The inner circle behind the winner's circle

“Driven: The Team Behind the Triumphs” goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of the driven ones behind the drivers. Their journey to their role. The things they do on race day. Their wins, fails and what they’ve learned from both. And what drives their winning DNA.

We kick the series off by introducing you to Porsche Penske Motorsport IMSA Team Manager Joel Svensson. We talked to Joel about what led him to his job, what it entails, and what he’s learned along the way.

What originally got you into motorsports?

I’ve kind of grown up in a motorsport family. My Dad started off young, drove some go-karts. And then he drove rally (cars) for a lot of years.

I grew up going to racetracks with the race team. My mom was flipping burgers in the hospitality (tent) and my Dad was working on a race car, so I was just there for all the races, just hanging out. So I was kind of born into it.

Walk us through a typical race day. What does that entail?

I think a race weekend is generally quite smooth, as long as we show up prepared. You get to the racetrack. You’re involved in getting everything set up, getting everyone pointing in the right direction. It’s mostly managing, if anything comes up, any issues, any problems, anything that needs to be addressed. Like I said, if you show up properly at race weekend, it should go pretty smoothly.

Talk to us about what you think your greatest accomplishments are.

I can think of a couple of them. Winning the (24 Hours at Daytona) with the Porsche Penske Motorsport team this season was obviously one of the biggest accomplishments, because we started this project several years ago and we worked very hard. And it’s just nice to see all the work come to fruition.

I will say when I came to America as a young boy who worked for a small team from Connecticut, I think our first win we actually beat Penske. It’s something that always sticks in my memory because we were just a little team from Danbury, Connecticut.

What are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned from your career?

It takes a team to be successful. It takes a group of people. A valuable lesson to understand is no one is the same. Everyone can’t be perfect. We have different skills. You need people to have different skills to accomplish (things).

I always think if you keep your head down, work hard, you can do anything. That’s the way I’ve always looked at it.

Check back soon to follow the series. And see the latest IMSA TV schedule here.