Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Grease Monks of Belmont Abbey: Lessons Learned, Teaching Motorsports History

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The Grease Monks of Belmont Abbey: Lessons Learned, Teaching Motorsports History · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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  by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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  Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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  Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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  Lessons Learned, a pedagogical approach to teaching motorsports history,
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  featuring Quinn Beekwilder and Trey Cunningham of Belmont Abbey College.
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  Quinn Beekwilder is an assistant professor and coordinator of
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  the motorsports management degree at Belmont Abbey College.
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  Having come from a decade of working at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he
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  wanted to give back to the motorsport program at Belmont Abbey that
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  got him there in the first place.
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  He has a unique perspective of being one of the first graduates of
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  the program and is able to address concerns and direct the program for the
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  greater benefit of current students.
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  Motorsport history has always been a passion for Mr.
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  Beekwilder.
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  The approaches that he takes to the course are crafted to focus on the
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  historical development of NASCAR while incorporating experimental
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  activities to support the curriculum.
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  The students refer to Mr.
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  Beekwilder as.
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  The fast van driver.
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  Dr.
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  Cunningham is associate professor and chair of the department of
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  sport and motorsports management at Belmont Abbey college.
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  The college offers a four year undergraduate academic program designed
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  to prepare aspiring professionals and leaders for a career in the motorsport.
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  The presentation will discuss Belmont Abbey College's pedagogical
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  approach to introducing and reinforcing the history of motorsports
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  throughout the entire curriculum.
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  Moreover, Dr.
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  Cunningham's presentation will discuss the many perceived lessons learned and ever
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  evolving adjustments made along the way in the department's efforts to successfully
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  prepare students to become lifelong learners of the history of motorsports.
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  All right, folks, up next, Lessons Learned, a pedagogical approach
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  to teaching motorsport history.
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  by Quinn Bickwilder and Trey Cunningham.
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  Gentlemen.
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  My name is Trey Cunningham.
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  I am the chair of Sport and Motorsport Management at Belmont Abbey College.
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  This is my colleague Quinn Beekwilder.
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  He's our program coordinator for Motorsport Management.
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  Quinn is actually an alum of our program and has spent 10 years at Charlotte
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  Motor Speedway working through many ranks and then we finally got him back.
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  A little bit about Belmont Abbey.
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  We are a liberal arts Benedictine Catholic College right outside
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  of Charlotte, North Carolina.
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  We have a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Motorsport Management.
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  We currently have 40 students that are with us on campus for this program.
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  In the fall, we are starting pending SACS COC approval, our accrediting commission.
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  We are starting an online MBA with a concentration in motorsport management.
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  Our program specifically focuses on business management, communications,
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  marketing, financial, and operation sides of motorsport industry.
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  We do have a little bit of a history as well.
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  We say our founding fathers of the program is super promoter Humpy Wheeler.
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  His father has been associated with the school for a very long time, was a coach
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  and athletic director at Belmont Abbey.
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  The first course was called Racing Management in 2007.
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  So, we have been teaching classes for A little over 15 years revolving
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  around the business side of racing.
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  We really got a nice break in promotion when the Wall Street Journal published an
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  article referred to as the Grease Monks.
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  Once again, we are a Benedictine college and owned by Benedictine monks.
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  And that was published in October 2007.
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  And so that gave us a lot of nice publicity to the start of the program.
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  Several guiding principles.
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  And I'm going to start with the middle one first, and that is to create
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  and maintain a deep integration and connection with the motorsport industry.
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  Obviously, we are located in greater Charlotte.
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  We consider Charlotte a great location and center for motorsports here in the
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  United States and maybe even globally.
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  We are continuously out trying to build and create these connections
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  with the industry, much like the reason that we are here in Watkins Glen.
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  The next one would be provide a sustainable experiential learning
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  and networking opportunities.
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  We believe this is very important for them to get their foot in the
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  door and have wonderful experiences, network with industry professionals,
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  and learn from that standpoint.
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  We require our students to do internships.
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  Most of them do multiple internships at multiple locations in the
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  Charlotte area or back home.
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  And then lastly, we feel that it's deeply important to develop the entire student.
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  It's guided by our faith as a Catholic college, and then obviously some
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  of the Benedictine hallmarks of stewardship, community, and discipline.
