The drag strip is becoming a place of learning, and possibly pre-employment training, for several students in an Auto Tech program at Gilmer High School.
As an extracurricular project, the students and their instructor, Ken Martin, have been fixing up a Chevy S-10 pickup, making it ready to run on a drag strip track.
“There has been zero school funds used on this. I’m real cautious about using instructional time for this unless it’s something that ties in with what’s being taught that day,” Martin said.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) recently started its Junior Street Program to reach young people interested in racing. That program, which the local group is using to guide their efforts, allows teens accompanied by an adult mentor to experience drag racing in a supervised environment.
“The program is trying to get students involved because we’re seeing a resurgence of drivers trying to race on the streets. It uses mentors and people who’ve been in drag racing for a long time. The target market is 13-17 year olds. They basically take a street-legal vehicle out and drag race it. You put a student in the driver’s seat and an adult mentor in the passenger’s seat,” Martin explained.
“Their parents have to sign waivers, (which are) pretty extensive. Both guardians have to sign off on it before they can run it if they’re under 16 years old,” he added.
The only time a 13 to 16- year-old participant is allowed to drive the vehicle is while going down the racetrack, Martin noted.
“The adult has to drive up to the track staging area. When they get down to the end and pick up their time slips, the adult has to drive back to the pit area,” he added.
Eight students are currently signed up for the dragstrip program, Martin noted. Participating in it is an incentive for auto tech students who don’t miss school or have discipline issues.
“They earn the right. It’s not just because they want to drive the truck,” Martin said.
The local group is looking at partnering with Paradise Drag Strip in Calhoun, where they’ve already taken one of the trucks to test it out.
“We hope, in the future, to do a high school drag racing day or night where we watch over it and they can have some friendly competition,” Martin said.
In elapsed time, or “E.T.,” drag racing, going from start to finish takes only seconds.
“It’s about consistency. You take the best two out of four runs or something like that and that’s who’s going to compete against each other. We’re looking for best overall time and best 60-foot time,” Martin said.
The street-legal truck is a work in progress, and each time at the drag strip brings new challenges and automotive knowledge. Working on the vehicles can prepare the young students for a mechanical career, possibly on a race track pit crew, noted Martin.
“They can take the information they learn at the track and use it for troubleshooting. It’s teaching them to look at everything, not just the engine or the transmission, but how the vehicle is reacting,” he added.
“One thing I also hope it will teach them is having dedication to something. It takes a lot of research and work to realize what the vehicle is doing. On some tracks, you might have 200 miles to find out what’s wrong with a vehicle. This is done in seconds.”
Martin said auto tech students, including some from his classes, are going into automotive careers straight out of high school due to an increased demand for skilled workers.
“There was a big buzz word a few years ago — job ready day one. That’s what we’re trying to do,” he added. “Even your big manufacturers like BMW, Ford, Mercedes Benz and Subaru are starting to take students right out of high school who have some kind of training like in an auto tech program. They start them on an entry-level job, then send them to their own in-house schools.”
A recent show of sponsorship by the Ellijay Mountain Cruisers Car Club will help the auto tech group continue to improve their drag strip vehicle.
At a recent club meeting, the Mountain Cruisers presented $900 in gift cards to the GHS auto tech program to use on the project, said Gary Johnson, the car club’s primary manager.
The gift cards are for Summit Racing, a retailer that sells parts and equipment for performance vehicles, Martin said.
“There are two major stores, Summit and JEGS. You can get basically anything you want for your performance vehicles,” he added.
Johnson said the funds were raised from car club membership dues, cash and online donations, 50/50 raffle proceeds and other sales.
“The drag truck is a great way to directly fund the students and their hard work on the vehicle. They’re going to be running (it) in the NHRA Junior Street class in the near future, and we’re looking forward to watching them perform,” he added.