Colleges team up to offer two-week motorsports class

When Professors Pete Hylton and Travis Teague met earlier this year, they knew that pairing the motorsports programs of their respective universities would be, to borrow from race track lingo, a “checkered flag” for students on both campuses.

Teague is coordinator of the motorsports management program at Winston-Salem State University which is located in the heart of NASCAR country.

Hylton is director of the motorsports program in the School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). His campus is just minutes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500.

In May 2008, IUPUI and Winston-Salem State University will team up to offer “From Indy to the Carolinas,” a two-week summer session course built around the strengths of the motorsports curricula of the two universities: the operations and management of motorsports at Winston-Salem State; and the engineering and technology of motorsports at IUPUI.

Open to students from both universities, the summer course begins in Winston-Salem, N.C., with a week of management-related classes and activities, along with racing events such as the NASCAR All-Star Race at Lowes Motor Speedway.

The final week of the course features motorsports engineering and technology classes at IUPUI, and trips to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for final car testing and other events associated with the Indianapolis 500.

The curriculum dovetails Winston-Salem State’s goal of maximizing resources in order to establish a curriculum that will prepare students to meet the management needs of employers and clients in the fast-paced motorsports industry, Teague said.

“WSSU students will get an opportunity to study the technical aspects of the sport while at the same time gaining exposure to open-wheel venues,” Teague said. “It will prepare students by giving them a better understanding of non-stock car venues, teach them the importance of collaboration by working with IUPUI students, and initiate new contacts for them within the industry.”

Earlier this year, the North Carolina university became the first historically black college or university in the nation to establish a bachelor of science degree in motorsports management. The curriculum includes concentrations in two specific areas: motorsports operations and motorsports marketing and event planning.

Partnering with WSSU will allow IUPUI students to gain a basic overview of the motorsports industry, similar to what is taught in IUPUI’s MET 272 Intro to Motorsports class, while learning more about the management and marketing side of motorsports, Hylton said.

Motorsports is considered one of the fastest growing industries in the country, according to Hylton, a mechanical engineering technology professor at IUPUI.

“The goal of the IUPUI motorsports program is to train graduates for careers in the motorsports industry,” Hylton said. “Graduates who understand both the technical side and the management side of the business will make better employees.”

Accomplishments of the IUPUI motorsports program include a student-built race car, which is driven in competition by a student who is a licensed race car driver. The program also has placed a number of students in industry internships.

Topics for the collaborative course include historical perspectives of racing; an examination of the different racing venues; the role of marketing and sponsorship in motorsports; driver, vehicle and track safety technology; and performance technology, including aerodynamics, chassis dynamics and data acquisition.

Students enrolled in the course will pay the standard tuition fees for their home campus. Each student will be responsible for the costs of travel, on-campus housing and meals associated with the week away from their home university.