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  And this is where the history portion of the program comes
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  in, is that we believe that the students should learn the history.
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  of the motor sport industry so that they are able to be good
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  stewards as the industry has been handing over to them as well.
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  So, these are our guiding principles.
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  Mr.
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  Beekwater will now talk to you a little bit about the actual classes
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  that we have related to history.
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  All right.
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  Thank you very much.
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  I chose this quote here by Burr Macintosh, who was originally a
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  photographer and early magazine producer in the early 1900s.
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  The comment talks about a big far reaching sport that was just
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  developing, and he knew it was going to be a constant source of delight,
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  satisfaction, and pride to us all.
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  And he was witnessing at the time the speed trials being held at Ormond Beach.
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  This is where it began.
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  So how do we cover a sport that started in 1894 in 16 weeks?
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  Hmm.
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  It's gonna be tricky as I usually tell my students, buckle up.
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  We cover many different aspects of motor sports.
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  I try to give an entire approach from the start all the way
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  through up to last weekend's race.
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  So really, I reached far back.
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  I talk about the Gordon Bennett Cup, whose equivalent prize money would be around 2.
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  3 million for winning an absolutely astounding amount of money.
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  The first time that motor sports was really threatened, even to be canceled, if
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  you will, the Paris Madrid race of 1903.
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  You had 224 cars that entered within the first 350 miles, half the field was out,
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  and unfortunately, 8 people were dead.
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  The government of France steps in, stops the whole event,
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  never even makes it to Spain.
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  And it would be nearly 24 years, almost a quarter of a century before public
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  road racing would come back again.
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  The Mille Migliae would kind of picked up that torch.
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  Italy kind of gets its rise to fame.
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  A thousand mile race that saw the rise of Ferrari to greats like Nuvolari.
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  The Targa Florio down in Sicily.
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  Having off and on running from 1906 all the way through 1977.
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  Monaco trying to entice people to come and visit this small little
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  nation at the bottom of France.
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  And the Germans not to be outdone, you know, creating the Nürburgring.
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  Which you can still go for about 20 bucks and drive on yourself today.
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  These are the first great spectacles we talk about.
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  But there are plenty of people that are involved in this.
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  And so we move on to the drivers.
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  But there are so many drivers out there.
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  Who do we cover?
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  Just a brief smitten of who we cover.
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  Tazio Nuvolari, who I mentioned previously with his impossible victory.
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  With his underpowered Alfa Romeo versus the Germans in the 30s.
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  And also a never quit attitude.
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  He was qualifying for a race on motorcycles.
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  He broke both his legs in qualifying and the next day he had his
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  mechanic strap him to the bike and he went on to win the darn thing.
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  That's a never quit attitude.
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  Juan Manuel Fangio, you know, at the early day onset as the first five time champ,
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  really, of F1 racing, and still has the winningest percentage of an F1 driver.
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  A.
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  J.
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  Foyt, an American driver, the only one to have ever won the Indy and
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  Daytona 500s, Daytona and Le Mans 24 hours, and Sebring 12 hours.
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  Mario Andretti, goes from racing in dirt tracks in Pennsylvania,
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  to USAC, to F1 championships, and then all the way to Pikes Peak.
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  Louis Smith.
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  The first lady of racing.
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  The story goes that she was at the beach race in 48 and race the family car and
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  flip the darn thing would go on to win multiple events in different formats.
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  Michael Schumacher, the first seven time champ Airtron Senate.
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  Need I say more?
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  And Lewis Hamilton, who still does say has a 62 percent chance to podium
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  every time he gets on to start.
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  Even the other seven time champ only had about a 50 percent chance to podium
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  a sampling of the drivers that we try to cover more in depth, obviously.
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  What I really also tried to point out is the event in Le Mans.
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  They're coming up on their 100th anniversary as, the racing is not for 100
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  years as interrupted by two world wars, but their 100th anniversary is coming up.
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  There have been so many books and competitions that have, between, uh,
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  famously Ferrari and Ford, and Audi versus everyone, and then also multiple movies
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  have been made, books have come out.
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  There's something enduring about that.
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  ultimate question of how far you can go in 24 hours.
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  But it's also really important to touch on the fact that motor sports
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  almost died again in the 55 Lamar race.
