Hello friends, family, and newcomers!

I'm Vico Prelogar—a Junior in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. I've spent the last eight years dedicating my free time to anything karting related, predominantly through my longstanding association with the VKA (Vintage Karting Association) since the age of 12. I'm also the current driver for the only graduate-student Purdue Grand Prix team, Herrick Labs.

What is Grand Prix?

Although Purdue University is considered one of the top engineering schools in the United States, it is also the only university in the USA to have a go kart racing track on campus, and to host its own annual Grand Prix for teams across the university (regardless of individual team members' educational discipline).

The Grand Prix is in its 69th year. Attended by over 4,000 spectators, it's considered to be one of the school's highlights. Roughly 75 teams this past year spent months preparing their karts at a chance to be a part of "the Greatest Spectacle in College Racing." The real value of the Grand Prix lies in the opportunity for students to experience hands-on, cross discipline learning through designing, building, fabricating, testing, and racing a go kart. Inherently, this experience teaches technical skills, problem solving, budgeting, project management, and working with a team to make the most of one's individual strengths.

Last year, the team made strides in taking the existing kart (A heavily used Merlin go kart from 2009 that had been used in at least six prior Grand Prixs) and collectively, we were able to shave nearly 4/10ths of a second off the best lap time from prior years with the previous driver.

In the end, though, like all things motorsport, creativity, knowledge, and discipline can take you only so far.

Because our team is much newer, having only participated in 3 prior seasons, it had to start "from the ground up"; courting its first sponsors and building a kart from an old and worn-out chassis; it had to be "scrappy". Thankfully, we not only qualified, but we had a race pace consistent with an easy top 10 finish. Not bad for our comparatively small $4500 budget! 

Many of the Purdue Grand Prix teams are long-established and have a deep base of recurrent sponsors. Student housing, school clubs, fraternities, and sororities are almost always very well supported financially. Many teams, in fact, operate with budgets above $25,000. That's why our team is looking for your support.

This year, we have our hearts set on something much bigger.

Our team is working on a new design that is quite advanced, with early test results have proving to be very promising. Already, our fastest lap times (on a private track where we capture data out-of-view of other teams) are 5% faster than our fastest laps from last year's setup. Our hope is that this improvement, in addition to your support through this GoFundMe, should allow us to sit on pole position come race day. 

Let's get to know the team in their own words:

Ramin: Crew Member 

"Retired from 30+ years in area of Environmental, Health, Safety in the petrochemical manufacturing industry. Pursuing PhD in Civil Engineering--wanting to teach and do research whenever I grow up (if ever). Electrocuted myself when I was 4, dismantled and successfully reassembled first engine at 10, and drag raced at 16 for 25 years. Always liked anything with engines. Saw GP when I moved to W.L. in 1998… wished I had gone to Purdue as undergrad. Started Grad Student GP team with 3 others in 2023 when realized grad students are people too. Love to wrench."

Veronica: Crew Chief 

"Senior in Multidisciplinary Engineering - Engineering Management--spent 3 years with the Society of Women Engineers where I first got the racing itch, did one summer of 24 Hours of Lemons, currently working at Fox Valley Kart Shop. I joined this team because I wanted to be part of something new and innovative while improving my technical and project management skills."

Aaron: Crew Member 

"Currently a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering studying heat pumps and thermal systems. Started Grand Prix two years ago with the Herrick Laboratories team and have enjoyed learning more about working on the karts, the race, and hanging out with teammates. In my free time, I like to watch basketball, learn various foreign languages, play piano, and cook food from various cultures around the world."

Joe: Crew Member

"I don’t have any experience in Grand Prix but as a mechanical design engineer, I’ve always enjoyed working on cars and expanding my knowledge as well as my practical skills in the world of engineering. So I saw this as a great opportunity to learn more about something that I’m passionate about. What really made me join this team as a new member, is everyone’s intense passion and dedication to the team and the team’s success. "

The team has developed a budget to help us complete the work we did over the summer with the assistance of a former Purdue Grand Prix champion to design and engineer a kart that we believe will enable us to win. We strongly believe that raising a total of $15,000 is sufficient for our needs. We have obtained EAR Micro, LLC, and also an incredible commitment from the School of Mechanical Engineering as our primary sponsors. If you have interest in having you or your business on our kart, please don't hesitate to reach out to us!

Our team sincerely appreciates your time spent reading our story and your potential donation to help us achieve our goal of winning the 69th Annual Grand Prix. Thank you!