North Putnam's racing program ready to hit the track

It has been said the month of May is all about racing in Central Indiana, and for seven North Putnam High School students, they will get a better understanding of that this year.

North Putnam has partnered with Purdue University to build an electric car to race in the Purdue Grand Prix in May. 

"They will race with other high schools around the grand prix track. That is a really cool engineering piece that we are adding into the programming at North Putnam. We are very thankful of the partnerships we are having to get things going for our students, and we are thankful for the school board for all their support," North Putnam assistant superintendent Rodney Simpson told The Putnam County Post. 

Simpson said North Putnam was contacted by Purdue University to take part in a program that has been going on for several years.

"They contacted us and asked if we would be interested in starting a grand prix car and team. We have about seven students who have been putting the car together, one driver and a pit crew. We got together with them and had several meetings. We have a sponsorship to make this happen and the sponsorship has purchased the car kit," Simpson said. 

Simpson said after officials met with Purdue the excitement started to grow, along with the realization that this was something that could happen.

"We were very blessed to have that sponsorship to make this happen," Simpson said. 

For the students involved in the process, they have been pretty excited, according to Simpson.

"Forming that team and that teamwork has been exciting. Again, maybe it's a student not involved with athletics, but they finding another way to get involved. We are excited to be able to develop this team, get the driver and pit crew, get uniforms to dress just like they are at a race track. They are learning about the electric piece of the car, building and designing it and I am very excited for the kids," Simpson said. 

North Putnam principal Amanda Williams echoed those sentiments.

"Watching the kids going down to the classroom with Drake Davis as the teacher, and watching some of these kids, who race quads and motorcycles, they have knowledge we may not have. It is nice to watch those kids who may not that avenue, really excited and showing us how to put those things together. The enthusiasm and excitement is contagious and you can't help but be excited with the kids," Williams said. 

District officials said this race car will be a program that will sustain and continue at North Putnam.

"This is a program that will sustain and keep going. You can add cars if you want to. You can add teams each year if you want to. There are some schools that have five or more teams, and that depends on sponsorship. This car and team, you tweak it every year. You learn from the race and you come back to the drawing board and tweak it to see how you can race it faster and better," Simpson said. 

With the car built, there will be opportunities to practice and fine tune prior to the race, according to Simpson. 

"It is very exciting for our kids. Providing those opportunities for our kids to do real world things is exciting. For the kids to be able to get out and say they were part of that and built that is special," Simpson said.