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  Where Hawthorne driving his Jaguar pitted late, and unfortunately, LeVay
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  driving a Mercedes was launched into the crowd and killing 83 plus people.
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  But the craziest part is, the race continues.
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  It was only 3 5 minutes into a 24 hour race, and it kept going.
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  There are literally dealing with the folks there and the racing still goes.
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  Mercedes would eventually pull out at 2 a.
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  m.
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  and not returned to motorsports until 1987.
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  But these are the types of influential things that happened in one events.
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  I mean, Switzerland still doesn't allow motor sport events because of this event.
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  There's a really big, important event.
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  But these tracks, these places that kind of have these hollow ground,
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  we go into tracks themselves.
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  If we say things like Watkins Glen, Sebring, Circa de la Salle, Brooklands,
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  Monaco, just the words and names themselves kind of conjure up images.
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  But what is it about these places?
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  Is it the surface they actually race on?
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  Oswego, even.
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  Uh, you know, is it the asphalt, the dirt?
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  Is it the banking, the chicanes, the apexes?
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  What makes them so special?
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  Why do people keep returning to them?
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  Why do whole families and generations of people follow through and always
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  attend the same events year after year?
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  There's gotta be something special about them.
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  And even places like Darlington.
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  But that kind of rolls into what we teach and also as NASCAR.
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  A third rate joyride for the working class, as it was
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  originally referred to by the AAA.
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  How do you condense all of NASCAR's history into just a few presentations?
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  I try to break it down in three key modules.
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  There's the 1936 to 49, where you really have the first family of racing, the
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  flocks, three brothers and a sister who would go on to compete and be the only...
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  Four siblings that actually competed on the same track.
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  Their sister won, by the way, World War Two would intercede so much technology
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  as far as training and such, you know, kind of came out of that for
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  the mechanics that would come back from the war and use their skills to
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  improve the vehicles that they raced in.
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  The first national champion stock car circuit.
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  Bill France is kind of proof of concept run in 1947 that was originally
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  then brought to the streamline to say, Hey, I can pay out the money.
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  I can run the races.
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  I can do the insurance.
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  Let's go ahead and form this next thing that we're going to call NASCAR.
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  And then the next big iteration, 1950 to 71, Darlington, South
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  Carolina, getting a super speedway.
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  1950, the first super speedway is built in NASCAR, and it's a funny
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  little shape, if you ever will see it.
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  And the reason, because there was a minnow pond on a corner that they sort of
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  shifted the track to because the landowner didn't want to ruin his minnow pond.
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  And also, the guy who eventually won the race, because NASCAR
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  had never done a 500 mile race.
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  50 miles, 100 miles, that was their bread and butter.
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  But it was a guy who had competed at Indy and used truck tires
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  to actually beat them all out.
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  the kind of the first rick matching uniforms, painted to bring in
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  an african am his team as well.
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  We talk leaving.
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  Basically 1955 w
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  a little rocky for big co in motor sports and unfort and then a race
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  in Martins another two or three fans And so that was a big gaping hole.
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  We talk about those second family racing, the Lees, Winston cigarettes,
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  how they lose TV advertising in that.
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  But they got NASCAR.
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  That was a big change to our sport as well.
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  1972 to present was that last kind of big block of time where a blizzard brings
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  NASCAR to the masses lights, you know, under one hot night, all of a sudden
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  go night racing professionalism in the pit crew with the rainbow warriors.
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  Of course, Dale Earnhardt senior's death, Jimmy seven time and development of the
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  cup car, NASCAR media and the frances.
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  You know, these are some of the things we touch on to kind of cover the history,
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  go a little bit more in depth with NASCAR because that's kind of where we're at.
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  We do also cover open wheel racing in our class.
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  We mainly focus on the first Indy 500 and really the splits between AAA
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  leaving, USAC forming, CART and USAC.
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  Kart IRL, Champ Car World series, and then finally reunification in
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  the IndyCar series as it is today.
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  We also try to ask the question, if they'd stayed together throughout that
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  entire time period, would they be more popular and kept a consistent fan base
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  to be more popular than NASCAR is today?
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  Or, because of all these splits and disunification, did that give
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  NASCAR a chance to rise up and beat them out of their own game?
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  For attention, that is.
