Across the country, NASCAR fans are packing campers with travel essentials and coolers with their favorite foods and beverages as they gear up for this weekend’s big race. 

And here in Michigan, we’re busy working behind the scenes to ensure a thrilling and safe race experience at The Michigan International Speedway (MIS) in Brooklyn, Mich., this weekend. MIS will host thousands of fans for the FireKeepers Casino 400 Aug. 16-18. Most recently, our crew took to the skies in the helicopter to inspect the area surrounding the venue. 

Mission Accomplished  

From a bird’s eye view, with their infrared equipment, the crew was looking for any physical defects and hot spots on the High Voltage Distribution (HVD) that could cause a disruption during the race. 

“The mission was a successful one, we pride ourselves on being the silent partner that watches the backs of all of our customers” said Tommy Webb, a member of the crew, who rode along with Christine Bannan and pilot Ryder Boss. “During this inspection, we were able to locate two hot spots on our HVD lines that possibility could’ve created some issues in the not-so-distant future.”

As thousands of NASCAR fans spill in for their annual pilgrimage to Brooklyn, it will be an economic boom to Michigan businesses. So, it’s imperative that the event goes smoothly – and our neighbors can count on us to make that happen. 

“We took proactive measures to ensure the validity of the system and make sure no interruptions will occur,” Webb said. “In partnership with our operations group, mitigation measures were put in place to alleviate the hot spots. This was validated with an infrared camera to ensure work performed corrected the items identified during the helicopter inspection. The hot spots were corrected.” 

The helicopter crews work goes above and beyond prepping for events. In fact, they are crucial players in our Reliability Roadmap. They help in areas hit the hardest after storms by identifying downed wires and damage to poles high above the ground that may otherwise cause lengthy outages. They send those findings in real time to crews, which leads to faster restoration times for our customers. 

Blue Sky Days 

During blue sky days, the helicopter crew is tasked with inspecting over 4,000 miles worth of high voltage lines. 

High voltage line outages affect thousands of customers per incident, making it a primary focus for the helicopter crew and the rest of our reliability team to identify and correct defects prior to customers experiencing an outage. 

As of Aug. 1, the helicopter team has identified over 50 items that could cause an imminent failure, saving our customers 50 outages and a projected 19,600,000 customer outage minutes.

There are hundreds of more findings that will be monitored or corrected in future years. 

“When it comes to reliability, when you take care of the smaller things, we lessen the chance of bigger things happening,” Webb said. “And in this case, we want to provide peace of mind for everyone to come to Michigan and enjoy a weekend of festivities.”