The Racers Grand Prix over its two years has been top class, and has pulled nothing but the best athletes inside and outside of Jamaica.

However, anyone involved in the organisation of a competition, regardless of the size or scope and especially an event of this magnitude, knows that what goes on behind the scenes dramatically influences the ultimate outcome.

As is expected, members of the Racers Track Club have been working feverishly to provide another masterclass event.

Dennis Gordon, Racers Track Club director who is in charge of promotions and communications, explained that it’s a small committee that adopts the New England Patriots’ motto: “Just Do Your Job!”

“Because we have different committees, we really don’t overlap. Coach Mills is of technical affairs supported by Cubie Seegorbin, so they deal with athletes and the technical issues,” Gordon noted.

“Prudence Simpson is in charge of hospitality, so she deals with hotel bookings and flight arrangements. Then we have Captain Cody Weir who deals with ground transportation. We have Maurice Wignall who deals with accreditation/website and (Senior Superintendent) Stephen McGregor, who deals with security,” Gordon explains.

Other members are Cynthia Cooke (tickets); Dave Myrie (finance); Leroy Cooke (secretariat); Dr Carl Bruce (medical); Nugent Walker (sponsorship); Anthony Gibbs (venue) and William Watson (design, printing and magazine).

“So each chairperson has their own different challenges, so when we meet at the general meeting we flesh out whatever challenges there are,” said Gordon.

“Each chair is given full autonomy to do his or her job… we don’t cross-fertilise unless it is necessary,” he emphasised.

As is customary, as soon as the event is completed in June, the following month the team would meet and review the last staging. And by October, there is a planning meeting for the next edition.

“The chairman would then have a review also with our sponsors to find out where we can improve the product, where they felt we did not do as well as expected; and so we constantly tweak what we do in order to strive for perfection,” said Gordon.

“To put on a meet of that nature, it is extremely challenging. It is time-consuming. But we get by, by simply paying attention to details,” said Gordon.

“Classic case in point, whereas the look and feel, which is the production and promotion of the event, is a committee of different entities — TVJ, Main Event, World Athletics, IPL and ourselves. So we work for like seven months to ensure that we get it right,” he added..

Gordon continued: “We establish a checklist that we go through copiously. We established what we call a running order down to the very second to ensure that the spectators are given the information in real time, to ensure that our sponsors’ needs are attended to, because the combination between your sponsors and spectators is very important. We identify a profile in order of importance and stick with it.”

Gordon explained that funds generated go back into making the forthcoming meet bigger and better.

“Every cent that is earned is reinvested in the next big thing. The budget for any one year is approximately $40 million. It’s a constant repetition of what you do and the more you do it the more comfortable you become, and you are almost like an expert now.

“So we have developed a checklist, and we just go through the checklist to ensure that we just dot the Is and cross the Ts,” he reiterated.

No athletic event, it is argued, can achieve its best without the help of volunteers, and the Racers Grand Prix should have some 400 to stand ready to help out on on Saturday, June 9.

“These people give of themselves at the various meets on a Saturday from January to November. They are our unsung heroes and I really want to say thanks to them and kudos to them, and the country owes them a debt of gratitude because it’s really tough to sacrifice to volunteer like that,” said Gordon.