Aug. 04--George Davenport has been attending races at Pocono Raceway for more than 40 years but admits that he was "never that much of a race fan."
Fire Chief Emeritus Davenport will be at the track today, just as he was in 1971, when he was a newly minted assistant fire chief.
Regardless of his opinion of the sport, Davenport, 78, of Blakeslee is an energetic resource who remembers some of the raceway's wildest moments and its iconic founder, Dr. Joseph Mattioli.
It was a relationship that began when, as a young volunteer firefighter, he wanted to learn about methyl alcohol, the invisibly-burning fuel used in the IndyCars that raced at the track in those days.
He went to the raceway for a class. After the morning session, he remembered, the teacher was too hung over to continue. Davenport said he parroted the lesson he heard that morning. Officials who were in attendance from the United States Auto Club -- which sanctioned the races at Pocono in those days -- were impressed.
"USAC said, we would be happy if this guy was one of your assistants and Doc said, 'OK, he's an assistant chief.'"
It was a life-changing decision for Davenport and the drivers who interacted with him.
Good to have your back
For more than 30 years, Davenport would teach history in the Wyoming School District, then head up to his summer job as a firefighter at Pocono Raceway.
He got to know stars like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and AJ Foyt because, Davenport says, it was valuable for them to have the track's firefighters as a friend.
"They wanted to be your buddy. If I hit that wall, I want your ass to be there as fast as you can beat it," Davenport said.
Not all interactions over the years were so amicable.
When a young Kyle Petty -- son of "King" Richard Petty -- bumped into a firefighter with his car, Davenport took it personally.
He remembered when Mattioli asked him about the incident.
"Doc Mattioli called me in and said 'Did you have a conversation with Kyle Petty?...where was it?' I said, 'Well his head was on the floor of the car and I had him by the throat.'
"He said, 'What was the discussion over?' I said, 'Well, he bumped one of my people with his car. We don't stand for that.'"
He recalled the raceway founder immediately backed him up, even against one of the sport's most powerful legends.
The next time Davenport saw the Pettys, they were cordial.
Reverence for Doc
Davenport's reverence for his old boss is clear.
"Doc Mattioli was a teacher. If you listened, you learned. The family is the same way," he said.
He said it was because they shared a similar management style -- let your employees work independently but don't accept excuses. And most of all, focus on solutions rather than problems.
"Dr. Mattioli taught me more than any college education I've ever had," Davenport said. "He didn't want to know 'What's the problem?' he wanted to know 'What's the solution?'" Davenport said.
He remembered the lean days at the track in the early 1980s, when Mattioli had nearly gone bankrupt when IndyCar drivers boycotted the Pocono race during a civil war in the sport.
"I could never say that I didn't get my pay, but sometime it was four, five months late. But you got paid. Every nickel that he owed anybody, he paid," Davenport said.
He laughs when talking about the track's early firefighting equipment -- the fire trucks were U-Hauls with massive fire extinguishers loaded in the back.
Instead of using radios, Davenport would park next to a phone that was patched into officials in the track's tower.
"You sat there in the truck with a headset and when they said 'go' you threw it out the window, and from then on, there was no communications," he said.
And being a firefighter meant you had to do any other work needed at the track.
"We were firemen on Monday, we were painting lines on Tuesday, we were helping maintenance on Wednesday," he said.
NASCAR
In the early IndyCar days, a crash would freeze the field so fire crews could immediately rush to the scene. But with NASCAR came the "race to the caution" -- allowing drivers to complete their lap at full speed before the caution.
Davenport remembered learning this rule the hard way.
"We damn near had four or five of our guys killed because we were in their way, and they were coming," he said.
The crew had responded to a fire too soon and used their massive fire extinguisher. It created a cloud that the pack was about to race through, and completely hid the firefighters.
"What do you do if you're a fireman and a car's on fire, and it's in front of you? The tendency is to self-dispatch," Davenport said.
Nearly two years ago, Davenport stepped away from day-to-day activities at the track. But he can still be seen on race weekends.
He'd love to be at the track full time, but at 78, he realizes it's time to let the men he hired run the fire crew.
"I am happy that everybody I trained is replacing me," Davenport said. "The Mattioli family has put food on my table for a long, long while."
Copyright 2013 - Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa.
