DAYTONA BEACH, Fl — Wednesday, August 18, 2010) - Allan Braatz and Andrew Simon have done a lot together. Both are recent graduates at Sun Prairie (WI) High School. Both have participated in the ASA - Student Educational Series at Madison International Speedway, an ASA Member Track in Oregon, WI. Each received a $10,000 scholarship to Ohio Technical College in Cleveland, OH where they will start classes on October 4th.
Yes, they will also be rooming together as well. But, each has chosen their own career path.
Braatz has always been a race fan and for him, the ASA - Student Educational Series gave him the opportunity to realize part of his dream. It was a dream that his whole family shares with him.
"My parents have always known that I like racing. So they knew I was interested in the High Performance and Racing Technology program at Ohio Technical College," Braatz said. "My mom is just so excited about how far I have come since I was born until now."
The scholarship he received on August 6th, got him closer to living a dream. "It was pretty cool. It felt I kind of won the lottery, but for school and everything," Braatz exclaimed. "It's an awesome school and I would not want to go to any other school besides Ohio Technical College."
He spent the summer working with Josh Kreyer's Legend car team at Madison. "I learned that you have to be organized to win," Braatz explained. "I got an opportunity to work on a lot of cars because I also helped on his drag cars that he built as well."
Braatz will start classes on October 4th and he has a major goal, "I want to build race cars. My goal is that I want to win the Rolex 24 Hours race. I want to do it with a car that I built."
Simon was also surprised by the scholarship amount that he received, "It was amazing, I couldn't have expected anything less. It was so exciting, so surprised, it's awesome," Simon said as he was looking for the right words to express his feelings.
He knew he was going to receive a scholarship but wasn't sure on how much. That was until he realized the order of how the scholarships were being presented, "At first I didn't even realize it and I thought I was getting the minimum amount," Simon recalled. "Then I realized they were going in the order of the amounts and I just went crazy inside, I couldn't believe it."
Simon worked on Cory Skolaski's Bandit team at Madison throughout the summer. He will also be starting classes on October 4th majoring in Auto-Diesel Technology.
Simon felt the program was very beneficial to him. "I learned about what has to be done to get the car on the track, just to get it done and get it out there to race," Simon said. "Absolutely, worth every second of my time."
"I had the great pleasure of visiting with Allan and Andrew, along with their parents, during my recent visit to Madison International Speedway," Larry Pond, ASA - Student Educational Series National Director said. "These are great young men with very ambitious goals in each of their lives. We are excited that they participated in our ASA - Student Educational Series and were successful in it. We wish them the best."
"The stories like this is the main reason why we partnered with Ohio Technical College to do this program," Dennis Huth, ASA President said. "These students were able to get a unique hands on experience thanks to our ASA Member Tracks and teams. They are now benefiting from it. We wish Allan and Andrew, along with the rest of the graduates, nothing but success."
The ASA - Student Educational Series is co-sponsored by ASA-Racing and Ohio Technical College, the 2009 #1 rated technical college in the US. For more information on the program, go to www.asa-racing.com and click on the ASA Educational Series link on the right side of the ASA Racing home page.
Students interested in being a part of this program should contact Larry Pond, National Director, at lpond@asaeducationalseries.com or (480) 861-8108 or Randy Dziadowicz, OTC National Coordinator at (414) 339-9586 or rdziadowicz1@wi.rr.com.
For more information about Ohio Technical College, please visit www.ohiotechnicalcollege.com.
ASA®, ASA Racing®, American Speed Association® are registered trademarks of Racing Speed Associates, LLC. ASA International, LLC or Racing Speed Associates, LLC are not related to or affiliated with ASA Late Model Series.