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  We also covered the NHRA, so all the impetus of what's happening
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  on the West Coast, everything that kind of happened on the East Coast
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  we just previously talked about.
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  But really it was all this talent coming back from the wars, guys who
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  had worked on planes and tanks and trucks, were now tinkering with old cars
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  and, you know, making them go faster.
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  Southern California Timing Association is informed or formed around 1948.
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  They hold their first land speed trials out in the Bonneville Salt Flats.
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  C.
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  J.
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  Pappy Heart takes a spare side runway and creates the Santa Ana drags.
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  Wally Park sees all this.
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  He had been involved in time trials, creates the N.
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  H.
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  R.
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  A.
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  And they go racing.
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  They had their first event in Pomona.
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  And they have their championship in the middle of everywhere,
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  trying in Great Bend, Kansas by 55.
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  The Safety Safari, spreading this gospel of speed across the entire country.
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  When all these places wanted to have that badge of NHRA in drag racing,
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  they traveled to these locations and made sure that they qualified
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  for the insurance coverages.
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  Make sure that things were safe.
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  And of course, Darren Garland and his funky rear engine.
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  You know, who would have thought about that?
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  I think he was tired of losing feet.
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  So that's the type of history that we cover in our class in 16 weeks.
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  I'm going to turn it a little bit over to Dr.
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  Cunningham again.
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  I don't think I can pass that final exam.
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  You can tell the depth that Quinn goes, does a wonderful
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  job teaching these undergraduate students with this MM 200 class.
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  Really the next question and the reason that we're here is, you
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  know, how do we reinforce These historical concepts throughout
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  the rest of the entire curriculum.
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  And so we wanted to go from instruct structivism to constructivism through
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  several different methods, right?
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  We use case studies.
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  Uh, one of our adjunct instructors is vice president of communications and marketing.
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  for Roush Fenway Keselowski.
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  He was there during the Ryan Newman incident and so Kevin brings some
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  of those experiences back into the classroom and then also compares that
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  to other historical events such as Ryan Newman's wreck several years ago.
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  We rely very heavily on guest speakers.
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  Many times it's, they have topics related to history.
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  Another one of our adjuncts is Matt Yocum.
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  He teaches our sport broadcasting class and he brings in Pam Miller,
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  Daryl Waltrip, a lot of very well known names who come in and talk about
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  the importance of most sport history.
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  We also do reflection papers and presentations that reflect back on
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  where we are now, what they have seen in today's society, and it attracts.
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  and how it was in the past.
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  Before COVID, we did a little bit of travel, engaging of the senses.
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  I like to say being there at the track, understanding what is
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  taking place in the media center.
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  Many of those types of things.
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  We did some networking and we also tried to teach the students how
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  important it was that they are needing to be able to adapt to change.
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  However, during COVID, Quinn and I were, I wouldn't say we were bored, but we were
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  very anxious to move our program forward.
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  And we came up with some ideas to go from a motorsport program 1.
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  0 to motorsport program 2.
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  0.
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  We wanted to find a way to bring the history to life.
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  We kind of wrote down some challenges.
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  One was, we wanted the students to recognize what makes something spectacle
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  or entertaining so that people will spend money within the industry.
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  We wanted to find ways to network with influencers outside of
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  our normal bubble of Charlotte.
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  We wanted the students to experience the endurance, the physical endurance,
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  and the flexibility that is required to be a part of a weekend race.
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  Observe tracks during the operations.
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  And most importantly, we wanted them to see the history that we taught them in
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  the past, that we wanted them to contrast that with how business models have
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  evolved over time so that they're aware of, they're the ones that are evolving
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  future business models in their career.
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  Here's the plan that we came up with.
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  So I approached Trey toward the end of 21 saying we need to go to more races.
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  And so I told him my idea for one to two races and he said, you know
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  what, let's make a class out of it.
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  So we created MM390 Professional Development in Motorsport.
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  We picked several events that we thought that were not as...
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  Fully packed as attended as other events would be if we go to the Daytona 500
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  FaceTime with executives or you know People actually who would matter for
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  their networking career for our students would be unavailable But places like the
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  24 hour of a Rolex at Daytona There's a lot more flexibility same thing with like
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  the Indy race at Texas Motor Speedway and even the four wide nationals at Z
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  Max Dragway, and so that's what we did.
