Panther Racing to Partner with IUPUI on 2007 Indy Pro Series Effort

	Panther Racing and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will partner on a single-car, student-run race team during the 2007 Indy Pro Series season. A tentative design for the team’s car is shown.

INDIANAPOLIS – Panther Racing and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will partner on a single-car, student-run race team during the 2007 Indy Pro Series season, Panther officials announced July 2.

The IUPUI Indy Pro Series team will be comprised primarily of IUPUI student interns from various university programs including engineering and technology, business, and liberal arts. With direction from Panther officials in the areas of engineering and management, the team will compete in the full season schedule with a professional driver. Panther plans to announce its driver for the 2007 IPS season during the offseason.

“This is a first of a kind opportunity for university students interested in the motorsports industry,” said H. Oner Yurtseven, dean of the Purdue School of Engineering & Technology at IUPUI. “Not only will IUPUI’s engineering technology students have the opportunity to apply what they are learning in the Motorsports Technology Certificate program to a real life situation, they will also be involved in day-to-day planning and decision-making activities.”

Panther and IUPUI are in the process of securing sponsors and other funding for the project, officials said.

“We could not be more excited about our partnership with IUPUI for the 2007 Indy Pro Series season,” Panther co-owner John Barnes said. “This commitment, in addition to our announcement in May to open the Panther Education Center, is going to help young students get an up-close and real-life experience in motorsports. We have a mission at Panther to make a positive difference in people’s lives, and IUPUI is helping us do that.”

	Peter Hylton, (right) director of the motorsports program at IUPUI, joins representatives of Panther Racing at a July 2 press conference in Kansas City, Kan., to announce a Panther Racing/IUPUI race team project.

The announcement, made in Kansas City, Kan., prior to the Kansas Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway, marks Panther’s return to the Indy Pro Series, a series they dominated en route to the 2003 championship. That season, with Englishman Mark Taylor driving, the No. 4 team captured victory in seven of the 11 races in which they competed, won four poles and led 425 laps. Brent Harvey, who was Taylor’s race engineer during the championship season, will help oversee the IPS team’s engineering department. Harvey is currently a support engineer on Vitor Meira’s No. 4 Panther Honda.

The IPS race team will consist of internship positions for IUPUI students in the areas of engineering, technology, business, liberal arts, tourism, management and other areas of study at the university.

“This is going to be an amazing opportunity for IUPUI students to participate in one of the highest levels of motorsports,” Barnes said. “These students aren’t going to be standing around watching; they’re going to be the ones building the race cars. We feel like this is going to be unlike any other internship a college or university can offer. These students are going to be qualified to work in our profession the minute they graduate from IUPUI.”

Anticipated growth in Indiana’s motorsports industry prompted the establishment of IUPUI’s new Motorsports Technology Certificate program which has opened the doors for student internships.

“Motorsports is a sophisticated industry, generating billions of dollars in revenue,” said IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz. “It needs highly skilled and talented people from accountants to mechanics to marketing professionals. Internships provide students the opportunity to experience the industry and to apply their studies everyday.”

The partnership provides a wonderful opportunity for liberal arts students to benefit from the investment that the state of Indiana has made in motorsports, said Robert White, dean of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI.

“Our students, with expertise in areas that include writing, editing, and public speaking, the economics of sport, public history, and a host of other areas, will bring much to this relationship with Panther,” White said.

IUPUI is an urban research campus, with 22 schools and academic units which grant degrees in more than 200 programs from both Indiana University and Purdue University. The school was created in 1969 as a partnership between Indiana and Purdue universities, with IU as the managing partner. With more than 29,000 students, IUPUI is the second-largest campus in the Indiana University statewide system.

For additional information about the IUPUI Indy Pro Series team, visit http://www.engr.iupui.edu/racing/.