June 10, 2024 • 19 mins
Craig Rust is the president of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which is located just outside of Lexington. Rust has been in the role for 13 years and previously ran Watkins Glen in New York, before coming to Mid-Ohio in 2011. Craig was born in Pennsylvania and attended Lehigh University. Rust got his start in sales in New York City, in 1996, at Madison Square Garden. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was built in 1962 and just received a new surface this year. Mid-Ohio is a 2.25 mile road course and hosts many events, which range from Indy car to motorcycles. Learn more about the track, and president, Craig Rust, on the podcast.
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(00:00):
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Craig Rust, Presidentof the mid Ohio sports Car Course.
We are joined today. We're goingto go on the telephone and we're
gonna learn about the midd Ohio sportsCar Course. That time of the year,
(00:21):
you know, summertime arriving the racingseason is underway. We're joined by
Craig Rust, who is the presidentof the mid Ohio sports Car Course.
Craig, good morning. First ofall, thanks for being here. How
you doing today. We're doing great. We're doing great. Appreciate you having
me on. Yeah, it's goodto shine the spotlight on mid Ohio.
Last weekend officially got everything started withthe first race of the season that O'reiley
(00:45):
Ottopard's four Hours of mid Ohio Imssports car racing. I know tons of
fans. Always good Craig. Ithas to be to kind of lift the
lid on that first racing week endof the season, right. It is
a little bit I don't want tosay nerve wracking, but you know,
you work all year and then youknow you got to get ready for that
first race and kind of get allthe kinks out and all your procedures and
(01:10):
stuff. You know when we saywhen the circus comes to town, but
it's a great event. We werevery excited to have Inse back. They
took one year off here, sowe made a deal with him to bring
back the Pilot Challenge and created thefour Hour of mid Ohio and so Daytona
(01:30):
and midd Ohio are the only onesto run longer Pilot Challenge races, so
we were excited about that. Andthen the Mustang Challenge officially kicked off here,
so we were the inaugural race andthat's always exciting. So you know,
five series out here over the courseof a weekend, lots to see
and do for the fans. Sogreat way to kick the season off.
(01:52):
Craig Rosti is with us today,President of the midd Ohio Sportscar Course.
This week's CEO. You should know. So Craig I always begin to same
way with everybody on the program.If somebody just moved the area, they
don't know a lot about the racetrack. Give us some history. I know
it's been around a while, giveus some dates and tell us a bit
of the history of midd Ohio we'vebeen around sixty two years. Back in
(02:15):
the eighties, the Truman family purchasedthe track and really updated it back then
to create what basically the base forwhat you see now and they were the
ones to bring IndyCar to mid Ohio. But we're two and a quarter mile
natural terrain road course, probably oneof the more historic road courses in the
(02:37):
country. I would put us in, you know, the top five or
six road courses. Being in theMidwest, we really really helps us as
our location is fantastic. We servea lot of a lot of regions,
you know, across the Midwest,so a lot of our fan base comes
comes from all over north, southeast, and West, which is great,
(03:00):
which obviously feeds into the economic impactof the facility. Our biggest race,
probably the one we're most known forus the Honda Indy two hundred, which
this year's right after the July fourthweekend, which is great. We've had
a long history with Honda. Theyhave helped us tremendously growing that event,
(03:22):
kind of making that a must seeevent on the IndyCar schedule. So you
know, we have a school thatsells out from April to October because of
all those people that are familiar withracing at mid Ohio, they want to
come, you know, drive thetrack with their car clubs and stuff.
So yeah, it's kind of afan favorite, a driver favorite. Sponsors
(03:45):
like it and like I said,great location you know for everybody to come
to. So you know, we'rereal proud of it. Yeah, just
outside of Lexington to mid Ohio sportsCar Course. We're chatting with the president
of the racetrack, Craig Russ.This week's CEO. You should know.
