the push off lane or among the racing cars. For the September 16th event, she was the starter (flag person), a job she was doing for the first time, although she had flagged the go-cart races before.
- Tami has been around the Speedway most of her life. As she says, “I’ve been working here for seven years. But I worked here as a teenager in the concession stand, selling programs and things, I’ve been a spectator here since I was a little kid. My dad raced here, my brother raced here. My ex-husband raced here. And I’ve raced here in the super stock class. So, I’ve been here in just about every capacity that there is.”
- Hometown is Bloomington.
- Responsibilities: “I am a pit official. My primary duty is running the lineup chute, making sure the cars a lined up properly and that they’re there, lined up and ready to go when it’s their turn to go on the track. I also answer questions with spectators and drivers and diffuse turmoil. I have run the driver’s meeting occasionally and I put in my two cents occasionally. I like to work with every division.”
What do you do when you are not at the track?
- “I am the scholarship manager at the Indiana University Foundation. I am working on completing my Masters degree in business administration and I will complete that in April. I have just started my own business as a May Kay consultant and I have a daughter getting ready to get married, a daughter in high school and I have a foster child who is almost 3. I am very busy.”
What is the craziest thing that has happened while working at the track?
- “I don’t know that there’s been anything really totally crazy, I know there are a lot of drivers that have gotten ahold of my phone number and they will call me and ask me questions during the week. I know a little bit of everybody. Prior to working in the pits, I didn’t know the sprint car drivers that well because I’ve always been a stock car girl. But now I’m getting to know the sprint car drivers and I’ve made buddies with all of them.
What makes you keep coming back each year?
- “I am just very passionate about dirt track racing. I have grown up in dirt track racing. The only thing better than working at a race track would be either turning wrenches or being in the driver’s seat.”
- Mike O'Leary on Sep 20, 2017
- Article Date: 9/20/2017