Reflecting on another amazing weekend with Collegiate Racing Series, Jack Hobbs, Peter Saddington, and Mazda Motorsports. These CRS executives and teams are truly shaking up the motorsports industry right now and we are trending in the right direction.
I was honored to be a part of an extraordinary meeting with IMSA President, John Doonan and multiple colleagues to discuss the up and coming National Advisory Board for Motorsports Education powered by IMSA (NABME). With this program, Motorsports students are going to be able to hone their skills not just in the raceshop, but in the actual classroom for college credit.
These days, we are seeing less and less technical minds that are breaking into Motorsports after college. Technicians and engineers will always be the glue that (literally and physically) holds this industry together and the deficit is ALARMING. NABME challenges and attacks this current deficit by building the future stars of the garage by tailoring the needs of the industry not only to college racing shops, but also to the collegiate classroom. This ensures that college graduates are rightfully getting put into practice with real and legit racing entities directly after college.
Rocky Top Racing has garnered the interest of hundreds of alumni who all ask “where was a program like this when I was in college?”. It also has led to hundreds of incoming Class of 2030 students asking how they can be involved in this as freshmen. Now imagine Tennessee having academia that ties directly into Motorsports! Imagine what alumni would think, imagine what the class of 2030 will think, imagine what the class of 2040 is going to think as they see Tennessee as the top university for motorsports education! We are just the beginning of the Motorsports legacy at Tennessee. And as the Collegiate Racing Series expands its base to more and more universities, NABME will become the future of Motorsport recruiting and education.
I will be pushing and advocating for this wonderful program to be implemented across Tennessee universities and technical colleges as NABME continues to develop. I hope you the readers, are ready to see Collegiate racing come on the map like you’ve never seen before.
NABME will be here to stay. The Collegiate Racing Series is here to stay. For Peter Saddington … “College racing is here. College racing is… HAPPENING.”
Thank you for your time,
Jacob Mink
President and Founder of Rocky Top Racing