And Craig, what's great about itis all racing. You talked about IndyCar,
We talked to you know, IMSAa moment ago. You could talk
about you know when it's the VintageGrand Prix, talk about motorcycles. What's
(04:09):
cool is you guys see so manydifferent kinds of racing. Yeah, that's
one of the things that midd Ohiolens itself to is just the variety of
motorsports that we can accommodate. Itjust it fits, it fits all styles
of racing. You know. Weused to have a NASCAR event here for
the Exfinity race and then we ranthe trucks and NASCAR put on a good
(04:31):
show. Motorcycles are back with MotorAmerica later in August. That's kind of
a pseudo inaugural event for us.Even though we posted superbikes, it was
a different series and the sanctioning bodywas much different back then, So kind
of a new superbike event out herein August, and we were thrilled to
have them back. So, youknow, from twenty three to this year
(04:56):
to get imps of back and addMotor America and as you pointed out,
long time running the Vintage Grand Prixevents and then our partnership with AMA with
Vintage Motorcycle Days, which is oneof those events. You got to see
it to believe it. They absolutelyconsume the property and there's more motorcycles in
(05:17):
one place than you can imagine.But it really does. Just the way
the track was laid out from thevery beginning just lends itself to accommodate a
lot of different motorsports, which isgreat. Yeah, terrific to learn to
get about midd Ohio's sports car course. This morning with the President at the
track, Craig Ross, this week'sCEO. You should know, Greig,
(05:39):
well, I have you with ustoday. I got a lot of questions
I'll go quickly. How long Iknow you've been involved a long time.
How long have you been involved withMiddle Ohio? How long have you been
president? Give us some of thathistory. I came to midd Ohio in
twenty eleven when the crewman sold thetrack to Kim Green and Kevin Savay,
(05:59):
who have a law history of teamownership in IndyCar and so they purchased the
track and they brought me on boardin twenty eleven. I met them when
ran Watkins Glenn for almost ten years, and met them there when I brought
the IndyCar Series to that track.So, yeah, it's hard to believe
it's thirteen years now. How longhave you been involved in terms you mentioned
(06:23):
Watkins Glen. How long have youbeen in the business? Uh huh,
Now you're making me feel old.I started in the business in nineteen ninety
six when I moved to Southern Californiafrom New York City. I actually got
into sports at Madison Square Garden inNew York City, and then my wife
and I decided to move to southernCalifornia. And that was right at the
(06:45):
time when Roger Penske was building CaliforniaSpeedway. So I was on the original
team that built California Speedway, andfrom there I ran Nazareth Speedway for a
couple of years, which was myhometown. I'm from the Lehigh and then
I, who owned the track,then bought the tracks from Roger Penske,
(07:05):
moved me to Watkins Glen and thenI had a short stay at Chicago Land
between Watkins Glenn and here. Soit's been a long time, all right.
Well, Craig, let's find outa bit more about you. Craig
rust Again, president of the middOhio sports Car Course. This week's CEO.
You should know. Let's step backto the beginning, Craig, Where
were you born? Bethlehem, Pennsylvania? All right? And next, tell
(07:30):
us where'd you go to high school? Liberty High School in Bethlehem. All
right? Well, so tell usafter high school? You mentioned you know
a lot in the business college,anything like that. Tell us after high
school? So I actually went toLehigh University, which is also located in
Bethlehem. So I stayed home forcollege, but met my wife there and
her family at the time lived outin Southern Cals So from there, like
(07:54):
I said, we moved to Igot my first job at Madison Square Garden
in New York City and the adsales department for the Garden and for the
next Rangers and at the time theYankees, you know. So that's kind
of where I learned the business.And then when she decided she wanted to
go to law school. So we'rebig USC fans. So Ohio State's growing
(08:16):
on me. But my first loveis USC and we moved out there and
that's where I connected into racing andI've been in racing ever since then.
All right, all in the Bigten now, So maybe I'll get some
of those matchups here coming up inthe near future. It's going to be
interesting. Greg Gross terrific conversation.We'll keep him for a few more minutes.
This week's CEO. You should knowagain he is the president of the
(08:39):
Middle Ohio sports Car Course. Iwant to get back to the track,
Am I right? I was talkingto with the drivers. Is there a
new surface at the track orar leastpart of the track? Yeah, So
that's one of the more exciting thingswe've done in the last several years.
