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Motorsports Universities

Putting the T in Teamwork

There are many seasoned motorsports veterans who look each year for a new challenge, a new team, a new opportunity. They bring tremendous experience with them and a corresponding price tag. For many team managers and crew chiefs, that value is well worth the expense. However, there is something to be said for young blood—but, to use an old cliché, how does one get experience if no one will hire anyone without it?

Higher Learning

The answer today for those young men and women who desire a career in motorsports, whether they go over the wall, or confine themselves to the drawing board, or the computer screen, is to go to school. In this case, a special education provided either by the select trade environment or a regular four-year university.

A number of leading universities have realized the opportunity to provide a very specific curriculum that focuses on engineering and motorsports, and have earned strong followings and built excellent reputations, thanks to their well-placed graduates.

Clemson University in South Carolina, for example, is working with a number of automotive aftermarket and original equipment suppliers, as well as private sponsors, in its effort to build an outstanding automotive and motorsports research and educational program, which it calls the International Center for Automotive Research (ICAR). Like other collegiate programs, Clemson's goal is to foster innovation and development of a variety of technologies for the benefit of the industry and manufacturers, as well as educate the future workforce and create high-paying jobs and opportunities.

Research is a cornerstone of many public and private universities that are committed to sustaining and growing automotive-based educational programs. Naturally, automotive engineering is an outgrowth of this strategy, incorporating fundamentals of mechanical and electrical engineering along with other integrated technologies. Many leading corporations have become partners in the development of ICAR, including BMW (which has a major manufacturing facility in nearby Spartanburg), Michelin, IBM, Microsoft, Timken and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International.

Neighboring North Carolina also is a hotbed of motorsports education. Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory is home to the Bobby Isaac Motorsports Program, offering courses in fabrication, including finish and heavy fabrication, welding and an over-the-wall pit crew course, taught by instructors who are currently employed by NASCAR teams.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has established a special concentration in motorsports as part of its Mechanical Engineering Department. In addition to classroom and lab work, students must participate on a team, a much-prized internship. Such involvement can be as sophisticated as data acquisition to serving on the pit crew in order to earn the full sense of all that is involved in race team engineering and management.

Team Operation

Team operation is as critical as the engineering side, and schools are offering up business-oriented programs for those students who want to run a race business. North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, offers a four-year degree that focuses on both the technology and business sides of racing. Resource management, a critical part of everyday operation, is a primary focus of this curriculum.

Some two- and four-year colleges go so far as to maintain a race program all season long for students who desire actual hands-on training and education. Patrick Henry Community College in southeastern Virginia runs a late model stock car supported by its student body and sponsored by the county's economic development department. Racing, after all, is big business, and every community in the county wants a business or an enterprising young graduate to move there and start an automotive-based corporation. Generally, like North and South Carolina have experienced, motorsports businesses like to be grouped together and when one sets up shop, others are sure to follow.

NASCAR also felt it was important to develop an educational institution, and base it in Mooresville, NC, where so many race teams are located. The NASCAR Technical Institute offers courses in engine construction, electrical, fuel and lubrication systems, as well as drivetrains, body and chassis fabrication and racing theory principles, the latter a relatively new concept, exploring the history and rules of NASCAR and applying its philosophies to racing in the 21st Century. Teamwork in all categories also is emphasized, certainly a critical component to any student's success in his or her career.

Naturally, Michigan has its share of educational programs, which in turn help feed new employees into the automotive manufacturers' multiple operations, from management to R&D to design and other important positions. Northwood University of Midland prides itself on its student-run International Auto Show, which has been in existence for 42 years. Approximately 800 students from all areas of study at Northwood are involved in producing the three-day event.

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is home to the Automotive Research Center, a university-based U.S. Army Center for Excellence, with its hub being the development of a simulation and design environment for ground vehicles of all kinds, ranging from automotive to defense. In recent years, the Center has increased its emphasis on research involving high-mileage, low-polluting vehicles, particularly those employing hybrid powertrains. In addition to automobiles, ARC addresses high technology needs for large trucks and off-road vehicles, as well as robots.

There are many other institutions of higher learning, from well-known design schools to technical colleges, and many organizations such as SAE and ASE (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence) are involved in educating professionals for all fields of the automotive industry. Similar programs are in existence internationally as well. Being a part of the motorsports community takes a big commitment from all participants, and earning a degree or a certificate in focused coursework is all part of the critical motivation—and concentration—necessary to succeed in today's highly sophisticated racing and automotive marketplace.