Lady Engineer Joins WoO series, Erin Crocker

[rebelracewriter]

Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations, (817) 215-8520

CONTACT: Sarona Winfrey * Gary Guehler

 

-- For Immediate Release

 

ENGINEERING DEGREE, SPRINT CAR RACING CROSS PATHS FOR ERIN CROCKER

 

FORT WORTH-DALLAS (March 19, 2004) – Erin Crocker isn’t different than any recent college graduate. She has her degree in Industrial and Management Engineering and is seeking a career choice. And to her delight Crocker has found her dream job – as a dirt track sprint car driver.

 

Crocker and the country’s best sprint car drivers will invade the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track Saturday night, April 3 for the NGK Spark Plugs Shootout, the season’s only World of Outlaws Sprint Series program at the Dirt Track. The event is part of RPM Week – Texas at the speedway that includes a full week of racing during the Samsung/RadioShack 500 festivities.

 

Crocker is embarking on her first full season of competition with the World of Outlaws national touring series and is one of four talented candidates shooting for the series’ Kevin Gobrecht Rookie-of-the-Year Award. Her education and ability to drive the 700-horsepower sprint cars point to a bright future.

 

“I think the degree helps my racing,” said New York-native Crocker. “I took a bunch of physics and engineering classes and maybe I don’t remember the exact formula that I learned in the class, but it taught me the basics of how things work. If you put weight here, how does it affect the car there?

 

“On the media and management side of racing, like sending out proposals, I had to write so many reports in school that I learned they had to be proper and perfect, you couldn’t have anything misspelled. It helps me doing interviews. Education teaches you professionalism.”

 

Crocker’s J&J sprint car is owned by fellow New Yorker Mike Woodring and carries sponsorship by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where Crocker earned her degree. She will be shooting for the $10,000 winner’s prize along with 18-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser, 2001 series champion Danny Lasoski, Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz, Craig Dollansky and other sprint car stars.

 

Tickets to the April 3 NGK Spark Plugs Shootout are on sale daily at the speedway, by calling (817) 215-8500, online at www.texasmotorspeedway.com and at Ticketmaster locations.