Students go Drag Racing (20/09/2007)
Around 80 eager and enthusiastic engineering students from the College of West Anglia’s Isle Campus in Wisbech went on an exciting trip to the qualifying rounds of the European Finals of the Drag Racing Championships, held at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire on Thursday 6th September 2007. Drag Racing is the fastest and loudest motor sport on earth and the trip gave engineering students to see (and hear!) first-hand one of the career areas they could end up working in.
The trip was inspired by the new BTEC Motor Sport courses at the College and gave students the chance to see the huge range of job opportunities and related activities associated with this highly exciting and popular motor sport.
The students learned a lot about the complexities of building, running and maintaining a racing car and also had the opportunity to meet people directly involved in drag racing such as the drivers and technical back-up crews. They were able to see first-hand the support and skills needed to be successful in the sport.
The College’s engineering students will be able to relate what they saw and experienced at Santa Pod to their course work, especially in areas such as component manufacturing, up-to-the-minute welding techniques, engine building, engine diagnosis, composites and paint & body finishing techniques.
The College engineering tutors hope that this will be the first of a series of educational visits related to engineering and manufacturing within the technology trades. The idea is to inspire the students to broaden their horizons and even to go on to take a degree in engineering in the future.
College lecturer, John Suckling, said “We would welcome any suppliers and employers to come into the college to talk to the students to let them see the range of locally based opportunities”.
The College of West Anglia offers a range of engineering courses at the Isle Campus, including the only specialist motor sport courses in the area, and there are still places left on some courses. For more information, please contact telephone 01945 582561 ext 330.
