I have a saying, "it takes dough to go in the world of racing." A local student knows that quite well in his quest to drive or work in the racing world.
"Growing up, my parents never were really into racing per se. My dad had a couple of cool cars, but for me, it was always going fast. A cool car is one thing, but to be able to put a driver in a car, and a car that's built to go fast around a track just riles me up," Kevin Tong says.
Tong is a Car Chief for Round 3 Racing. He's also a first year student at MSOE with big dreams.
"Probably racing in the 24 hours of Daytona at IMSA, or really just any IMSA race. One of the pro level cars. It would be sweet," Tong says.
At 24 years old, Tong still gets to live one dream out by racing and working on cars in state and beyond.
"It's not just Road America. In a couple of weeks, we're going to Daytona, we've been to VIR, all these great, great tracks and it's awesome. We literally get to travel the world, work on awesome cars and see these amazing tracks," Tong says.
And as an Asian American, the drive for diversity has never been stronger.
"With Round 3 Racing, we partner with Shift Up Now and they're trying to get women in motor-sports. So we're kind of the different team in the paddock, where a lot of our drivers are women, where mostly, or usually it's not the case. I do believe there's a spot for everyone," Tong says.
Tong says you hear stories about the state of racing on whether it is growing or fading. The important thing is to go and enjoy it, with friends and you'll be hooked.
