An education-based race series is being planned for next year as part of a bid by SCU Motorsport to offer students a new course to prepare them for working as engineers and mechanics within motorsport.
SCU was founded by Alan O’Neill – who previously taught a motorsport college course – and it intends to develop a new qualification that will use augmented and virtual reality to help students learn key skills before they put them into practice in the race series. A grant from the Ufi VocTech Trust, which funds new vocational learning projects, has been secured to help create the 3D learning environment.
It is planned that the race series will feature a bespoke single-seater developed specifically for the championship and the cars will all be run by students from universities and colleges. The series will run with the 750 Motor Club. Both internal combustion and electric methods of propulsion are being explored.
“The inspiration is we wanted to make sure motorsport continues to grow and that we’re able to support students getting the right qualifications to increase their chances of securing a job in the motorsport sector,” explained O’Neill. “We’ve talked to a lot of industry experts – race engineers, mechanics, team owners, manufacturers and suppliers – to get an understanding of what they need. The key thing is they need the skills but students need to practice those skills.”
Stephen Lickorish – Autosport Magazine
