Newswise — For Tate Wagers, the big race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month comes two days before the scheduled 94th running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race – “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
On May 28, 2010, Wagers will be at the oval track for the Firestone Freedom 100, a Firestone Indy Lights series event.
Since January, the IUPUI mechanical engineering technology (MET) student has interned as a junior engineer with Palm Beach Indy Racing team who will field two cars in the Freedom 100. The race will be Wagers’ third as an intern learning under a lead engineer in the racing series that is considered a proving ground and stepping stone for up-and-coming Indy 500 drivers.
“You go to the races and that’s where you learn everything,” Wagers said of his experiential learning experience. It’s a good series (in which) to be a junior engineer. You get to learn a lot.”
After practice runs, the team engineer, using data from about 35 computer sensors on a car, confers with a driver to determine what changes and readjustments – such as lowering the car’s riding height, adjusting shocks and tire pressure, etc., – are needed to improve a car’s performance, Wagers said. “Engineers and the race car drivers work hand in hand,” Wagers said. “The mechanics are completely different. They are the ones making the changes to the car with the wrenches and the screw drivers.”
While Team PBIR is smaller than Indy Lights competitors who also field cars in the Izod IndyCar Series of the Indy 500, Wagers, who will begin his senior year in the IUPUI motorsports program this fall, says it is the perfect fit for him.
“I love a small team. It’s more of a family,” Wagers, 27, says. “I get to learn every aspect – from the business side to the engineering side to actually turning wrenches.”
According to the series Web site, Firestone Indy Lights has been the stepping stone for 10 drivers who have competed in the Indianapolis 500, including current Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar Series driver Scott Dixon. Dixon’s father, Ron Dixon, and Kane Williams own PBIR.
Wagers, an Indiana native who enrolled at IUPUI after a four-year stint in the Coast Guard, will intern with PBIR throughout the season that ends in October.
He learned of the IUPUI motorsports program – the only one in the country to provide a four-year bachelor’s degree in motorsports engineering degree – from reading a newspaper article about an IUPUI student’s internship with Panther Racing.
“I love it,” Wagers says of the MET program. “You would never think IUPUI would have something of this caliber. It is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to be in motorsports. It’s a good opportunity. If you like race cars, it is the place to be.
“I wouldn’t be with this team; I wouldn’t have any thought about having an internship, if it weren’t for (attending) IUPUI.”
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