University Times

Racing team seeks faculty help

To the faculty and administration of the University:

Twenty-five years ago the University of Pittsburgh student auto racing team, the first collegiate auto racing team in America, won three northeastern U.S. championships and campaigned race cars that were faster than some of the best professional racing teams’ cars in North America!

Pitt’s auto racing team has been revived, with over 100 Pitt students participating as members of the NEW student auto racing team! We have been given a race car and promised a grant from one of the most notable charitable foundations in Pittsburgh, but we need help from a few faculty members to succeed again in the sport that has become the second most popular in the nation.

Experts in education say that innovation occurs when students are able to apply classroom knowledge in compelling practical situations, where they are motivated to understand the theory thoroughly enough to be inventive with it. No laboratory setting is more academically sophisticated and thought-provoking than the research and development associated with auto racing — and it’s being tested in actual races!

We are looking for faculty members who recognize the potential of the auto team as an educational and character development tool, and who would be willing to authorize relevant projects that would result in academic credit for race team members.

If you get excited by seeing instructors and students exercise the creative intellectual process and develop the most remarkable innovations, contact me for more information: 412/221-2000 or robertblakefryer@comcast.net. For more information on the team, go to pittracing.org.

Bob Fryer

Team Manager

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