On a recent morning at VIRginia International Raceway, the 5/8-mile Plantation Valley Kart Track was abuzz with activity. A group of 20 were forming up in teams and planning a kart endurance race. As might be expected, there was a lot of “trash talk” about who was going to beat whom, interspersed with the occasional verbal jab regarding height and weight. There was laughing, joking and back-slapping going on, and plenty of good-natured ribbing, while the smell of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill wafted through the air.

Not exactly your average corporate team-building exercise, but that’s what it was.

This event was the brainchild of Dale Johnson, an onsite account manager with Rock-Tenn Company of Knoxville, Tenn. Rock-Tenn makes folding cartons, and one of its customers is the Amherst, Va. plant of Glad Manufacturing, a division of The Clorox Company, which makes plastic storage bags. An avid racing enthusiast, Johnson thought that by bringing together employees from both Rock-Tenn and Glad, they could do a little racing and learn a lot about teamwork at the same time.

Johnson enlisted the help of Neil West, procurement manager at Glad’s Amherst plant, and together they were able to create an event that was both educational and fun, providing substantial benefits to both companies.

A bonus was that West was able to arrange the appearance of popular NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series star Stacy Compton, who competes in the Busch Series with a car sponsored by Kingsford Charcoal, which is also a division of Clorox.

The event was organized so that there were five teams of four drivers. Each driver posted qualifying laps, and the teams were assembled based on average times to ensure equality. In the main event, each driver ran four laps and the challenge was to work together to make quick driver changes and minimize pit-stop time. At the checkered flag, the margin of victory was only .3sec, proving the importance of teamwork.

Mike Driskill, quality manager for Glad, said that while it might appear that the participants were only out to have a good time racing karts on VIR’s state-of-the-art track, it didn’t take too much scratching beneath the surface to find the tangible benefits to the two companies.

“We’re having a team-building exercise,” Driskill said, “and it’s also a demonstration of how working together can reduce the time it takes to do jobs. For us in particular, as we have change-overs within our plant and then a run after that, we’re trying to reduce the change-over time and do more effective run time.”

Driskill said that the visit to VIR was the first time that Glad and Rock-Tenn had attempted such an outing.

“We have had meetings together,” he said, “and we have had their workers come to our plant and see how we do our operations and our workers have gone to their plant to see how they do their operations. But this is the first time that we’ve really gotten together on an activity.”

David Cornelison, the assistant general manager for Rock-Tenn’s Knoxville plant, said the outing was unique but certainly a fun and productive way to prove the point of teamwork.

“We’ve been working with Glad for 15 years, and with the Amherst plant for the past six or seven years,” he said. “Those guys do a lot of good stuff that we try to build off of, and hopefully they do the same thing with us. This kind of event gets our guys and their guys doing things together in a way that hopefully gives us some things we can take home.”

Cornelison was a first-time visitor to VIR, and was impressed with both the facility and the event.

“This is a really, really nice place,” he said. “Even if you don’t race karts, it’s a nice place. I think these guys got a whole lot more than they bargained for today. They didn’t realize there was going to be this much to it.”

Compton was on hand both as a participant and as a kind of cheerleader, making the point that factory workers and racing team members have a lot in common when it comes to teamwork. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had extensive kart racing experience, having raced in them from the age of six until he was 17 and switched to stock cars.

“Well, obviously everything that we do is about teamwork,” he said. “Just as at the racetrack and at the shop it’s all about teamwork with us. The same thing applies here. Having this little competition, where we have to come in, get people out and get people back in, make pit stops and things of that nature, it’s all about teamwork.”

At the end of the day, after the racing was done, the burgers and hot dogs were consumed and Compton had signed autographs for everybody, it was evident that the groups from Glad and Rock-Tenn had not only enjoyed themselves immensely, but learned an important lesson as well.

For Johnson, it was a win-win situation.

“This was a perfect day,” he said. “I’m a huge racing fan, and I come to VIR all the time. There are so many things in racing that parallel everyday life, and I knew that this sort of event would be a great way to illustrate the importance of working together as a team to maximize efficiency. Everybody had a great time, and I think they were surprised how much they learned. When you have 20 people on five teams in equally-prepared karts running a total of 80 laps and the margin of victory is only .3sec, the point about teamwork becomes crystal-clear. Rock-Tenn and Glad have a great partnership, and outings like this only make the partnership stronger. We will certainly be coming back to do this again.”

VIRginia International Raceway can help your company, organization, group or club arrange a similar outing, and can augment it with onsite lodging, hospitality and dining. For more information on group sales, contact Sandie Marshall at (434) 822-7700 x110.

Photo Caption: NASCAR driver Stacy Compton (left) spent the day at VIRginia International Raceway’s Plantation Valley Kart Track with employees from Rock Tenn Company and Glad Manufacturing to participate in a team-building exercise. (Photo by Victor Newman)