We've repaved the entire two and aquarter mile track. We've been thinking about
it or working towards it, Ishould say for the past couple of years.
(09:01):
But you know, you don't justtear up a racetrack and repave it.
You really have to bring engineers inwho understand, you know, the
climate conditions of where the track islocated. And you know, they developed
the asphalt. It's not the sameasphalt that you just put down on a
highway or on a city street.So you know, we took a lot
(09:24):
of bore samples around the track sothe engineers could kind of see, you
know, how the track was puttogether, and they came up with a
with a mixture for the asphalt,and then everybody liked and so in twenty
twenty three we did a test patchin turn one and it handled, It
held up really well, and soyeah, this pass fall paved the entire
(09:46):
thing. So we're getting a lotof great feedback from the drivers and from
the clubs that have been here.We've had some indy car tests here,
so they've been excited about it.And that was really the reason Moti America
reached out. They've always wanted tocome back that the old surface with the
seiler on it. There was aceiler that made it very very slippery when
(10:09):
it got wet, so it becamekind of a white knuckle ride or a
white knuckle drive, so to speak, for the drivers and riders when it
was wet out here. So withthe new asphalt and just some of the
drainage, we did hopefully we hitit right and you know, we'll go
from there. You're hearing from thisweek's CEO. You should know, Craig
(10:31):
Rass, president of the Middle Ohiosports Car Course. Again, a couple
more quick ones before I let yougo. That's where I was going to
go next. You mentioned it's notjust like, hey, you know,
we're going to resurface it like aroad. You mentioned engineers and all of
that. How long I guess howlong did it take to do the track
in its entirety once we had themixture, Once we had we knew what
(10:52):
we wanted to do. It onlytook about ten days. It's not a
long process. But again just thelogistics of you know, we didn't have
a batch plant on site, sotrucks had to you know, come from
about a half hour away. Youknow, little things like that that people
wouldn't even think of. You gotto keep the asphalt hot, you know
(11:13):
while it's coming across, So justlittle things like that, But the process
leading up to it took months uponmonths. The actual paving of it two
weeks. Craig Racing is so popularmiddle Ohio, you know, a very
you know, big destination for people. How far do people travel from for
(11:35):
a race and there's so many overthe course of a year. But I
mean, I'm sure you've heard howfar people stretch from. Could you give
us kind of some of that.Yeah, our primary areas for our fans,
as you would think, you know, Indiana, Michigan, obviously,
of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky,that's the kind of a focus area.
(11:56):
But we get fans if you area Stan of India Car, they travel
to different events, so you know, they don't necessarily come to every race
every year, but we're kind ofa bucket list track for a lot of
IndyCar fans. We get fans fromfrom Canada because of our location, and
there's obviously we also our company ownsthe rights to the Toronto Grand Prix,
(12:20):
so we get a lot of theToronto fans to come down. But then
you take the fans that grew uparound the track are from Ohio that have
moved away. The Honda Indy twohundred, like I said, is probably
our biggest one. They come fromall over the United States to come see
it. And with that, probablyone of our events that draws from the
(12:43):
widest distance is that Vintage of MotorcycleDays. We do that in conjunction with
the AMA. It's got one ofthe largest swap meets in North America.
It's a three day motorcycle festival.And you know, I've heard people coming
over from Europe to look at thevintage motorcycles. There's a lot of people
have bikes for sale, so it'syou know, people are buying, selling,
(13:09):
swapping, riding, you know,competing, you know, so it's
it's a huge event. So thoseare probably the two biggest events that we
get the furthest draw from. Youcan check out for more information in for
tickets at mid Ohio dot com.Again, coming up that Grand Prix of
Mid Ohio June twenty first through thetwenty third. Craig mentioned a little while
(13:30):
ago the big Honda Indy two hundredweekend July fifth through the seventh, and
we also talked about the super bikesat Mid Ohio August sixteenth to the eighteenth,
and of course those Vintage Motorcycle Dayswill be in late July July twenty
sixth through the twenty eighth. Craigreal quick, I mentioned I got a
couple before I let you go.Do you like how the schedule late out
this year? Couple in June,July and August. Do you like how
(13:52):
laid out this year? Yeah?You know, that's one of the challenges
you have as much as you wantto separate your major events. Also,
you know, we're kind of atthe whim of the sanctioning bodies, who
you know, they've got a fullseason you know, all over the United
States that they have to fit usin. So it becomes a lot of
give and take between the sanctioning bodyand us. I would prefer to have
(14:16):
some of our events spread out alittle bit. It's very tough on the
staff, it's very tough on ourvolunteers, you know, to have you
know, a huge event, likewe have an IMPSA a week often it's
Vintage Cars a week off, andthen we're prepared for Indy Cars. So
I say a week off, itreally is just basically a week to clean
(14:37):
up the facility and then you're rollingright into the to the next event.
