Surrounding Indy star Helio Castroneves are (from left to right) students: Devin Cherry, Chase Rushing, Tiffany Zielke, Leon Pruitt and TC Gammons with Dr. Teague.
Five students from the Motorsports Management Program at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) were able to meet Helio Castroneves, three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, who also was on the pole for the 2010 race May 30.
The students are participating in a joint summer racing course with students from the Motorsports Engineering Program at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) when the world- famous Brazilian racer paid a visit. The five WSSU students were Devin Cherry, Chase Rushing, Tiffany Zielke, Leon Pruitt and TC Gammons, a sport management major.
“We have a collaborative class with IUPUI’s program that allows both universities to share their specialties with our students,” said Dr. Travis Teague, coordinator of the WSSU program. “We focus on the business side of the motorsports industry and they focus more on the engineering side of racing. We recently had 11 of the IUPUI students in Winston-Salem and then five of our students went to Indianapolis. It gives both programs an opportunity to share our expertise and we also share experiences with the entire group, visiting tracks and race team shops in Indianapolis and in North Carolina.
“It is extremely beneficial for students of both programs to learn something about the other disciplines in the motorsports field,” Teague added. “It is also helpful that our connections to racing provide us with entrance to some of the top NASCAR team shops and industry organizations in our state, and the IUPUI connections offer our students the opportunity to see a different side of the industry.”
