CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Things rev-up on Friday nights at the Wake County Speedway, and, among the professionals, high school students are learning the ins-and-outs of racing.
What You Need To Know
Chapel Hill High School students learn about the automotive and racing industries
Automotive teacher Robert Ballard and his program have received recognition on the local and national levels
Ballard has worked to bring more female students into the automotive and racing classes, seeing the female population in his classes growing by about 30% in the last year
Their teacher, Robert Ballard, is receiving recognition for his efforts to diversify his automotive classes at Chapel Hill High School and, ultimately, the automotive world.
His students don’t just learn in a classroom. They do the real learning, everything from math and physics to being a part of a team, by solving problems in the garage.
“If I don’t have a problem to figure out every day, I kind of get a little bit bored. So I like to fix things, figure out problems on a daily basis,” Ballard said.
Interest in automotive classes was a big problem he saw when he came on board at the school six years ago
“They were being pushed toward kind of a university four-year kind of pathway, but I wanted to make sure they understood that they had different pathways available to them,” he said.
Ballard said he grew the program from 35 students to 115, but there was still a problem. So few of the students were female, so he started female “lunch and learns.”
He said the female population has grown by about 30% during the past year.
“They stay on track usually a lot more. So, they usually bring a different element to the skilled trades,” Ballard said.
Senior Chloe Claypoole comes from East Chapel Hill High School specifically for the automotive program.
“I was very, very persistent about trying to get into this course. I was very eager to learn,” she said.
Claypoole is now one of a few dozen female students in the program.
“It is a little bit intimidating, but I think that it’s mostly inspiring that more and more women are slowly showing interest in these kinds of things,” Claypoole said.
As cars change, Ballard says so are the people who work on them.
“We’re starting to notice that females are actually starting to fit our parameters better on newer vehicles. Whereas males were fitting our parameters more on older vehicles with more of the mechanical side of things,” Ballard said.
The school’s racing program also takes them out of the classroom and garage and onto the racetrack.
“When I found out there was a racing program here, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is something that I definitely want to be a part of,’” Claypoole said.
Ballard hopes the students will be driven by the experience.
“I just want to give back to the students what I’ve been taught. So, a lot of these guys out here have been mentors to me. So, I want to be mentors for my students. So, I want to see them grow. I also want to see them learn all the different aspects of the racing community,” he said.
Claypoole said she loves being at the racetrack.
“This is definitely going to be a longtime hobby and something that excites me forever. I’ve grown up around it. I never stopped loving it. This is definitely something I would consider going into a career for,” she said.
Now, students like Claypoole are proof it’s not just gentlemen starting their engines and their automotive careers.
Chloe Claypoole checking tires at the racetrack. (Spectrum News 1)
“It’s actually exciting to me because I know that I’m trying to make a difference by being a part of the program and inspiring more women to feel more comfortable being a part of the program,” she said.
Students can continue learning about racing throughout the summer at the speedway.
The school just started a pre-apprenticeship program to jump-start students’ careers. Ballard said it can fast-track them by three or four years.
He said Chapel Hill High is the first school in the state to have that pre-apprenticeship program, and now that it’s up and running, he said it should be easier for other schools to start similar ones.
Ballard and his classes have received a number of recognitions. He was named the 2023 Teacher of the Year for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Chapel Hill High just received $10,000 from WIX Filters and Tomorrow’s Technician magazine for the first place “School of the Year.” Ballard said that’s for the whole nation among both colleges and high schools. He also won Tomorrow’s Technician’s 2023 “Instructor of the Year.”
Ballard said the school’s program has a number of sponsors and that they could not do what they do without the community partnerships.
Justin Quesinberry
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