So but I'm real happy with aswe talked about earlier, the variety of
the series that we have this year. There's a little something for everyone.
They're all, you know, themajor series within their discipline. So,
(14:58):
you know, very happy about that. Craig. If you would you mentioned
staff volunteers, how many people ona given year you know, kind of
help you guys out, Whether youmentioned it's staff, you know, or
it's volunteers, how many people ona yearly basis hundreds, hundreds. It
ebbs and flows a little bit.The IMS event requires, you know,
(15:20):
a large turnout, especially on thesafety side, as does Indie Car.
Where are some of our smaller events, we don't need as many safety medical
personnel all out here, but alot of those things are dictated by the
series. What the requirements are,you know, for your safety and medical
personnel. But you know, wehave people coming in to help out in
(15:41):
food service, We've we've got peoplethat come out and help at the ticket.
I mean when you come through thegates and you see all those people,
you know, those are basically volunteersor clubs that come to support us
and we'll support their you know,their club or their school or you know,
whatever it may be. But hundredsof people that help us out just
(16:02):
just on helping try to get peoplein here. Our security staff. You
know, it grows and depending onthe side of the event as well,
so it changes event by event,but it takes hundreds of people over the
course of the season to help pullthis off. As we let him go.
Craig Russ, president of the middOhio Sports Car Course, this week's
CEO. You should know, Iwant to circle back to you. We
(16:23):
found out, you know, fromthe state of Pennsylvania. You talked about
your wife. I don't know ifyou have any kids. Tell us a
little more about Craig and the family. Okay, yeah, no, My
wife and I actually just celebrated thirtyyears. My daughter graduated from Ohio State
and she's working in Dublin. Myother son is in old at Miami of
(16:45):
Ohio. And then my youngest son, who just graduated from Dublin Jerome High
School, is actually going to LehighUniversity in the fall. All right,
very cool. Now, Craig,when you are not working and now you're
busy, what do you do inthe spare time. Do you have any
hobbies. I love golf. Iplay as much golf as I can whenever
(17:06):
I can. When not working here, try to stay busy, work out,
you know, go for walks,runs and so forth. But that's
my kind of go to hobby isto get out on the golf course for
four hours and you know, justenjoy being outside and hanging out with buddies.
All right, Craig, last thingif you would, I always like
(17:26):
to kind of leave people with this. They can go to Middlehio dot com
for tickets information, but in yourmind, for somebody that's never been there
before, what makes midd Ohio special. I know there's camping, we didn't
really touch on that, but ifyou would tell people what really makes midd
Ohio unique, I would just haveto say the history. Every road course
is different. So when you thinkabout you know, NASCAR races where most
(17:51):
of them are on ovals. WhatI love about midd Ohio and what I
loved about Watkins, Glenns, allof the road courses, They're just different
for me, so that they allhave their own challenges to the drivers.
So that's what makes us unique.So our history and just the fact that
we're you know, one of theclassic road courses in this country. Is
(18:11):
kind of what I would go to, all right, Middlehio dot com is
the place to go to buy thosetickets. Tons of great racing this summer
and with us the president of themidd Ohio sports Car Course. This week's
CEO you Should Know is Craig Rust. Well, Craig, we always appreciate
the visit. Thanks so much forspending time with us and have a great
racing season this year. Really appreciatehaving me on. Thank you, Craig
(18:36):
Rust, President of the Middle OhioSportscar Course. The CEO you Should Know
rita bio. See a photo andhere the extended interview at WMA n FM
dot com. This is John Robyof RFIME Insurance. It has said that
a good leader sets the bar highbecause he or she wants to reach goals
and make the best of their teams. We're proud to introduce you to some
(18:57):
of the community's leaders on the ceYO series.
