Opportunity Motorsports Spring Break 2006

Instead of vacationing in Cancun or Daytona Beach, four members of Opportunity Motorsports chose to spend their Spring Breaks in the Charlotte, NC area on a fact-finding, contact-making exercise.  Jon Hassler, Dan Hobbs, Jace Sanders, and Ryan Harold met on Monday, March 13 with Professors Travis Teague and Tom Coates of East Tennessee State University’s Motorsports Marketing program in Johnson City, TN to discuss the future of Motorsports education in both the managerial and technical arenas.

After this meeting, the group headed to Concord, NC for the beginning of meetings in the greater Charlotte area.  On Tuesday, March 14, the group met with engineer Dave Elenz and CEO/General Manager Jay Frye of MB2 Motorsports, and were given a detailed tour of their new facility in Mooresville, NC, and an inside look at the lives of engineers with a Nextel Cup organization.

Later in the day, the OM members traveled to Concord, NC to meet with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates’ Tim O’Brien, a Purdue Mechanical Engineering Technology graduate.  The very large facility was very impressive to the group, in particular the seemingly endless series of rooms in which nearly every part of the vehicles are prepared.  Mr. O’Brien, a very recent graduate, was able to share with the group his path to becoming the team engineer with the number 41 Busch Series team so soon after graduation.

Wednesday, March 15 would be a very busy day for the group, first up was an early meeting with Michael ‘Fatback’ McSwain, Hoyt Overbagh, Bob Haubenreich, and Mike Smith of Wood Brothers Racing/JTG in Harrisburg, NC.  This group, with over 80 combined years of experience in NASCAR racing, was able to share some very interesting insights with the group, including the manner in which they choose to develop their future employees through a very structured internship program.  In the process of developing their engineering department, chief engineer Hoyt Overbagh shared with the group their vehicle simulation programs as well as their record keeping and calculations procedures.  The gentleman from WBR/JTG were very helpful and responded very positively to the mission of Opportunity Motorsports, and seemed to understand our desire to model OM after a Nextel Cup organization.

Later in the day, the group moved to Concord, NC’s Hendrick Motorsports, possibly one of the most awe-inspiring facilities in Motorsports.  Jim Wall, the director of engineering in the HMS Engine Department, gave OM members an inside look at the breadth of the engine shop.  The engine department is closed to the public, so, like the rest of our meetings during the week, it was quite an honor and compliment to OM that we were given behind the scenes access.

Next, it was a meeting with Purdue Mechanical Engineering alumnus Derek Jones, the director of engineering with JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Busch Series team with driver Mark McFarland.  Mr. Jones and his team exemplified the “do a lot with a little” attitude which we hope will rub off on Opportunity Motorsports members.

To close our trip to Charlotte before the season opening CRA Super Series race in Nashville, TN, the group met with Chris Andrews, team director of Evernham Motorsports’ number 19 team with driver Jeremy Mayfield.  Mr. Andrews, a 1992 Purdue Mechanical Engineering graduate showed the guys the depth of EMS’ engineering efforts, which rivaled any other organizations in NASCAR Racing, including data acquisition, vehicle simulations, and even point cloud vehicle modeling.

After two long days of meeting with some very heavy hands in the industry, the members of Opportunity Motorsports left for Nashville with a much deeper understanding of what it takes to break into the NASCAR industry, and what would be the duties that await us when we get there.  We thank all the gentlemen with whom we met, and look forward to working with them in the future.

-Dan Hobbs

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