ichael Holz grew up in Wisconsin, about
an hour from Road America. He had two
cousins who drove in SCCA races, and family
members would often gather at the June
Sprints to watch the races and dine at nearby
Schwartz’s Supper Club. Michael really
enjoyed the races and wanted to get more
involved. One of his cousins was Jim
Opperman who, for some time, held the Road
America FA lap record. “He told me that if
I wasn’t going to drive, the best thing I could
do was to work the corners,” Michael says.
“So, I called to one of the workers in white at
Turn 6 and asked how I could get involved.”
Shortly thereafter he was standing with the
F&C crew at Turn 14. It was love at first sight.
“It was so exciting to be just a few feet from
the track.” That was in the fall of 1994; by
early 1995 he was a full member.
Michael loved working F&C, but after about
12 years his back and knees began to fail. He’d
heard that the Region needed help with sound
control and, in 2007, he had the good fortune
to be trained during a Driver’s School at
Blackhawk Farms by two of the best: Joyce
Zorn-Jaffe and Marilyn LaCourse. “It was an
intense learning experience, but by the end of
the school they told me that I could do this.”
He remembers being handed a single
sheet of paper with some instructions on it.
He has since morphed that into a three ring
binder with tabbed pages and maps and
checklists on how to do sound control at
Road America, Blackhawk Farms, and the
Milwaukee Mile. “I’m a detail kind of guy,” he
admits. “This way a newcomer will feel less
intimidated as they learn the job.”
Working sound, he says, can be a daunting
job at first, “Especially when you are working
alone,” he says. “You have to set up your
equipment in a certain way and then
calibrate your sound meter and microphone.
At Road America, for example, we run over
100 feet of cable and you want to be careful
of all your connections from the power
source to the tripod supporting your
monitoring equipment.”
Michael says a real key is to do as much
homework as possible ahead of time. He will
scour MotorsportReg.com to fill in his log
SOUND ADVICE
For 2017 Worker of the Year winner for Sound Michael Holz,
success starts with the details | WORDS James Kearney
sheets ahead of time. He will also check with
registration and Timing and Scoring for any
late entries. Working alone, it is all he can do
to enter the decibel reading for any given car.
“The first day of the event is always the
hardest. But once you are in the rhythm, you
just click the sound meter and record the
decibel readings.” He joins with many other
specialties in a plea for readable numbers
and class letters.
“I’m certainly not out there to ruin any
racer’s weekend, but we need to help these
racetracks meet their sound requirements so
they can continue to thrive. Local
government officials check to see that sound
laws are bring followed,” he says. “We do
everything we can to alert folks who are
close to a violation and try to help them
correct their issue. We want the race to go
on, we don’t want to be the sound police.”
Occasionally he will have to deal with a
dissatisfied driver. “I try to be considerate
and patient,” Michael says. “I ask them to join
me and I show them how I work. We calibrate
our equipment four times a day. I am careful
to take clean readings to avoid bleed over
from other cars. And I’ll show them that
although weather conditions such as high
humidity or an overcast day can affect the
reading very slightly, it is miniscule.”
His concern for drivers and his F&C
background show through clearly. “I always
have cold water for them to drink in the
event they stop near my station. I blow my
whistle and get their attention and offer
them a folding chair in the shade if at all
possible. I also get on the F&C network and
let them know the driver is OK.”
He regrets that he was unable to accept
his Sound Worker of the Year Award in
person, but he was unable to attend the
2017 Runoffs. He did, however, get a call
from a fellow worker with the good news.
“I have such great admiration and respect
for all the specialties, I never dreamed
I would get an award such as this,” he says.
“I’m honestly overwhelmed. I just can’t thank
my peers enough for submitting my name.
I do it because I love it and I want to do a
professional job. I’m so very proud of this
award and I’ll be displaying it forever.”
Cou
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a PLANNING FOR SUCCESS
Michael Holz starts his race weekend well
before the gates open – preparing his sound
logs ahead of time makes on-track session
flow much smoother for him. Holz also
emphasizes the importance of legible car
numbers and class letters on all racecars.