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Craig Rust, Presidentof the mid Ohio sports Car Course.
We are joined today. We're goingto go on the telephone and we're
gonna learn about the midd Ohio sportsCar Course. That time of the year,
(00:21):
you know, summertime arriving the racingseason is underway. We're joined by
Craig Rust, who is the presidentof the mid Ohio sports Car Course.
Craig, good morning. First ofall, thanks for being here. How
you doing today. We're doing great. We're doing great. Appreciate you having
me on. Yeah, it's goodto shine the spotlight on mid Ohio.
Last weekend officially got everything started withthe first race of the season that O'reiley
(00:45):
Ottopard's four Hours of mid Ohio Imssports car racing. I know tons of
fans. Always good Craig. Ithas to be to kind of lift the
lid on that first racing week endof the season, right. It is
a little bit I don't want tosay nerve wracking, but you know,
you work all year and then youknow you got to get ready for that
first race and kind of get allthe kinks out and all your procedures and
(01:10):
stuff. You know when we saywhen the circus comes to town, but
it's a great event. We werevery excited to have Inse back. They
took one year off here, sowe made a deal with him to bring
back the Pilot Challenge and created thefour Hour of mid Ohio and so Daytona
(01:30):
and midd Ohio are the only onesto run longer Pilot Challenge races, so
we were excited about that. Andthen the Mustang Challenge officially kicked off here,
so we were the inaugural race andthat's always exciting. So you know,
five series out here over the courseof a weekend, lots to see
and do for the fans. Sogreat way to kick the season off.
(01:52):
Craig Rosti is with us today,President of the midd Ohio Sportscar Course.
This week's CEO. You should know. So Craig I always begin to same
way with everybody on the program.If somebody just moved the area, they
don't know a lot about the racetrack. Give us some history. I know
it's been around a while, giveus some dates and tell us a bit
of the history of midd Ohio we'vebeen around sixty two years. Back in
(02:15):
the eighties, the Truman family purchasedthe track and really updated it back then
to create what basically the base forwhat you see now and they were the
ones to bring IndyCar to mid Ohio. But we're two and a quarter mile
natural terrain road course, probably oneof the more historic road courses in the
(02:37):
country. I would put us in, you know, the top five or
six road courses. Being in theMidwest, we really really helps us as
our location is fantastic. We servea lot of a lot of regions,
you know, across the Midwest,so a lot of our fan base comes
comes from all over north, southeast, and West, which is great,
(03:00):
which obviously feeds into the economic impactof the facility. Our biggest race,
probably the one we're most known forus the Honda Indy two hundred, which
this year's right after the July fourthweekend, which is great. We've had
a long history with Honda. Theyhave helped us tremendously growing that event,
(03:22):
kind of making that a must seeevent on the IndyCar schedule. So you
know, we have a school thatsells out from April to October because of
all those people that are familiar withracing at mid Ohio, they want to
come, you know, drive thetrack with their car clubs and stuff.
So yeah, it's kind of afan favorite, a driver favorite. Sponsors
(03:45):
like it and like I said,great location you know for everybody to come
to. So you know, we'rereal proud of it. Yeah, just
outside of Lexington to mid Ohio sportsCar Course. We're chatting with the president
of the racetrack, Craig Russ.This week's CEO. You should know.
