From today's paper: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-built-it-herself-race-car-takes-on-the-track-1508247022
That's behind a paywall, so for those who can't see it:
Life & Arts -- My Ride: A Race Car She Built Herself
Gracie Hackenberg, 21, a senior at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., on her 1999 Mazda Miata racing car, as told to A.J. Baime.
This weekend, roughly 40 teams from all over the country will compete at the Grassroots Motorsports $2017 Challenge at Gainesville Raceway in Florida. The basic rules are, you build a racing car for no more than $2,017, and that includes all the parts except safety equipment. Drivers compete in drag racing, autocross (racing one at a time through a course to see who's fastest), and a concours (participants have three minutes to present their cars to judges).
I grew up in a car family, and I started helping my grandfather -- a NASA engineer -- work on his vintage cars when I was seven. I got hooked on racing around the time I got my driver's license at age 17. (I admit, I got some speeding tickets.) As an engineering student, I was looking for a motor-sports project I could take on. The Grassroots Motorsports event was perfect because it was accessible in terms of resources, and a really supportive community.
I began building my car last summer while interning for Hale Motorsports, a race shop in Old Saybrook, Conn. Randy Hale, my mentor, sold me a gutted Mazda Miata for $600 and taught me how to weld in a roll cage. The Miata is the most popular production vehicle for people who want to build race cars but do not have professional budgets, so it was an ideal start.
At the beginning of the school year, I took the car to campus. Even though the project is independent (I am not being graded), I got help from fellow students; the lab coordinator for the engineering department, Sue Froehlich, has been my main adviser.
At the beginning, I had about 40 Smith students helping, but the work got so intense over the last eight weeks (on top of school work); there are three left. While my teammates raised money for the car and travel expenses through a Smith college engineering grant and a GoFundMe page, I focused on the car. Working in a school machine shop, I installed an exhaust system, fabricated custom seat brackets, and installed the race seat, safety harness, and a spoiler. The 1.8-liter motor and the manual transmission are stock 1999 Miata.
As you read this, my adviser Ms. Froehlich's husband will be driving the car on a trailer to Florida, and I will be flying down to compete this weekend. Winners will get trophies and bragging rights, and I am gunning to bring them home for the whole Smith college team.
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