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  We traveled we've created a class.
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  We took ten students put them in vans And we drove down to Florida.
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  So we drove down to Florida, you know, we met with George Levy, who runs the
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  Motorsport Hall of Fame of America.
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  Got a fantastic tour from him.
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  And we mentioned that we were actually going to the North Turd Grill.
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  And he said, you know what?
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  I know someone who's doing a fantastic radio show called
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  Legends of Racing by Buzz McKim.
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  And said, why don't you guys head on down there and check it out.
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  And the next day, there we were.
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  It was a fantastic show, Buzz.
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  While we were there and learning about that, they told us that there was still
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  a portion of the old A1A that was still part of the original beach and road
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  course that you kind of can see there.
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  And we traveled down there.
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  I did lose into a foot race with my students, but, you know, that's okay.
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  And so, we went to the Streamline Hotel where NASCAR was founded.
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  And it's really just noticing and really living and experiencing that
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  history that they had taught about and been read about and took a test on.
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  But we're now actually seeing it physically and in person.
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  We also were able to connect with a lot of industry leaders from Tom Dunan
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  to Kevin Kennedy with Ford Performance Marketing, some of our own grads who
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  are in NASCAR actually and Haley Deegan.
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  We give it, we got hot laps with her and because it was kind of a less
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  attended event, the students actually got to interview her for a student
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  project invited in the garage from GMG racing, saw the entire Jackson
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  Marketing runs all the Michelin tires and wheels with Scott Taylor.
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  He showed us around and.
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  So the whole back end of like what goes on for the races and it was just
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  really kind of that in depth field, the different fields they can go into, the
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  different positions they could have, the different experiences they can go with.
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  Out to Texas Motor Speedway is a very long drive, a very fulfilling drive.
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  We stopped by Talladega Speedway at the Mckeague Wilburn Research Library and also
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  the International Motorsport Hall of Fame.
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  Saw a vast collection that was out there and one more NASCAR things we saw.
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  There were two urns right by The right hand side of that sign
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  just sort of left out there.
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  It's a very NASCAR thing to do.
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  And once we got to Texas itself, Rom Ramage was able to kind of
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  give us the keys to the kingdom.
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  He was the president of the track at the time.
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  And we met with all his top level executives who run, you know, from
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  marketing to PR to track operations and basically experience a phenomenal weekend.
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  So we learned a lot.
• 19:23
  We're still in the process of developing, fleshing out this more
• 19:27
  about what actually was learned, right?
• 19:30
  One is we learned that the more flexible that we were, it ended up
• 19:34
  creating more learning opportunities.
• 19:36
  We had meetings set up at specific times, throughout the specific
• 19:39
  events, and All of a sudden we'd get a text or a phone call saying, Hey,
• 19:43
  I was supposed to meet you at 9 a.
• 19:44
  m., but I'm not, now I'm not available till 1130.
• 19:46
  Okay, so how do we move 10 people around the pits?
• 19:50
  We needed to be very flexible.
• 19:52
  The students need to learn that because that's real life experience.
• 19:55
  We also realized that professionalism is now a priority.
• 19:58
  The first couple of events that we went to, students showed up
• 20:01
  in their, what they refer to as their vintage Mark Martin shirts.
• 20:05
  We then decided we're going to, Get all the students polos and jackets,
• 20:10
  and we're gonna try to at least buy them some professionalism, buy
• 20:13
  them some confidence along the way.
• 20:15
  So when we showed up places, we looked a little bit like we belong there.
• 20:19
  So we were really instilling that professionalism within
• 20:22
  our students from day one.
• 20:23
  We totally reinvigorated our alumni.
• 20:26
  We had alumni that started seeing things on social media.
• 20:29
  Alumni we didn't even know we had.
• 20:31
  They came out of the woodworks and have been very supportive.
• 20:33
  For example, Michael Hayda is the vice president of corporate
• 20:37
  sales at NASCAR in Daytona.
• 20:38
  He actually took time away from his day and gave us a personal tour of
• 20:43
  that area around the NASCAR building.
• 20:45
  We realized how important it was that building a family
• 20:49
  and a team atmosphere was.