And Craig, what's great about itis all racing. You talked about IndyCar,
We talked to you know, IMSAa moment ago. You could talk
about you know when it's the VintageGrand Prix, talk about motorcycles. What's
(04:09):
cool is you guys see so manydifferent kinds of racing. Yeah, that's
one of the things that midd Ohiolens itself to is just the variety of
motorsports that we can accommodate. Itjust it fits, it fits all styles
of racing. You know. Weused to have a NASCAR event here for
the Exfinity race and then we ranthe trucks and NASCAR put on a good
(04:31):
show. Motorcycles are back with MotorAmerica later in August. That's kind of
a pseudo inaugural event for us.Even though we posted superbikes, it was
a different series and the sanctioning bodywas much different back then, So kind
of a new superbike event out herein August, and we were thrilled to
have them back. So, youknow, from twenty three to this year
(04:56):
to get imps of back and addMotor America and as you pointed out,
long time running the Vintage Grand Prixevents and then our partnership with AMA with
Vintage Motorcycle Days, which is oneof those events. You got to see
it to believe it. They absolutelyconsume the property and there's more motorcycles in
(05:17):
one place than you can imagine.But it really does. Just the way
the track was laid out from thevery beginning just lends itself to accommodate a
lot of different motorsports, which isgreat. Yeah, terrific to learn to
get about midd Ohio's sports car course. This morning with the President at the
track, Craig Ross, this week'sCEO. You should know, Greig,
(05:39):
well, I have you with ustoday. I got a lot of questions
I'll go quickly. How long Iknow you've been involved a long time.
How long have you been involved withMiddle Ohio? How long have you been
president? Give us some of thathistory. I came to midd Ohio in
twenty eleven when the crewman sold thetrack to Kim Green and Kevin Savay,
(05:59):
who have a law history of teamownership in IndyCar and so they purchased the
track and they brought me on boardin twenty eleven. I met them when
ran Watkins Glenn for almost ten years, and met them there when I brought
the IndyCar Series to that track.So, yeah, it's hard to believe
it's thirteen years now. How longhave you been involved in terms you mentioned
(06:23):
Watkins Glen. How long have youbeen in the business? Uh huh,
Now you're making me feel old.I started in the business in nineteen ninety
six when I moved to Southern Californiafrom New York City. I actually got
into sports at Madison Square Garden inNew York City, and then my wife
and I decided to move to southernCalifornia. And that was right at the
(06:45):
time when Roger Penske was building CaliforniaSpeedway. So I was on the original
team that built California Speedway, andfrom there I ran Nazareth Speedway for a
couple of years, which was myhometown. I'm from the Lehigh and then
I, who owned the track,then bought the tracks from Roger Penske,
(07:05):
moved me to Watkins Glen and thenI had a short stay at Chicago Land
between Watkins Glenn and here. Soit's been a long time, all right.
Well, Craig, let's find outa bit more about you. Craig
rust Again, president of the middOhio sports Car Course. This week's CEO.
You should know. Let's step backto the beginning, Craig, Where
were you born? Bethlehem, Pennsylvania? All right? And next, tell
(07:30):
us where'd you go to high school? Liberty High School in Bethlehem. All
right? Well, so tell usafter high school? You mentioned you know
a lot in the business college,anything like that. Tell us after high
school? So I actually went toLehigh University, which is also located in
Bethlehem. So I stayed home forcollege, but met my wife there and
her family at the time lived outin Southern Cals So from there, like
(07:54):
I said, we moved to Igot my first job at Madison Square Garden
in New York City and the adsales department for the Garden and for the
next Rangers and at the time theYankees, you know. So that's kind
of where I learned the business.And then when she decided she wanted to
go to law school. So we'rebig USC fans. So Ohio State's growing
(08:16):
on me. But my first loveis USC and we moved out there and
that's where I connected into racing andI've been in racing ever since then.
All right, all in the Bigten now, So maybe I'll get some
of those matchups here coming up inthe near future. It's going to be
interesting. Greg Gross terrific conversation.We'll keep him for a few more minutes.
This week's CEO. You should knowagain he is the president of the
(08:39):
Middle Ohio sports Car Course. Iwant to get back to the track,
Am I right? I was talkingto with the drivers. Is there a
new surface at the track orar leastpart of the track? Yeah, So
that's one of the more exciting thingswe've done in the last several years.
We've repaved the entire two and aquarter mile track. We've been thinking about
it or working towards it, Ishould say for the past couple of years.
(09:01):
But you know, you don't justtear up a racetrack and repave it.
