ausgeflippt951

Hi all,

I knew my friends here on the 'List would appreciate this. Well, I drove the P-car up to Wisconsin for an internship this past summer. I'm just about done with my BS in Materials Science and Engineering and Aerospace Engineering; my ultimate goal (after Ph.D.-school) is to go into race car engineering.

Anyway, I worked for a race team based out of Plymouth, WI, where I helped in maintaining, racing, engineering solutions for, and building race cars ranging from Formula Atlantics to C-Sports Racers, from Indy Cars to F1 cars.

Here's a little album. Please don't knock me for putting the album on facebook; it's the easiest medium I could come up with...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...fe&id=10122460


I know this may be hum-drum to some of you, but to me it was heaven. Enjoy!

Circuit Motorsports

I know those guys and those cars. I've run a number of races where Brian and his CSR were in the same group. They put out some good cars there.

smlporsche

Nice cars!
I hope you get to live your dream !

ausgeflippt951

Thanks. Yeah Brian's son, James, just started racing as well. Fantastic family, and both Brian and James are amazing drivers.

At the KIC he won the race in the Benetton by 58 seconds. Now, I know the KIC isn't exactly the cream of the crop as far as racing's concerned, but it was still amusing. He was also lollygagging, he said. Best time IIRC was only a 1:53.

MTosi

Very cool Especially the Speed 8

95m3racer

Nice. Are you planning to go overseas?

Not much real race car engineering left in the states...its mostly crewchief "race engineer" type stuff. Optimizing setups, etc.

Pratt & Miller is one place that's left, they like internal GM guys mostly.

MUltimatic is another place, but you might need to live in Canadia for a while

One of my best friends went to Ricardo, but he, like you, wants to do Motorsport stuff...and like everyone else, he's planning to go to Europe soon.

Another kid I knew in California doing his PhD in aero, just went to Europe for F1 work.

Tough industry, not much pay, you have no life outside of racing, and at any time you have 20 people begging to do your job for less money, and who are more knowledgable in the most current software.

Like everything else in this world though, its all about who you know.

Looks like you are getting some good connections, keep networking, and build up the resume...not with jobs, but with connections

Knowing the right person will get you your dream job...most likely your idea of what your dream job is will change anyways. Do what you love, and you'll be successful.

Good luck, and keep at it!

Cory M

Very cool. Best of luck pursuing your dream.

67FJ45

I enjoyed your photojournal, Collin. Keep the List updated on your progress. And remember what Albert Schweitzer said (I'm paraphrasing): People aren't happy because they are successful in their jobs; they are successful in their jobs because they're happy.

Good luck!

chris walrod

I also enjoyed the photo album.

I see the 014.a they have has the seatback update kit, nice to see. Do you know which car number this one is? I sold those cars when they were new as well as provided track support for them and curious to know which one it is.

ausgeflippt951

Thanks for the well-wishes. Yep, I plan to go to Germany, hopefully as early as for grad school. Kind of a neat story: one Tuesday evening, while we were setting up for the June Sprints, the Penske and Dyson/Thetford RS Spyder ALMS teams were both at Road America doing testing for their upcoming race in August. They had just finished tearing down while we were pulling the cars out of the trailer, so we had a nice little chit-chat and one of the engineers at Penske asked me for my contact info! Now, he was most likely doing it to humor me, but it still felt neat nevertheless.



And, in other cool news, I just received an email from my former boss on the progress of the cars. James, the son of our client (Brian), got to drive the Benetton for the first time. The first bloody time out, he matched his fathers best time ever, a high 1:52. On the second time out, he beat it by 1.5 blankity-blank seconds! Afterwards, he only had one thing to say: "It was fast, crazy stupid fast!"

And, fortunately for all of us, there is video: James French '97 Benetton F1 video

The kid's gonna go far. Before I left, he said, "Hey we'll see each other again -- you'll be my F1 engineer!"

MTosi

^
Thats cool, mainly because it's neat to see how F1 would look at Elkhart Lake

chris walrod

Great lap -- kid is smooth!

Circuit Motorsports

FWIW for comparison a 1:45-6 from Justin Wilson in 2007 CCWS

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=3

and Mcnish rolling a 1:49 in the Audi

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=3

French was FAST....