• 20:50
  In cohesion, these students are going to be spending the rest of their lives
• 20:54
  in the industry and no better networking and connection than their own classmates
• 20:59
  that they set 12 hours in a van with it.
• 21:02
  We also realized that we needed to stop doing things with juniors
• 21:05
  and seniors and start focusing on the freshman and sophomore.
• 21:09
  And so what we've been able to do is align all classes from the very
• 21:13
  first day that a student enters on campus to the day that they graduate.
• 21:17
  They all work and move together in many of those activities.
• 21:21
  And most importantly, the thing that we thought was going to be the most
• 21:24
  difficult actually became the easiest.
• 21:26
  And that was that industry professionals were more than willing to give
• 21:31
  their time, to give back, to give advice, to be flexible themselves.
• 21:34
  And it was, it was quite the blessing, um, in those events.
• 21:38
  Uh, we have a lot of other great things planned.
• 21:41
  Quinn and I truly believe that there's someone or several of you
• 21:43
  in this room that will help us bring our program to the next level.
• 21:47
  So we look forward over the next two days to speak to many of you to hear your
• 21:51
  ideas on how we can move this forward.
• 21:54
  Alright, that's the end of our presentation.
• 21:56
  Do we have any time for questions?
• 21:58
  How useful have you found the NASCAR Hall of Fame in to helping you in your program?
• 22:02
  Oh, absolutely.
• 22:03
  The NASCAR Hall of Fame is in Charlotte.
• 22:06
  We take multiple trips there a year.
• 22:08
  One of the class that Quinn teaches that M.
• 22:10
  M.
• 22:11
  200 history, culture, philosophy, sport.
• 22:13
  There's an annual trip for all of those students in the spring.
• 22:16
  And there's a lot of events that take place.
• 22:18
  I think just last week, the E.
• 22:20
  NASCAR championships were held at the Hall of Fame.
• 22:23
  Dale Jr.
• 22:24
  Was there to present the award.
• 22:26
  The students were there, got the pictures with him.
• 22:28
  It was a great event.
• 22:29
  So we do utilize the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
• 22:31
  We're super blessed to have it so close.
• 22:34
  We utilize it as much as we possibly can.
• 22:36
  I have a quick question about the buy in from your colleagues at the university.
• 22:41
  How hard a sell was this when you approached the university
• 22:46
  administration and said we want to do a motorsports degree?
• 22:49
  It seems like, I know the institution where I teach, it would be thems
• 22:53
  fightin words to try and come up with that kind of a program.
• 22:57
  I'm just curious as to...
• 22:58
  how smoothly things went for you folks.
• 23:01
  Super smooth.
• 23:01
  Once again, Humpy Wheeler was on our board of directors and 15 years
• 23:05
  ago and introduced that concept to our president, Dr Thierfelder.
• 23:09
  Our administration doesn't know about a lot of this stuff, to be honest with you.
• 23:12
  But what a blessing.
• 23:13
  They trust that we're going to do what's right for the students overall, that as
• 23:17
  long as we're developing the whole student beyond just what's in the classroom, then
• 23:21
  We don't really have much feedback, and our provost was the former board of motor
• 23:25
  sport management chair like myself, so we have a full support from top to bottom.
• 23:30
  I was just going to say I wish this program had existed 50 some years ago.
• 23:34
  I used to have to cut classes to go to races.
• 23:37
  And now I could actually take it as a curriculum.
• 23:40
  Where were you guys back then?
• 23:42
  They do still cut classes.
• 23:46
  Every once in a while I'll have to call a professor that's kind of
• 23:50
  questioning why they're missing so much.
• 23:52
  And I'll say, this is super important.
• 23:53
  This young lady is about to go meet Lynn St.
• 23:55
  James at the Women With Drive conference a couple weeks ago.
• 23:59
  And I promise you this could change the trajectory of her career.
• 24:02
  Could you please let her take that exam another time?
• 24:06
  You've got a good groundwork.
• 24:07
  I'm very impressed, to be very honest about it.
• 24:10
  So where are you going to be going in the future expansions?
• 24:14
  What we're focusing on for the future is really kind of that
• 24:17
  re engagement of the alumni.
• 24:19
  That we have a lot of success stories who are out there in the industry already.
