NORFOLK, Va. — Old Dominion University’s three-week winter break is a time for many students to travel, spend time with family, and recharge after finals. But for a group of dedicated gear heads, it’s a chance to get in about 100 hours covered in sweat and grease in their lab, a mini-garage in one of ODU’s engineering buildings.
There’s much to be done before ODU’s Monarch Racing club heads to competition in May. In their lab, two competition vehicles — a mini-Formula 1-style racer and a bulkier Baja for all-terrain racing — sit stripped down to their steel frames and bare parts. These vehicles represent the collective knowledge attained by students through years of trial and error.
The club, founded in the 1980s, is open to any experience level and major. It’s not a place for experts, it’s a place for students to fail over and over again until they become experts — or at least set themselves apart from their peers in the process.
