George Westinghouse Career & Technical Educational High School students were among other tri-state area students to go-kart race against Formula E’s Geox Dragon team last month. They travelled to the RPM Speedway in Jersey City, New Jersey, on July 11 for an opportunity to meet the drivers and see Formula E technology firsthand.
José María López and Max Gunther, the team’s drivers, later raced in the New York City ePrix, as part of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, on July 13 and 14.
“Having known these drivers for years, it’s a great break in their day – they go to work, like all of us, but their work is very unique and high-pressured. And the thought of being able to go with 30 kids and drive go-karts for an hour is a great part of their day and they’re excited about it,” said Gary Grose, Global Marketing, Communications, and Producer Management Leader at Argo Group and President at Colony Specialty, the day before the kid’s event.
Before the race, the kids asked the professional racers questions about their job and their cars.
“It’s really about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get up close to a Formula E driver, and [the students] can see how engineering, innovation and all the technology manifests itself into an automobile,” Grose said.
International specialty insurer Argo Group, who helped make the event possible and sponsors the Dragon Racing team, donated $15,000 to the G-House Pirates First Robotic Competition Team 354, a Farmingdale high school’s robotics team and a Queens step team. The money will help with the advancement of their school’s STEM education programs. These investments have brought Argo’s three-year student investment total to $35,000.
Updated: Aug. 5, 2019 / Top photo courtesy of Sarah Strickler
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George Fiala has worked in radio, newspapers and direct marketing his whole life, except for when he was a vendor at Shea Stadium, pizza and cheesesteak maker in Lancaster, PA, and an occasional comic book dealer. He studied English and drinking in college, international relations at the New School, and in his spare time plays drums and fixes pinball machines.
