The Sports Car Club of America has pledged its support of GreenpowerUSA, a program aimed at getting school-aged children interested in S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects by using motorsports competition. To get a first-hand look at the program, Lisa Noble, SCCA President and CEO, and Robert Clarke, SCCA Vice President, Business Development, and President, SCCA Pro Racing, were on hand for the most recent GreenpowerUSA competition, Oct. 31, in Huntsville, Alabama.
Members of the Tennessee Valley Region performed a myriad of event logistics support. From marshalling to the course, to tech inspection, SCCA members provided assistance to the student teams as they pushed their home-built cars through the stages of competition.
“We’re honored and appreciate for the support SCCA has provided,” Andy Bernard, Vice President of Race Production and Operations, said. “GreenpowerUSA will be able to grow because of the SCCA and its extensive knowledge and member base. Region members from around the country sharing their knowledge with students around the country will be invaluable. In addition, SCCA has been pivotal in helping with the safety and scrutineering aspect of the event. With a focus on safety, and capitalizing on the excitement of the students, we are looking to move this program forward.”
Students who take part in GreenpowerUSA competitions are required compete in electric powered vehicle of their own making. Each team is provided a basic kit of parts to construct the racecar, with each class allowing for different enhancements to be added.
The program is broken into three classes, based on age. The Goblin class, which includes students from ages nine to 11, features cars that top out at 15 m.p.h. These teams compete in acceleration/straight-line tests, a slalom course and a five-lap run on an oval course.
The next step is the Formula 24 class, which is broken up into two sub-categories. The intermediate category is for students from 12 to 14 years old, while the advanced category is for ages 14 to 18. Essentially this splits the class into middle school- and high school-aged students. The top speed for cars in this class is roughly 30 m.p.h., while they can average 20 m.p.h. over the span of a 90-minute race.
Formula 24+ is designed for students from 16 to 24 years old. This group is for the advanced high school and college student. These teams use the same basic kit as the Formula 24 class, but are allowed to add pieces, like bodywork, and can design their car in such a way to allow battery changes during the competition. These machines are capable of 40 m.p.h., but were not in competition at the Huntsville event. The team that traveled to England and finished in the top-10 had their car on display down in Alabama.
One of the benefits of this program is that it allows students to put their book knowledge to the test in a hands-on way. Students not only build the racecars, but drive and work on the cars during the competition. In addition, some students are tasked with promoting the activities of their team. This gives students a holistic perspective of what it takes to run a motorsports enterprise. In addition, it allows students with a diverse background the opportunity to take part in the program.
Currently, the program based in Huntsville is the pilot program for the United States. New construction at the Huntsville competition site included access roads and parking lots that double as the track for Greenpower competitions. The program has gotten such a positive response from education officials that some schools are considering building racetracks into their facilities.
That is the case at Whitesburg Middle School, the location of the first purpose-built track for Greenpower competition. During the opening ceremonies, Noble spoke to the assembled crowd thinking them for their support. The Goblin-classed cars completed their competition tests, and then the larger Formula 24 class took to the full race course for a 30-minute qualifying period. The event was capped off with a 90-minute Formula 24 race that Noble started by waving the green flag.
For most of the race, the top two teams ran nose-to-tail. When time expired the victory was decided by less than one second as the pass for the lead was completed on the penultimate corner. Following the race, the students were very excited about the competition regardless of their finishing position.
“Creating a new generation of those interested in science and engineering is vital to the long-term health of our Club,” Noble said. “By using motorsports, GreenpowerUSA is capitalizing on the fun and camaraderie of racing. As a leader in amateur motorsports, it is our responsibility to help further programs that will ensure the long-term health of technology and motorsport in the United States. We are honored with the opportunity to lend our expertise in event management to help GreenpowerUSA become a stronger force in education.”
For additional information on the GreenpowerUSA program, visit Greenpowerusa.net. Additional information on the Sports Car Club of America and be found at SCCA.com.
The following article was originally published in the April 1972 edition of SportsCar, written by Judy Stropus.
Just “one of the guys”–that’s what they call me. And, if the Women’s Libbers are listening, believe me, I’m liberated. You have to be when you go through life with a calling card like that.
But instead of using a baseball bat or a torque wrench, I wield a very delicate device, called a stopwatch and pencil. I’m better known as the Chief Timer and Scorer of the Penske Racing Team.
I use the term “Chief” rather loosely. I’m not equipped with an entourage of professional assistants, employees or even “gophers.” I don’t have an office staffed with trained personnel to help me with my job. I search for, collect and train prospective timers and scorers from all walks of life as I tour the countryside with the Penske Team.
What a gratifying experience!