• 24:22
  I think there was a lack of reaching out to the alumni earlier, and so just
• 24:26
  reengagement of them, kind of bringing them back in the program, and a focus
• 24:30
  more on that team building aspect, so that once you graduate, those
• 24:34
  juniors, sophomores, and freshmen can reach out to you and then say, hey,
• 24:37
  I'd really like to come shadow you.
• 24:38
  I'd like to see what that experience is like and create just a cycle
• 24:42
  of rinse and repeat, if you will, emphasizing these early spring
• 24:46
  classes where we go on the trips.
• 24:47
  You know, it was really important to us to establish those networks
• 24:50
  and try to grow them and then just solidify the foundation that we're at
• 24:54
  and kind of keep growing from there.
• 24:55
  And the numbers are showing it.
• 24:56
  Our NBA with a concentration will be fully online.
• 25:00
  So we're looking to expand with remote instructors as well as remote students.
• 25:05
  We'll see where that goes.
• 25:06
  Yeah.
• 25:07
  Do you have any involvement with the, uh, mechanical and restoration aspects, or
• 25:11
  do you leave that to other institutions?
• 25:13
  UNC Charlotte is right in our backyard, and they have a
• 25:16
  phenomenal engineering program.
• 25:17
  That's something that we're kind of not set up for.
• 25:20
  Uh, you know, we don't have the facilities at all, uh, to teach
• 25:23
  engineering or to turn wrenches.
• 25:25
  We would like to, but, you know, it's really, we're so, more focused on the soft
• 25:28
  skills rather than the hands on skills.
• 25:31
  Although our students do have their own lemons team that they run themselves.
• 25:33
  So, whether the car makes it there or not is.
• 25:36
  Totally up to them.
• 25:38
  So you said you covered open wheel and circle track and a
• 25:42
  couple of different asphalt cars.
• 25:44
  But you didn't say anything about dirt.
• 25:46
  Why don't you cover that and do you think that limits your students?
• 25:50
  We do actually have a handful of actual people who raised dirt themselves
• 25:53
  who come through our program.
• 25:55
  You know, I did have to cut a little bit of my presentation short for time
• 25:58
  wise to cover, you know, the world of outlaws is right in our backyard.
• 26:01
  Finals are this weekend, you know, being run, uh, Charlotte.
• 26:04
  You know, we do love dirt too, but, you know, as far as coming up Northeast,
• 26:08
  that is definitely something that we can start including into, like
• 26:10
  talking about Oswego and Eldora.
• 26:12
  That's why it's difficult to cover motorsport history as a whole.
• 26:16
  You can have an entire semester dedicated to dirt and its
• 26:20
  various formats and racing.
• 26:22
  So, it's not that we don't like dirt.
• 26:23
  We, we love dirt.
• 26:25
  You know, I love taking q tip and getting that mud out of my ears after an event.
• 26:28
  But, you know, it's, it's something we do briefly cover.
• 26:31
  Well, it sounds like initially the program was more based on the management side,
• 26:35
  but you're starting to delve more into.
• 26:37
  Exploring the history of racing.
• 26:38
  And I was curious, as far as job placement.
• 26:41
  Do you have any type of figures as far as job placement?
• 26:44
  Like what percentage of your graduates wind up landing positions in NASCAR?
• 26:49
  Or if they're finding positions in other types of motorsports?
• 26:53
  And then finally, what are maybe one or two of the types of jobs
• 26:57
  that they're being hired to do?
• 26:58
  Because you mentioned UNC Charlotte.
• 26:59
  They have the Technical School, the Engineering School.
• 27:02
  You mentioned like, LaHetta.
• 27:04
  Great guy, um, one year alumni, uh, because he was at the NASCAR Hall of
• 27:08
  Fame before he went over to NASCAR.
• 27:11
  Are there more stories like Mike, can you provide some more examples
• 27:14
  of the types of jobs, and the, and the amount of placement?
• 27:17
  A percentage of placement you've had with the program.
• 27:20
  Yeah.
• 27:20
  When I was digging into the alumni, trying to, we did a alumni mixer and
• 27:25
  networking event last year as part of this professional development
• 27:27
  program the students put together.
• 27:29
  And basically, combing through all the records and trying to figure out everyone
• 27:33
  through their LinkedIn pages and just trying to reach out and contact them.
• 27:36
  Roughly over a hundred graduates or so in that time span.
