[nascar_freak]

To honor the legacy of former NASCAR racing champion Alan Kulwicki, his family is making a gift commitment of nearly $1.9 million to support engineering education at UNC Charlotte. A trust fund created by the late drivers mother since the age of 14, Thelma H. Kulwicki, will benefit the Motorsports Engineering Program in the William States Lee College of Engineerings Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Sciences. Considered the largest individual gift ever received by the engineering school, the funds will be used for student scholarships and to construct a new motorsports engineering facility on the UNC Charlotte campus. The Kulwicki family also is contributing nearly $630,000 to his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The gift also will be used for scholarships and to create the Alan Kulwicki Memorial Student Center in the universitys engineering building. In recognition of the Kulwicki familys generosity, the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees has approved naming the universitys existing motorsports research laboratory in honor of Kulwicki, who died in a plane crash several months [April 1, 1993] after he won the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup championship. The facility will be called the Alan D. Kulwicki Motorsports Laboratory. For her part, Thelma Kulwicki said she was struck by how much the students in the motorsports engineering program have in common with her son, who earned a mechanical engineering degree from UWM in 1977. Alan Kulwicki was the first college graduate to win stock car racings premier title, the Winston Cup Series championship. It is now called the Sprint Cup Series.(UNC Charlotte)(10-15-2009)