Priest brings the peace of Christ to the tumult of auto racing
By Doug Bean
It was early Sunday morning and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was humming with activity.
People were milling about inside the pit area. There’s a hustle and bustle that goes with preparations for a motorsports race.
Some of the cars were practicing on the 15-turn, 2.4-mile track, creating a distinctive roar that sounds something like a hot rod without a muffler revving its engine inside your garage.
There was an oasis of peace, however, on this Sunday morning in a small, empty garage. With race cars being fueled just outside the door, Father Glenn O’Conner celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on a makeshift altar in a space with no chairs for about 30 track support personnel, media, crew, fans and others.
Wearing a chasuble and black-and-white checkered stole, Father O’Conner resembled a battlefield chaplain bringing Mass to the appreciative faithful at the racetrack located just outside the Diocese of Columbus.
“As Catholics, we need the Eucharist. We need the sacraments. It’s our obligation,” said Paul Kaminski, a freelance motorsports radio reporter based in Johnson City, N.Y., who regularly attends Masses on the IndyCar Series circuit. “That’s why this ministry is so important.”
On Sundays when an IndyCar event for open-wheel cars is held in North America, either Father O’Conner or Father Phil DeRea is on site to say Mass, hear confessions, administer the sacraments, pray with the drivers, their teams and the safety personnel, and offer spiritual support.
The number of attendees at Mass varies, but it often grows when there are no schedule conflicts for the drivers and their crews.
“There are a lot of opportunities for what I would call spiritual first aid,” Father O’Conner said.
Long before sunrise, the devoted priest was on the road to Mid-Ohio from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, where he is pastor of two parishes and the chaplain at Indianapolis International Airport. Before arriving to celebrate the public Mass at the track, he offered a private Mass for three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves because of a rescheduled drivers meeting.
“Helio is one driver that does not miss Mass,” Father O’Conner said. “He prays, he’s focused when he comes to Mass. He’s really a fine example.”
Castroneves, who finished 12th on Sunday in the Honda Indy 200 that was won by Scott Dixon, might be more recognizable to non-racing fans as a past winner on the television series Dancing with the Stars. The native Brazilian also went through a highly publicized tax evasion trial and was acquitted earlier this year in Miami.
“We prayed for him and had Masses said for him,” Father O’Conner said. “He is one of those guys you can’t help but like him.”
Father O’Conner is an extremely likable and a charismatic presence himself.
After Sunday Mass, he greeted the attendees and thanked them for coming. A man then asked Father O’Conner to hear his confession and he gladly obliged.
Later, he hopped on a scooter and traveled throughout the paddock area offering smiles, handshakes and blessings. Before the race, he prayed with teams and drivers along with Bob Hills, a Protestant chaplain and counselor who heads up the non-profit Indy Racing League Ministry.
Father O’Conner can relate to the race teams in a special way. For more than 20 years, he has worked on pit crews for several teams during the Indianapolis 500, handling tires and other duties. But that does not supersede his work as a priest.
“It’s just being a presence at the track that’s important,” Father O’Conner said. “It’s very rewarding for me as a parish priest. It’s a nice break. You really feel like you’re doing something.
“Sometimes I’ll make contacts with people and meet them in the winter back at my parish. Some of the people I’ve baptized.”
On rare occasions, a priest is needed when a driver suffers a serious or fatal injury.
“The Catholic drivers want the Sacrament of the Sick,” Father O’Conner said.
Having the sacraments available on a weekly basis is unique in professional sports.
“This does not happen in NASCAR, I can tell you that,” Kaminski said.
NASCAR and the PGA Tour have active non-denominational ministries but nothing geared specifically for Catholics. The same holds true for most Major League Baseball teams.
During the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, no Sunday Masses are offered at the course.
“Over time, I’ve realized how unique we are here,” Hills said. “I feel strongly that we’re a united ministry.”
The IRL Ministry was founded in 1996 with open-wheel racing splintered into two circuits. Fathers O’Conner and DeRea continued to work with the rival CART series until 2002 when Hills brought a priest to the IndyCar Series full time.
The Indianapolis 500 had always been faithful in ministering to Catholics long before the split. Indianapolis Motor Speedway has had a Catholic chaplain and Mass for at least 50 years, Father O’Conner said.
Hills said he not only wanted to provide for Catholics at the other IndyCar tracks but was responding to requests for Mass to be available.
“That’s why we worked it out,” he said.
Father DeRea’s connection to racing spans more than 30 years. A priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, he is a longtime friend of racing legend Mario Andretti from their youth in Nazareth, Pa.
Both priests consider it a blessing to be involved in the intermingling of sports and faith.
“There is a real need and Bob Hills has brought his ministry to new heights,” Father O’Conner said. “It has really blossomed.”