• 27:39
  And about half are actually, had made it to the industry.
• 27:43
  Or were still in the industry, I should say.
• 27:45
  about three quarters made it to the industry.
• 27:47
  Some spent a year or two, three years or so, then moved on to another job.
• 27:50
  But the majority seem to are still enjoying themselves.
• 27:53
  We've had graduates, one of the head managers at Victory Carding, which
• 27:57
  is a local carding establishment and, you know, keeps that ongoing.
• 28:01
  We have other grads.
• 28:01
  Ian Moye, who's now over Penske's communicate social media.
• 28:05
  He was Ryan Blaney's PR rep for multiple years, but he started
• 28:08
  out as an advisor at Belmont.
• 28:10
  You know, a job hadn't opened up right then, but he stuck with
• 28:12
  it, kind of persevered through.
• 28:14
  Jordan Anderson is also one of our grads.
• 28:16
  He came from a dirt and late model type experience all the way
• 28:19
  through to now owning his own team.
• 28:21
  Morgan Overstreet was Chase Elliott's rep.
• 28:23
  She's now with Dirty Mo Media.
• 28:25
  Several folks over at Junior Motorsports as well.
• 28:27
  A lot of PR reps, a lot of social media reps.
• 28:30
  And actually, the marketing director for Hoosier Tires is one of our grads.
• 28:34
  Taylor Hull, a professional drift racer, was one of our grads back in the day.
• 28:38
  And then also, a lot have ended up at Charlotte, myself included.
• 28:41
  Spent 10 years there.
• 28:42
  Tom Vesey, who's in charge of operations, is also there.
• 28:45
  Gal down in PRN kind of runs their boards.
• 28:47
  It's a wide variety of grads all over the industry, but
• 28:50
  mostly on the soft skill sides.
• 28:52
  Hi, you mentioned 40 students in the program currently.
• 28:55
  What are you hoping to get and how do the students find you?
• 28:59
  How do you promote the program?
• 29:00
  Because this is obviously a very unique niche.
• 29:02
  That is the million dollar question.
• 29:04
  Because it is so unique, it's hard to kind of go to Goodwill Analytics and select
• 29:08
  college student motorsport management.
• 29:10
  Let me spend my money.
• 29:11
  So in that respect, it's a lot of word of mouth.
• 29:15
  We're starting to find out that a lot more folks, and kind of like myself,
• 29:17
  originally I came from California, I had no contacts in the industry, heard about
• 29:21
  this program, you required three, at the time, three internships, and then,
• 29:24
  you know, you had these connections, and like, hey, I want to get into this
• 29:27
  industry that's very small and tight knit.
• 29:29
  They have connections.
• 29:30
  That's probably how I should spend my money and that is kind of a recurring
• 29:34
  theme So we have people from you've got two students from New Jersey one from
• 29:38
  England one from Vermont some from Oregon and Arizona And you know, Michigan and
• 29:43
  so people Yeah one from the Finger Lakes actually just right up the road all these
• 29:49
  experiences of I really want to be in it.
• 29:52
  I know where I have to be to go to it.
• 29:54
  We always tell them we never guarantee them a job, but we give you the best
• 29:56
  chance of getting a job in the industry.
• 29:58
  90 percent of all NASCAR teams are based in there.
• 30:01
  We have the World of Outlaw Finals based there as well.
• 30:03
  And so there are a lot of organizations and support, the Stock Car Steel, Hypeco,
• 30:08
  just a lot of support industries that are around our areas too, that some of
• 30:12
  our students have ended up in as well.
• 30:13
  And as far as additional students.
• 30:15
  We'd love more, but we know that at some point there's going to be a larger cap.
• 30:20
  You know, we can't have 100 people.
• 30:21
  How can we guarantee them jobs if 50 people are graduating
• 30:25
  to get in the industry?
• 30:26
  That's kind of probably unattainable.
• 30:27
  But currently, you know, we just had a rise kind of get nine
• 30:30
  incoming last year, 15 this year.
• 30:32
  And so we're seeing our numbers definitely increased dramatically, and we're ready
• 30:36
  and willing to accept them and teach them.
• 30:38
  Thank you.
• 30:38
  All right.
• 30:38
  Thank you.
• 30:39
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• 30:48
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