This unique profession of mine poked its head into my life when I was a mere teenager, just months after I laid down my baseball bat for the last time. A boyfriend of mine and all our friends in the “neighborhood” were bombing around in their Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, Morgans, MGs, etc. We talked about racing some day, and even found our way south every March to the land of sunshine and the little town of Sebring. We stared and ogled all the superstars–Innes Ireland, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss. I’ll never forget the time I was practically grinding my nose into the tire that the very British Mr. Hill was surveying at the same moment. He grandly looked up at me and said, tipping his Kongol cap, “Hello, how are you?”
I fell backwards into the arms of my friends as I swooned in delight.
Soon I found myself a member of the Queens Sports Car Club, a “clicky” club of would-be amateur racing drivers, timers and scorers, the latter being headed by Lee Sorrentino, a prototype human computer. Lee and her husband Pat were really top notch timers for the New York Region of the SCCA. Then one day Pat handed me a watch at a Regional race at Lime Rock. She explained what was actually going on in this miniature machine in my hand, showed me how to read it and how to subtract. I thought I had learned how to subtract in school, but it was never like this. But I loved it, and one six-hour day and ten races later I was a bona fide regional timer! I had earned my stripes in stopwatchery.
Graduation day came in 1964 with a degree in timing and lap-chart keeping from the Lee Sorrentino School of Chronic Chronographers. In my quest for true devotion to something I could do fairly well, I joined the SCCA that year and became a legitimate timer and scorer.
With a wealth of Regionals, Nationals and one stint at Sebring (under Joe Lane) notched on my stopwatch case, not to mention three years of charting thousands of laps on the amateur side of SCCA, I was finally “discovered” by the pros.
I thought they’d never find me!
Ford Motor Company’s Fran Hernandez was in desperate need of timing information on his Team Cougar cars at the five-hour Trans-Am race at Marlboro, Maryland. And who should be standing there with fingers pointing at her? You guessed it.
I tried it, they liked it, Fran took the chart back to FoMoCo and both he and Bud Moore called the following week, saying, “Come on out to Denver.”
That’s how it all began.
Trans-Am became my thing. The Cougar team saw its demise at the end of the season, and I figured my pro career was finished too.
But, as good luck would have it, I was rediscovered by Jim Jeffords and the 1968 Javelin Team. At Mid-Ohio, that year, a handsome young gentleman by the name of Roger Penske walked up to me and casually asked why I wasn’t working for him. When I regained consciousness, I took the job, and by the year’s end, I was moonlighting for the Penske Team in the Can-Ams while handling the Trans-Am for the red-white-and-blues.
And now after four years and double-thick callouses, I’m considered a “permanent fixture” on the Penske Team.
Did I say gratifying? You bet it is. Just the fact that I’ve never worked anywhere for more than two years is something to marvel at.
An organization that’s so well trained, organized and equipped can only make for smoother operations. It’s done a lot for me, to be sure.
I’ve gone from sitting on an over-turned pail with clipboard and one stubby pencil in hand to a table and chair, magnetic information-displaying board, three super split-second stopwatches (one I use, and the other two for backups) my own timing stand complete with rain protector both for me, my helpers, and a separate one for my charts. We’re even experimenting with two-way radio and earphones.
You’ve come a long way, baby, as they say.
Working with a team weekend after weekend is an experience that would fill volumes of diaries, if I had only started keeping them way back in 1967.
I see Mark when he’s ecstatic, I see him when he’s sad, on the verge of quiet hysteria when things are going wrong, and full of aggressive resolve to find a remedy for trouble. I see him when he’s a practical joker, cavorting with his teammates or dousing them with water and being hosed down in return. And I see him when the car is behind and he’s got to get on the loud-pedal and fight his way back into contention.
I see Roger when he’s stern, demanding and determined. And mostly he’s right. I see him when he’s so overjoyed with a victory that he can’t stop talking and thanking every individual member on the team personally. I see him giving the old “psyche treatment” to his competitors. Particularly Bud Moore and Parnelli Jones. I see him practicing pit stops over and over “til it’s right.”
I see the guys, mechanics and gophers both, as well as those devoted followers we seem to find race after race, working into the night to put it all together, settling for two hours of shuteye and still showing up at 6:30 a.m. bright-eyed and eager to get back into things. I see the guys when they’re so tired after a win, that they collapse at the dinner table from exhaustion.
But primarily I see the team as a unit, from its famous driver down to the timer and scorer. I see a team that works together well, that laughs together, that enjoys the job, whatever it may be.
I’m just one of the guys–and I love it.
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Judy Stropus is a member of the Road Racing Drivers Club and credited with bringing the art of race timing and scoring into the 20th century. Despite changes in technology, Timing and Scoring is still a valuable art required at all SCCA competitive events. Contact your local region for more information about timing and scoring opportunities within SCCA.
