Introduction

The person whom I interviewed was Brittany Krueger. She is the manager of

camping and ticketing services at Pocono Raceway. I selected her as the person to

interview because I have been to Pocono Raceway multiple times and was interested to

learn more about it. I am interested in the operations side of racetracks and what goes

on during the off season. Brittany will enter her thirteenth year with Pocono Raceway in

2024. She got her college degree from Penn State majoring in Recreation, Parks, and

Tourism Management. This is the only company she has ever worked for professionally.

Mission/purpose of the company/Department

The mission statement for Pocono Raceway is “To create exciting experiences

and lifelong memories at a beautiful and sustainable motorsports and entertainment

facility.” (B. Krueger, personal communication, October 5, 2023) The recreation

department does not have its own mission statement.

Clientele Served

There are multiple groups of people of many different ages that this company

serves. This includes families, military members, school groups, organizations, and

Bachelor parties. That includes pretty much everyone age wise. Families make up a big

part of the clients served. As far as memberships go the closest this company gets is a

kids club but the only requirement is that the children are 14 and under. Therefore there

is no membership required. The majority of the clients served come from within 300
miles of the racetrack. The majority of clients that go to the races are white Americans.

However there is also a strong Canadian presence at the track.

Services and Programs provided

One of the main programs that this company has is the kids club. The kids club is

for kids 14 and under who can get autographs from drivers, team owners, and pit crew

members. The biggest program that Pocono Raceway runs is the stock car racing

experience. This gives people from all over the chance to ride in or drive a real

NASCAR stock car. A promotional activity that the company engages in is they will bring

the pace car to local dirt tracks to promote the NASCAR race or the previously

mentioned programs. There are no specific facilities required to run these operations.

Staffing

Pocono raceway has somewhere between 30-40 full-time staff members. During

a race weekend they will have over 500 volunteers to help throughout the weekend.

There isn't a specific recreation department at Pocono.

Funding sources

The main source of revenue is from ticket sales. However there are a multitude

of other ways they get funding. One of them has already been talked about and that is

the stock car racing experience. Other sources of funding include leasing the track,

special events, and sponsorships.

Professional issues
 One of the challenges that is faced in this field is the office period. This is when

they dont have much to do and are mainly answering calls. They are getting tickets

renewed from those who bought them last year and getting new people to buy tickets.

During the event period the biggest challenges are dealing with the weather and finding

enough staff to work the events. The biggest excitements are working with people who

you are close to. She has been a part of the organization for a long time and it has

started to feel like family. She does identify in the field of RPTM.

An interesting area of her job is there are two different parts of the year. During

the off-season she is mainly on call and works more of a nine to five schedule. During a

race weekend she described it as chaotic. She is on call at all times and has to be in the

check in area for the camping area. During this time she has to deal with helping the

volunteers and help the customers with any issues that come up.