THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Two years ago, Rick Wagoner, then chairman of General Motors, was the keynote speaker at the school's annual dinner in Philadelphia. Mike Helton, NASCAR's president, has attended the annual dinner.
According to Anthony Martin, the school's founder and executive director, NASCAR has contributed about $250,000 over the past 7 or 8 years to the school.
Now, however, the school has no affiliation with NASCAR. What happened?
"NASCAR has decided to work with some other youth racing organizations," Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR's managing director of public affairs, said yesterday from the organization's headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla. "In this period of limited budgets, we're not able to continue working with the Urban Youth Racing School as we have in the past.
"The idea never was for NASCAR to support the school financially indefinitely. We're proud of our long affiliation with the school and the help NASCAR and the entire industry has provided [the school].
"We're looking at youth organizations in as many different areas as possible. We're encouraging as many different approaches as possible."
While the UYRS didn't expect a lifetime commitment from NASCAR, Martin is annoyed about NASCAR's withdrawal.
"The thing that angers me about this more than anything is we have introduced more African-American kids to NASCAR than anyone in the country," Martin said on Tuesday. "We've helped NASCAR build a fan base."
In these troubled economic times, Martin said that such sponsors as General Motors, Sears, Comcast and www.nascar.com (a Turner Sports production) continue to support the school, which is based on North Front Street and located on the Web at www.UYRS.com.
Martin said the school is working with Sprint on a fundraiser. He also said the school received a $65,000 grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation for use with the school's Washington, D.C., program. The Baltimore-based Casey Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantaged children and families. It was established by UPS founder Jim Casey and his siblings to honor their mother.
When people see "racing" in the school's name, many think the primary goal is to produce race-car drivers. Martin notes the school's mission is to improve students' educational levels, while introducing them to the motorsports industry.
"We teach the kids about the motorsports industry and try to get them involved in the industry through education," Martin said.
He noted that NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program focuses on developing race-car drivers.
"We've never had the budget to produce drivers," Martin said.
Developing racers is very expensive. Costs include cars, equipment and crew members.
Four UYRS students - Antonio Littles, Harry Bodek, Joshua Martinez and Sammy Yafie - interned with Richard Childress Racing during the NASCAR All-Star weekend in May at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
According to Michelle Kuilan, the school's director of operations, 95 percent of its students have graduated from high school and 80 percent have gone on to do college-level work.
The school's educational program has impressed Jamie Bracey, who is completing her doctorate in Temple's psychological studies in education department. She also has served on Gov. Rendell's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) focus group.
"[The UYRS] is a gold mine for education because [it] has the hook [racing]," Bracey said. "The racing school is an educational model that contributes to a really cool high-level sport.
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