You really have to bring engineers inwho understand, you know, the
climate conditions of where the track islocated. And you know, they developed
the asphalt. It's not the sameasphalt that you just put down on a
highway or on a city street.So you know, we took a lot
(09:24):
of bore samples around the track sothe engineers could kind of see, you
know, how the track was puttogether, and they came up with a
with a mixture for the asphalt,and then everybody liked and so in twenty
twenty three we did a test patchin turn one and it handled, It
held up really well, and soyeah, this pass fall paved the entire
(09:46):
thing. So we're getting a lotof great feedback from the drivers and from
the clubs that have been here.We've had some indy car tests here,
so they've been excited about it.And that was really the reason Moti America
reached out. They've always wanted tocome back that the old surface with the
seiler on it. There was aceiler that made it very very slippery when
(10:09):
it got wet, so it becamekind of a white knuckle ride or a
white knuckle drive, so to speak, for the drivers and riders when it
was wet out here. So withthe new asphalt and just some of the
drainage, we did hopefully we hitit right and you know, we'll go
from there. You're hearing from thisweek's CEO. You should know, Craig
(10:31):
Rass, president of the Middle Ohiosports Car Course. Again, a couple
more quick ones before I let yougo. That's where I was going to
go next. You mentioned it's notjust like, hey, you know,
we're going to resurface it like aroad. You mentioned engineers and all of
that. How long I guess howlong did it take to do the track
in its entirety once we had themixture, Once we had we knew what
(10:52):
we wanted to do. It onlytook about ten days. It's not a
long process. But again just thelogistics of you know, we didn't have
a batch plant on site, sotrucks had to you know, come from
about a half hour away. Youknow, little things like that that people
wouldn't even think of. You gotto keep the asphalt hot, you know
(11:13):
while it's coming across, So justlittle things like that, But the process
leading up to it took months uponmonths. The actual paving of it two
weeks. Craig Racing is so popularmiddle Ohio, you know, a very
you know, big destination for people. How far do people travel from for
(11:35):
a race and there's so many overthe course of a year. But I
mean, I'm sure you've heard howfar people stretch from. Could you give
us kind of some of that.Yeah, our primary areas for our fans,
as you would think, you know, Indiana, Michigan, obviously,
of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky,that's the kind of a focus area.
(11:56):
But we get fans if you area Stan of India Car, they travel
to different events, so you know, they don't necessarily come to every race
every year, but we're kind ofa bucket list track for a lot of
IndyCar fans. We get fans fromfrom Canada because of our location, and
there's obviously we also our company ownsthe rights to the Toronto Grand Prix,
(12:20):
so we get a lot of theToronto fans to come down. But then
you take the fans that grew uparound the track are from Ohio that have
moved away. The Honda Indy twohundred, like I said, is probably
our biggest one. They come fromall over the United States to come see
it. And with that, probablyone of our events that draws from the
(12:43):
widest distance is that Vintage of MotorcycleDays. We do that in conjunction with
the AMA. It's got one ofthe largest swap meets in North America.
It's a three day motorcycle festival.And you know, I've heard people coming
over from Europe to look at thevintage motorcycles. There's a lot of people
have bikes for sale, so it'syou know, people are buying, selling,
(13:09):
swapping, riding, you know,competing, you know, so it's
it's a huge event. So thoseare probably the two biggest events that we
get the furthest draw from. Youcan check out for more information in for
tickets at mid Ohio dot com.Again, coming up that Grand Prix of
Mid Ohio June twenty first through thetwenty third. Craig mentioned a little while
(13:30):
ago the big Honda Indy two hundredweekend July fifth through the seventh, and
we also talked about the super bikesat Mid Ohio August sixteenth to the eighteenth,
and of course those Vintage Motorcycle Dayswill be in late July July twenty
sixth through the twenty eighth. Craigreal quick, I mentioned I got a
couple before I let you go.Do you like how the schedule late out
this year? Couple in June,July and August. Do you like how
(13:52):
laid out this year? Yeah?You know, that's one of the challenges
you have as much as you wantto separate your major events. Also,
you know, we're kind of atthe whim of the sanctioning bodies, who
you know, they've got a fullseason you know, all over the United
States that they have to fit usin. So it becomes a lot of
give and take between the sanctioning bodyand us. I would prefer to have
(14:16):
some of our events spread out alittle bit. It's very tough on the
staff, it's very tough on ourvolunteers, you know, to have you
know, a huge event, likewe have an IMPSA a week often it's
Vintage Cars a week off, andthen we're prepared for Indy Cars. So
I say a week off, itreally is just basically a week to clean
(14:37):
up the facility and then you're rollingright into the to the next event.
