Panther Partnering for Purdue and IU Certificate
Written by Allan Brewer · July 4, 2006
Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis students will intern in the Panther Racing garages during the 2007 Indy Pro Series season
Panther Racing co-owner John Barnes and IUPUI have announced a new racing education program that lets college engineering students have a go at real-world race-car building.
Beginning next season, students from the 29,000-plus enrollment campus in downtown Indianapolis will earn academic credit and a small stipend for working with the team in its new IPS feeder series venture. Indy Pro Series drivers often emerge from the less-powerful Indy Pro cars to exciting big-time careers in the Indy Racing League and its famous showplace the Indianapolis 500-mile race.
The aim of the program is to encourage interested young minds at a critical juncture in their career-planning to find roles in high-tech racing disciplines.
IndyCar.com: Panther Partners Jaguars
Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis: Homepage of IUPUI
The effort is part of a new motorsports engineering technology certificate program at IUPUI and will offer internships in all areas of racing, including business, management and communication.
“These students aren’t going to be standing around watching; they’re going to be the ones building the race cars,” Barnes said. “We feel this is going to be unlike any other internship a college or university can offer.”
Panther, which won the IndyCar title with driver Sam Hornish Jr. in 2001 and 2002 and the Indy Pro Series championship in 2003 with Mark Taylor, is not competing in the developmental series this season.
“Motorsports is a sophisticated industry, generating billions of dollars in revenue,” IUPUI chancellor Charles Bantz said. “It needs highly skilled and talented people from accountants to mechanics to marketing professionals. Internships provide students the opportunity to experience the industry and to apply their studies everyday.”
With the announcement over the weekend of the novel F1-In-Schools program for middle-school and high-school students, racing technology instruction is becoming a major new area of vocational learning. While traditional automotive education efforts have been geared toward the needs of the commercial automakers and their service arms, the trend today is toward a specialized career path for youngsters interested in racing-specific studies directed toward a career in competition.
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