Saints Row 2 Racing
Jaunita Rousu
St. Lawrence student-athletes and alumni represented Teams U.S.A., Canada, Denmark, and China as they competed for gold in women's ice hockey, skiing, and skeleton racing at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Meet Our Olympians.
Each sports team has a faculty or staff member who volunteers and serves the group as a mentor in an effort to promote the personal development of student-athletes, as well as form a bridge between their academic and athletic endeavors.
Saints Athletics is committed to contributing to the culture of inclusivity and antiracism within the University community. The lives and liberty of our BIPOC Saints depend on our ability to make meaningful and lasting changes today for a better tomorrow.
Connecting with classmates and faculty over a shared automotive passion, students apply the skills they learn in classrooms at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology and across the University to build a competition-ready race car from scratch.
"Being at the show this year was an amazing opportunity as we go to engage with people from the St. Louis community who were very interested in what we do while also getting the chance to talk about what Parks College has to offer," Bullard said.
Parks Racing members pose with their race car and include (from left) junior Jacob Bullard, sophomore Robbie Selby, junior Kyle Goldman, sophomore Elliot Platz, senior Drew Ottenlips, freshman Tanner Morford, graduate student Marc Mezzacappa and senior Will Florence. Photo by Amelia Flood
With about 15 core members and an added 10 who stop by Oliver Hall to contribute, Parks Racing also draws in faculty and staff members to help make their racing dreams a reality. Faculty members Mark McQuilling, Ph.D., Chi Hou Lei, Ph.D., Frank Coffey, Kyle Mitchell, Ph.D., and Ed Ising, have all guided team members as they've grappled with the car's onboard computer and other technical matters.
Students also utilize technology they learn in class to design the car and to work through the problems they encounter as it comes to life. Along the way, they acquire new skills to solve the challenges that come with creating a competition-ready racer from scratch.
For Goldman, an aerospace engineering major, the club has brought home how lessons he learns weekly about fluid and air flow as part of a class project designing wind tunnels can be applied to building a race car.
"It's a great opportunity to be able to learn something Friday and to apply it Saturday," Goldman explained. "Obviously building a car is complex, but the work that goes into designing and fabricating each individual system is incredible. Each decision that is made impacts all other parts of the car."
"When I came to SLU, I was semi-knowledge when it came to woodworking, but I had never really ventured very far into working with metal in any capacity," junior Jacob Bullard, a mechanical engineering major who serves as Parks Racing president, said.
"Now, after being on the team for a few years, I can confidently say I know how to weld and operate almost every machining tool that SLU has," Bullard said. "These are skills I can guarantee I would not have learned anywhere else. And this is something Parks Racing really prides itself on."
A future Billiken gets a feel for the wheel thanks in the Parks Racing Club's car at the 2020 St. Louis Auto Show at America Center in downtown St. Louis under the watchful eyes of team members including Marc Mezzacappa (far left) and Kyle Goldman (center). Photo by Amelia Flood
The club builds cars on a two-year cycle, beginning with sourcing raw materials at a local metal supply and investing in hundreds of dollars' worth of steel tubing. They then turn their eyes to design using 3D modeling software. From there, team members cut, bend and weld the tubing to create the chassis, the base for the future race car.
Over the course of the two-year cycle, Parks Racing members continually re-design, tweak and build until a car is ready to race at an annual competition that draws teams from around the world. Parks Racing will compete in Detroit during summer 2020, putting the pedal to the metal against 118 other collegiate race teams.
"I really enjoyed the environment and the group of people," Goldman, a member of Parks Racing for the past three years, said. "It's fun to show up each week and have fun building a race car. I felt cool being a freshman and having important jobs from the beginning."
"It is incredible to see how decisions at the very beginning impact every step of the design and building process," he continued. "It's also so amazing to see the car slowly take shape each week and how our time and effort is physically advancing us toward the goal of a finished car that will race."
