Tire marks paint the black concrete of a secluded parking lot on University of Northwestern Ohio’s campus in Lima. This semester, student Eric Kananowicz is adding to the canvas.
His tricked-out car spun across the pavement. Clouds of smoke and dust engulfed it as he did donuts around a pole. The car looked like it could spin out at any moment.
But that’s an illusion, said Kananowicz.
“It’s just controlled chaos. But there's a lot more to it than just laying your foot down and letting the car drive around,” Kananowicz said. “It does take a lot of inputs from your brakes, your handbrake, your clutch, your shifter, your steering wheel. It’s not just doing a big burnout, going sideways.”
These chaotic maneuvers are illegal on most public lots, but here at UNOH, it’s a part of the learning process. Kananowicz is studying high performance motorsports, like NASCAR or Formula One.
“My end goal is to be a Formula Drift driver and just be able to drive as a career. I just wanna be behind the wheel and have fun,” he said.
But his degree is about more than having fun. In Ohio, where some of the top auto manufacturers – Ford, Stellantis, Honda – have put down roots, automotive and manufacturing technicians are in high demand.
At the University of Northwestern Ohio, students are racing to get technical degrees and meet the need.
Majoring in motorsports
The Ohio private college has made motorsports its niche. Not only can you join Kananowicz’s drifting club, there’s also drag racing, autocross and off-roading groups. The university even owns a racetrack in town. Anyway you can race, the university has a club for it, said Dean Hobler, the provost of the university.
“We want to be not only the best, but the only one doing things like this,” he said.
The extracurricular offerings are an extension of what’s going on inside the classroom, where they’re teaching students how to build, repair and maintain cars, Hobler said. He pointed to Kananowicz, who, having finished his donuts, started working to repair his shifter.
“All of the things that go on in this car technically take place in the car that you drive down the street: the suspension, the tires, the brakes, all of the engine components,” Hobler said. “They're all connected. So he has a lifelong career.”
Teaching the trades
Since the 70s, the college has focused on the automotive and agribusiness industries. Around three-fourths of the university’s students are in the trades programs.
While many rural communities struggle to offer enough technical training to meet industry demand, Lima is the exception, according to Georgetown University researcher Zack Mabel.
“Unlike most other parts of the country, they actually are producing a very large share of certificates and associate's degrees in blue collar fields,” Mabel said. “They're a unicorn to some extent.”
The university has partnerships with Formula Drift and Daytona International Speedway and alumni in nearly every professional motorsport, but Hobler said they also work with the local community to see how they can meet Lima’s technical needs.
So, while many students, like Kananowicz, dream of making it big and burning rubber on the track, Hobler said they don’t have to be behind the wheel to leave their mark.
“We have students that walk out of here making $100,000 a year. And it's not always clean and it's not an office and it's not with a tie. But I think Ohio should appreciate what we're doing to keep technicians out in the workforce,” Hobler said.
