Student-built race cars take the track at Lime Rock

LIME ROCK, Conn. — The Winners Circle, a youth development program centered around auto racing, returned to Lime Rock Park this weekend.

Since 2019, the nonprofit program has given students the opportunity to get hands-on experience by building a race car from the ground up. The materials are sponsored by The Dyson Foundation, the automobile parts company Factory Five Racing, and individual donations. Pine Plains Racing, a team composed of Stissing Mountain High School students, participated for the first time this year.

Over the course of the school year, students build their car from parts supplied by Factory Five. They’re given assembly kits for one of a number of different roadster models. Pine Plains Racing built a Shelby Cobra.

On Saturday, cars from seven area schools were put to the test by professional drivers from the Dyson racing team. Pine Plains was joined by student crews from Owego, Arlington, John Jay, Ketcham, Dover and Roosevelt. All in all, nearly 250 students participated in the program. The cars are all street-legal, and are sold at auction. Pine Plains had already found a buyer before their car hit the track at Lime Rock.

“It takes a team to get a winning car to the track,” Mark Dougherty said. He’s the Build Director for the Winners Circle and travels to the participating schools to oversee and advise students on the project. “They’re trying to build a car, but we’re trying to build people.”

Students emerge from their custom-built racecars after taking a lap around a testing track at Lime Rock Park in Lime Rock, Conn., on Tuesday, May 19.Madi Long

At the project’s outset, the high schoolers join either the build or marketing team. They’re responsible for the car’s construction and telling its visual story, respectively. That wide array of interests is essential to the program’s mission, said Winners Circle Program Director Matteo Lundgren. “There’s real collaboration, and that’s like the real world. I love empowering young minds to think for themselves,” said Lundgren. “So when my buddy Pius had an idea to bring the trades into high schools, in a way that wasn’t isolated just for gear heads, that was pretty cool.”

Pius Kayirra is the Executive Director of Winners Circle. “The program has morphed into so much more than we could have imagined,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned is that if you give kids opportunities, they will never let you down. That’s really what WCP is about — coming together and realizing we are a team with a unified goal. ”

Two students from Pine Plains, Jackson St. Bernard and Luke Blackburn, offered proof of Kayirra’s belief. “It’s a lot of problem solving and a lot of new skills,” said Blackburn. “I’ve never worked on a car with this kind of power.”

“I already had something of a background working with my dad in the garage,” added St. Bernard, “but I learned a lot about fabricating things. We made a couple of brackets for the overflow tubes in the car.”

For a full breakdown of the program and photos of the cars, visit winners-circle.org.

The car built by Pine Plains students sits and cools down after a hot afternoon of track testing on Tuesday, May 19, at Lime Rock Park in Lime Rock, Conn.Madi Long