“It was a perfect night in every way.”
That was the sentiment expressed by Graham Hearns, director of events for IMG Motorsports on
www.cart.com.
The “perfect event” was the Cleveland Champ CART race held for the first time under the lights
July 5th. CBS's live broadcast of the largest single event held under temporary lights drew enthusiastic
thumbs up from drivers, fans, promoters and the television crew.
The move to nighttime was made to invigorate the event. A crowd of over 58,000 watched the race under the
setting sun over Lake Erie. Grandstands were even packed for Friday night's qualifying.
Racing legend Mario Andretti agreed with the move. “…it really accentuated the speed of our cars…
I think it was a very wise move.”
The Cleveland race was the second night CART race. In May, a fleet of 14 Musco mobile lighting trucks rolled
into Milwaukee, producing 126 million lumens of light surrounding the Milwaukee Mile. The experience Musco
technicians gained from this race proved invaluable for the challenges that lay ahead for the Cleveland race.
Musco Team conquers unique challenges at Cleveland
21 trucks were needed to light the Cleveland road course. “That's the most trucks we have ever put up
at one location for one event,” said Jerome Fynaardt, Musco Mobile sales manager. “That's 42
engines - trucks and generators - that have to work to make this happen.” Lighting this course
was equal to lighting 23 football fields.
Besides the challenges of lighting such a vast area for a live television broadcast, technicians had an extremely
small window of time to set up all the equipment. Since the road course is located at Burke Lakefront Airport,
officials required minimal shutdown time for the airport. Technicians had less than 48 hours to erect, aim, and
power the equipment in time for the race. Following the Saturday night race, the system had to be moved out
quickly for the reopening of the airport on Monday morning.
“The pressure was pretty intense for the crew, but they didn't let that interfere with getting the
job done right,” Fynaardt said.
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