[Racer Duck]

By Tim Harms
IndyCar.com

Since the first Indianapolis 500 was contested in 1911, Indy-style race cars have had almost 100 years to evolve into their present form. The students at College for Creative Studies have just one semester to design the next evolution.

On Jan. 17, a handful of Indy Racing League executives traveled to Detroit to introduce the project to the senior-level students. One week later, 35 students and several faculty members took a bus to Indianapolis to see firsthand what Indy-style racing is all about.

"They're definitely excited," said Mark West, the interim chairman of the college's Transportation Design department. "On the way down here from Detroit, we watched at least the 1960's, '70s and '80s the history of Indy. The amount of knowledge that people are developing about the series, about different monumental events that seemed to change fan perception about racing, they're starting to understand now."

The day in Indianapolis included a behind-the-scenes tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including the Hall of Fame Museum where the students saw for themselves how race cars have progressed through the decades. Following lunch with IndyCar Series driver P.J. Chesson, the group toured the spacious headquarters of Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

"In my mind, racing is always about speed, the excitement of fans and the drivers," student Yutian Li said. "I really think this will be an exciting project. As I'm here, I've seen the passion of the people who work in racing. I'm really moved by their passion."

Senior Tim O' Donnell, like most of the students, was at the speedway for the first time.

"I'm from the Southeast, from Florida, and being that far away from Indianapolis up until this point, I've never really knew many people who had gone or something like that," O'Donnell said. "Just coming here and realizing how many people actually fill those stands, this is a race that affects a lot of people. It's a big deal. These cars are really important to a lot of people. It makes me approach this project with a lot of care and a lot of admiration. I really hope we do a great job for everybody."

As the students returned to campus, they have a little more than three months to complete their project.

"We're going to go back and they'll digest all of the information from this tour," West said. "They're going to start generating concepts for what the series might need, how might the cars be different from a large oval to a street circuit or a road circuit, but specifically what does the car look like. That's what we want to get to by the end of the project."