We met Krystin Wiggs, PR person for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Racing when we were in the garages at the GP of Baltimore.
We were just coming out of the restrooms when a woman stopped us and asked "Are you the 3-2-1 Indycar kids?" (really she recognized us from our videos, how cool is that???)
We started talking, and before we knew it, we had our very first 'indycar interview' with Krystin.
Q: How did you get interested in Indycar?
A: I grew up in Indianapolis and every year when May rolled around, all everyone talked about was the Indy 500. My dad was a race fan, so I always knew lots about Indycar.
It was around then that I decided that I wanted to go into journalism.
Q: What was your first job?
A: My first job was reporting in a newspaper for two years in Phoenix, Arizona. Working there, I decided I would rather work in PR where I could write with more of an opinion. I moved to Indy and
the opportunity came up to work with Grand Solutions. I thought it would be fun and creative, because I can try new ideas, and anything that might work to help team.
With the race team I get to write about how Tristan and Simon are doing and how the team is doing.
Q: Did your dad take you to any races?
A: Yes. He took me to the Indy 500 a lot when I was younger, and every now and then we went to a Sprint car race like Terrehaute.
Q: What are your favorite memories?
A: That's a hard one, there's been some really cool moments, I remember being in the green room at the Indy 500 with Josef (who I did PR for last year) before the driver intros, meeting celebrities and that was really neat because it was the first Indy 500 (in that capacity) for both of us.
Q: What about Simon's win? (Interview was done prior to his win in Baltimore)
A: Yeah, definitely Simon's win in Detroit. The team worked so hard, and to just see it pay off, everyone was so happy. It was the team's first win and that was really exciting.
Q: Do you have a favorite type of track?
A: All street circuits, because I like the atmosphere and its cool having the track right in the middle of downtown. You get to see people waking up and seeing Indycars racing where they normally walk to work.
Q: What's your favorite part of your job?
A: I like the challenge of trying to increase people's knowledge of the race team and drivers, Tristan and Simon. I get come up with ideas to create ways to get our drivers in the news, like having Simon make crepes on local TV shows in the race market, which led to Simon's 'He loves crepes' t-shirt.
Q: What do you do in the off-season?
A: I am still busy, but there's no traveling to races and such, so it's really nice to be home. We collect all the team's media at the end of the season and create a report for the sponsors.
Then in January we start all over again for the upcoming season. There's a lot of planning and organizing and finding new ways to do things better.
Q: Do you do a lot with the team's sponsors?
A: Marketing does more with the sponsors. My job is more dealing with the drivers and the media.
Q: Are you in the drivers' pit boxes during the races?
A: Yes, and I wear a headset so that I know everything that is going on. I relate to the pit reporters and media things such as what laps our drivers pitted on and any changes to tires, or adjustments that they make during their stops.
Q: Do you put out tweets about the team and drivers?
A: Yes, I'm tweeting and face-booking all the time to keep fans up to date on our team.
Q: Do you help make some of the driver videos we see (and love)?
A: I do some video quotes. For most videos we work with Piranha Productions, who was hired by Indycar to help create funny driver videos, along with IMS Productions. We work together to come up with ideas such as the
Bass Pro Shops video, which is a great way to show the driver's personalities outside the racecar.
Thanks Krystin,
for being our first 'Behind the Scenes in Indycar' interview!!!
We hope to see you again at races next year!
