A LONG READ ABOUT THE SOUND OF SPEED.
The Indianapolis 500 is the world’s largest single-day
sporting event, and when the 100th running takes place on May 29, some 300,000 people will be in one place to see one of America’s most cherished and
thrilling spectacles. They will also need to HEAR the multi-faceted event, and that turns out to be
an extremely difficult, high-stakes job that falls on the shoulders of
Nashville audio engineer Steve Durr.
![]()
(Steve Durr on the right with the amazing Dave Dusick.)
In 2015, I got to follow Steve, one of the country's top
acoustics and sound designers, as he and his team of specialists made final
preparations for the 99th Indianapolis 500. The result is a chapter-length, non-fiction essay (7,000 words / 30 minutes) that profiles Steve, his colleagues and a massive media production. Read the story on the web or mobile HERE.
Sound from dozens of different places on and near the track has to reach not just a 380-speaker sound system around the 2.5 mile circuit but millions of spectators watching on television. Durr, a Louisiana-reared
veteran sound guy of the 1970s era of arena rock, is a technician who has little use for
technology if it doesn’t convey emotion.
An Excerpt:
"(Steve Durr) is in racing black — slacks and a golf shirt emblazoned with the "wing and wheel" Indianapolis Motor Speedway patch and the logo of his back stage technical team, RaceTrack Engineering. A walkie-talkie is at his side, through which come and go instructions, questions, Southern wisecracks and some circuit-melting cussing. Durr’s face is simultaneously friendly and bullshit free. As a boy in Louisiana in the 1950s, he’d lay on his stomach listening to the Indy 500 on the radio every May. Now he’s here, enmeshed in technology and jargon and everybody else’s problems, running on stress, manic euphoria and an implacable deadline less than 30 hours away. Durr’s a specialist in a particular confluence of art and technology: public address systems. It’s safe to say nobody will notice him or his vast speaker network unless something goes awry. He’s invisible and anonymous, but without him and his team, the largest sports event in America and its pageantry has no soundtrack, no reach and no presence."
Self-Publishing
This is a story for readers who love literary non-fiction and who want to meet some remarkable people behind the scenes of an iconic American event. If you enjoy reading about surprising jobs and the hidden moving parts of the world around you, this essay was written with you in mind. And if you already love the history and immensity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500, or if you work in music, sound or professional audio, you'll relate even more.
I'm a journalist and media producer in Nashville who specializes in music and sound. Since the late 1990s, I've written for a variety of national publications, written a book about radio station WSM and produced features for NPR, generally with the focus on music makers and the music business. But my other passion/fascination is motor sports, and all my life I'd wanted to attend the Indianapolis 500. Being able to shadow Steve and his team was more than I'd ever dreamed possible.
Not many magazines in the world would publish a 7,000 word essay about audio technicians at a motor race (at least I didn't find one). So I'm taking it straight to you, hoping that you'll help me cover the costs of covering the story. A tip jar thank you is $3. A five dollar contribution nets you a download PDF or e-book. For $2 more, I'll send you an audio/podcast version of the story as an .mp3 file. (You'll get an email from us soon after ordering, no more than 48 hours, with links to the downloads.) And if you want to join me virtually for this year's historic Indy 500, I'll send you a radio quality audio diary of my experience after the race in May.
Here I am with more about what this is:
Support Journalism Directly
As I figured out what I wanted to do with my life as a writer, I kept coming back to the impact and art of narrative journalists like Tom Wolfe, Timothy Ferris and John McPhee. Sometimes called literary non-fiction, it's a format that tries to take the reader inside a world they'd otherwise never know and make it interesting even if it seems initially strange. That's what I've attempted to do with "The Sound of Speed," a piece that transcends its subject matter to tell a larger story about the world we live in. I've poured my heart and everything I've ever learned about my craft into this article. I'm as proud of the writing as anything I've ever had published. But since it hasn't found a "traditional" home, I'm following the model I've seen so many of my friends and colleagues pursue with recording projects. This story, combining all my passion and curiosity, is my stab at a little bit of art and understanding in this world. I hope you'll support my endeavor.