BMS Is Perfect Laboratory

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Institutions of higher learning are not auto racing’s typical demographic, at least when it comes to sponsorship.

NAPA auto parts stores? Yes. Office Depot? Sure. Budweiser and Jack Daniels? Absolutely.

Harvard? Not likely.

It might have seemed strange, then, that Wednesday night’s NASCAR Whelan Modified Tour’s stop at Bristol Motor Speedway (officially dubbed the NWMT UNOH Perfect Storm 150) was backed by the University of Northwestern Ohio. The school even sponsored the modified car driven by Todd Szegedy.

Then again, perhaps this should be expected from a university that nicknamed itself the Racers.

The school’s Lima, Ohio, campus features a 70,000-square foot, seven-acre high performance motorsports complex. The town’s local dirt track, Limaland Motorsports Park, is owned by the university, which fields four race teams there.

“In our high-performance program, we have created a motorsports team inside the university as a part of the athletic program,” UNOH instructor Paul Higgins said. “Much like many universities have basketball programs, volleyball teams – we have those as well – but the president of the university came up with the idea of starting and maintaining a motorsports team, which has scholarship athletes on it.”

The university itself is split into a school of technologies and a school of business. Inside the school of technologies, the Racers offer a course of study called High Performance Motorsports. Since 1992, this school has educated students on high-performance Chevys, Fords, Chryslers and imports.

In short, the High Performance Motorsports option at UNOH trains students to work for racing teams. It’s like majoring in NASCAR. Or top fuel dragsters. Or modified tractor pulling.

An offshoot of the High Performance Motorsports course of study is the motorsport teams that UNOH puts on the track at Limaland. Currently, the school fields two modified and two stock cars every Friday night.

Every aspect of the race teams are looked after by the university’s students.

“Last year, I was the crew chief for one of the stock cars; this year I’m driving one of the modifieds,” said UNOH student Stephen Schnapf, who’s currently seventh in points at Limaland. “It’s a blast. I got to class, we have five-hour classes four days a week, and then I go and work with the race team. Sometimes, we get to race on Friday and Saturday night. It’s a total blast.”

UNOH’s race teams have even inspired a reality show on Fox Sports Network titled, “Motorsports U,” that will follow the squads as they competes across the country. The show begins airing on Oct. 4.

If earning a varsity letter, not to mention a scholarship and TV exposure, in Driving Fast 101 wasn’t cool enough, UNOH’s sponsorship of Szegedy’s No. 2 modified in Wednesday night’s race presented students with another rare opportunity – being the gas man on a real-life modified pit crew.

Earlier this summer, Szegedy’s crew visited the UNOH campus, holding a competition among the program’s motorsports students. The four highest finishers in an over-the-wall competition were asked to join the No. 2 crew at the NWMT UNOH Perfect Storm 150. Two actually hopped over the wall as official gas men during the race.

“It’s a huge difference [from Limaland],” Schnapf said. “Just getting into the pits we had to stop and get our credentials, and get our NASCAR license. Normally, when you go to a dirt track you just walk up, sign your name and pay your way in. It’s just a way higher scale, getting in here.”

The overall goal of UNOH’s motorsports program is to get here, BMS and NASCAR, permanently as a member of a professional crew.

On Wednesday, Higgins led his students, 18 of whom came to cheer on their peers, across the infield to where the Camping World Truck Series crews tinkered with their rides. He was able to point out UNOH alumni who had achieved the dream – full-time positions on NASCAR teams.

One such alumnus is Scott Blackburn, a 2005 UNOH graduate and current front-tire changer for Bryan Scott’s No. 16 Albertson’s Toyota.

“Given their race club and allowing you to go out and get real race team experience, that helped out more than anything probably could,” Blackburn said. “They
have a wide range of programs that can help you if this is what you want, because it’s all about meeting people in this sport.”

scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543