"Parks Racing has influenced my growth as a person in that it has given me an outlet to explore what I am truly passionate about and expand my repertoire of skills," Bullard said. Through the club, he met a judge at a race and asked for his contact information. The ask led to an internship Bullard will undertake this summer at Hendrickson, an industry leader in semi-truck suspension.
"It has made me realize that I want to be a leader," Goldman explained. "The feeling I get from seeing a group of people collectively contribute to a larger project and have the product work as everyone expected is truly inspiring."
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The boundary was established as part of a sweeping 2019 gambling expansion law that empowered Hawthorne and Arlington International Racecourse in the Chicago metropolitan area and downstate Fairmount Park to build on-site casinos and divert a portion of the revenue for purses. It also allowed for a combination harness track/casino to be constructed in any of seven Cook County townships in southwest suburban Chicago.
Hawthorne has been promising regulators, legislators and our members for several years now that they are on the verge of a big announcement. In 2022 and 2023 at the race dates hearing, they told the racing board they would begin construction [at Hawthorne] by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, in spite of the disarray in the interior, racing has continued. This year the Hawthorne harness meeting that began last Sept. 9 ended on Feb. 12. The thoroughbred meeting got underway on March 23 and will continue through Oct. 13 after which the standardbreds are scheduled to return for an Oct. 19-Dec. 30 meeting. The bottom line for 2024 is a combined total of 49 programs for the harness horses and 62 for the thoroughbreds.
In 2019 Carey partnered with video gaming magnate Rick Heidner for a proposed new harness track/casino outside the 35-mile boundary and they were awarded a Dec. 6-29, 2020 meeting by the racing board.
However, a Tribune story alleged that a bank that had funded Heidner had organized crime connections and Gov. J.B. Prtizker reacted by refusing to sell the state land that was to be used for the track and the racing board revoked the dates. Heidner was subsequently exonerated by the gaming board but by then it was too late to restart the project.
When the expansion act was passed CDI did a sudden and stunning about face and announced it was selling the track property for development. The Chicago Bears bought the 326-acre site for $197.2 million in February 2023 with the stipulation that there would be no racing or casino gambling at the track, thereby wiping out two nearby competitors for betting at Rivers Casino.
Faced with a higher-than-expected property tax bill, the NFL team tore down the opulent track to reduce the assessed value of the property. The original plan to make a state-of-the-art football stadium the centerpiece of a development with housing and retail businesses is in limbo and the Bears now are focusing on trying to put their proposed stadium on Chicago lakefront property near their current home Soldier Field.
A new wing was taken from the in-build 11th F50 and distributed to New Zealand and Canada and another replacement wing has just been completed in New Zealand. The aim now is to ship that wing to Taranto to enable New Zealand to race in the ROCKWOOL Italy Sail Grand Prix on September 23-24.
It comes after New Zealand finished the first day of racing second in the rankings and level on points with leaders ROCKWOOL Denmark. SailGP offers no racing redress, which means the Kiwis will finish Saint-Tropez with their current score.
Please note:
Tickets are sent out as e-tickets, and will be emailed to you no later than two days before the fixture date.
You will need to show your e-ticket (either on your mobile device or printed out) at the gate to gain entry.
We have a variety of food outlets at each raceday to suit all tastes, including gluten free and vegan options.
There will also be a variety of additional pop-up bars available on the day.
Please note: On occasional busy evenings, Duke's bar and Panorama bar may be closed to the general public.
We recommend smart casual, however your comfort and happiness are our priority.
Football colours are not encouraged.
Please remember, racing is an outdoor sport, so always dress for the weather.
There is FREE parking in the main public car park for all meetings - entry via Gate 4.
There is also the Duke's car park for hospitality guests, annual members, owners, trainers and jockeys - entry via Gate 1.
Disabled parking bays are available for blue badge holders in Duke's car park.
On busier days/evenings, there is overflow parking at Hamilton College and Caird Street.