So but I'm real happy with aswe talked about earlier, the variety of
the series that we have this year. There's a little something for everyone.
They're all, you know, themajor series within their discipline. So,
(14:58):
you know, very happy about that. Craig. If you would you mentioned
staff volunteers, how many people ona given year you know, kind of
help you guys out, Whether youmentioned it's staff, you know, or
it's volunteers, how many people ona yearly basis hundreds, hundreds. It
ebbs and flows a little bit.The IMS event requires, you know,
(15:20):
a large turnout, especially on thesafety side, as does Indie Car.
Where are some of our smaller events, we don't need as many safety medical
personnel all out here, but alot of those things are dictated by the
series. What the requirements are,you know, for your safety and medical
personnel. But you know, wehave people coming in to help out in
(15:41):
food service, We've we've got peoplethat come out and help at the ticket.
I mean when you come through thegates and you see all those people,
you know, those are basically volunteersor clubs that come to support us
and we'll support their you know,their club or their school or you know,
whatever it may be. But hundredsof people that help us out just
(16:02):
just on helping try to get peoplein here. Our security staff. You
know, it grows and depending onthe side of the event as well,
so it changes event by event,but it takes hundreds of people over the
course of the season to help pullthis off. As we let him go.
Craig Russ, president of the middOhio Sports Car Course, this week's
CEO. You should know, Iwant to circle back to you. We
(16:23):
found out, you know, fromthe state of Pennsylvania. You talked about
your wife. I don't know ifyou have any kids. Tell us a
little more about Craig and the family. Okay, yeah, no, My
wife and I actually just celebrated thirtyyears. My daughter graduated from Ohio State
and she's working in Dublin. Myother son is in old at Miami of
(16:45):
Ohio. And then my youngest son, who just graduated from Dublin Jerome High
School, is actually going to LehighUniversity in the fall. All right,
very cool. Now, Craig,when you are not working and now you're
busy, what do you do inthe spare time. Do you have any
hobbies. I love golf. Iplay as much golf as I can whenever
(17:06):
I can. When not working here, try to stay busy, work out,
you know, go for walks,runs and so forth. But that's
my kind of go to hobby isto get out on the golf course for
four hours and you know, justenjoy being outside and hanging out with buddies.
All right, Craig, last thingif you would, I always like
(17:26):
to kind of leave people with this. They can go to Middlehio dot com
for tickets information, but in yourmind, for somebody that's never been there
before, what makes midd Ohio special. I know there's camping, we didn't
really touch on that, but ifyou would tell people what really makes midd
Ohio unique, I would just haveto say the history. Every road course
is different. So when you thinkabout you know, NASCAR races where most
(17:51):
of them are on ovals. WhatI love about midd Ohio and what I
loved about Watkins, Glenns, allof the road courses, They're just different
for me, so that they allhave their own challenges to the drivers.
So that's what makes us unique.So our history and just the fact that
we're you know, one of theclassic road courses in this country. Is
(18:11):
kind of what I would go to, all right, Middlehio dot com is
the place to go to buy thosetickets. Tons of great racing this summer
and with us the president of themidd Ohio sports Car Course. This week's
CEO you Should Know is Craig Rust. Well, Craig, we always appreciate
the visit. Thanks so much forspending time with us and have a great
racing season this year. Really appreciatehaving me on. Thank you, Craig
(18:36):
Rust, President of the Middle OhioSportscar Course. The CEO you Should Know
rita bio. See a photo andhere the extended interview at WMA n FM
dot com. This is John Robyof RFIME Insurance. It has said that
a good leader sets the bar highbecause he or she wants to reach goals
and make the best of their teams. We're proud to introduce you to some
(18:57):
of the community's leaders on the ceYO series.
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