I got a lot of positive response from Troy’s blog so hopefully you can expect more blogs from him and maybe from some of the other guys on my team. I don’t like to bug them too much about it because they already have enough stuff to do as you could tell after reading his blog. The one thing that is really evident, is that most of the time, the whole team loves what they do. I’m a big advocate of people making a living doing what they love.

I try to do what I can to encourage students to follow their passions and choose a career that is meaningful to them. I think there are lot of avenues in racing to do that. Wednesday I went to a career fair in Royal Oak which is a town just north of Detroit. John Williams of Ed-connect.com organized the event for The Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools. He invited me to attend. I was more than willing because I remember what it was like being in high school and wondering what careers were out there. I also remember having a job after college that I dreaded going to everyday. I think it’s important for students to have career goals because then they are more likely to end up doing something they like. However, it’s difficult to do that unless they know what kind of careers are available to them. There are so many careers and varieties of jobs out there, but students don’t know about them.

I set up a booth where I tried to convey to students all the different career opportunities that exist within racing. There were about 700 high school kids who attended. I explained to the students that we need smart, educated people in our sport. If they want to be involved in racing, they could be a clutch specialist, an engineer, a graphic designers, a marketer, a photographer, and the list goes on. As always, I also encouraged the students to make sure they choose a career that is meaningful to them so they make a living doing something that they love.

I tried to convey the same message on Friday at the Detroit Autorama. I spoke to a couple thousand high school students from Detroit area schools. They came to Cobo Arena for education day at the annual Autorama. Custom Hot Rod Builder, Chip Foose, Pro Stock Motorcycle driver, Steve Johnson, Team Jegs Chef, Nicky Morse, and other racers also spoke to the students. We all encouraged the students to seek careers in something they are passionate about.

Then all the students got to walk around and see the show before it was opened to the public. I went to the show with the Kalitta Motorsports marketing team of Ben Marshall and Rachel Brunner. We saw a lot of cool hot rods there. Some people spend serious amounts of money fixing up these cars. I’m sure there’s some a lot of opportunity for students who want to pursue careers in customizing hot rods.

I’m glad I got to attend the Autorama. It’s only about a 45-minute drive from our shop in Ypsilanti. My condo is only about 10 minutes from our shop and that’s where I’m going right now. The sun is going down now, but next week when we all go home at the end of the day, hopefully the sun will still be out since the time is changing this weekend. I’m really happy that daylight savings is earlier this year. I like it being light out in the evening. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Have a good weekend.