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RACING FOR<br />
THE FUTURE<br />
Toledo’s Junior Achievement Grand Prix makes winners<br />
Our Fans<br />
The crowd roars as squealing<br />
tires and burning<br />
rubber signal the first<br />
turn of the Grand Prix.<br />
Driver John Zimmerman’s concentration<br />
is <strong>com</strong>plete as he jockeys for a winning<br />
position. He’s got only 5.5 horsepower<br />
under the hood, his top speed is<br />
about 33 mph and he’s prohibited from<br />
changing the gear ratio or otherwise<br />
tweaking his machine. But everyone<br />
else is driving under the same rules, and<br />
Zimmerman knows that regardless of<br />
who wins the race, he and his team have<br />
already helped make winners of a generation<br />
of future business leaders.<br />
Zimmerman, a <strong>UAW</strong> Local 12 member<br />
and repairman and team leader at<br />
<strong>Chrysler</strong> Group’s Toledo Jeep Assembly<br />
Complex, is participating in the Junior<br />
Achievement Grand Prix, the<br />
go-kart race now in its seventh season.<br />
The fund-raising event is staged by Junior<br />
Achievement of Northwestern<br />
Ohio and has been supported by the<br />
<strong>UAW</strong>-Daimler<strong>Chrysler</strong> National Training<br />
Center as title sponsor.<br />
Junior Achievement uses proceeds<br />
from the race to provide hands-on experiences,<br />
both in and out of the classroom,<br />
that help young people understand and<br />
value free enterprise. This year alone, the<br />
Grand Prix will enable Junior Achievement<br />
to reach 22,000 northwestern<br />
Ohio students in all grades.<br />
<strong>Chrysler</strong> Group’s Toledo Machining<br />
Plant and Toledo Jeep Assembly<br />
each enter two karts in the championship,<br />
which includes two practice<br />
races in June and July and culminates<br />
in a Saturday Race Day in August at<br />
Owens Corning World Headquarters<br />
in downtown Toledo.<br />
“It takes more time than most people<br />
realize, but it’s for a good cause,<br />
and it’s meant to be a fun activity that<br />
keeps everybody <strong>com</strong>petitive,” says<br />
Mike Robinson, a <strong>UAW</strong> Local 1435<br />
member and quality engineer who is<br />
crew chief for one of the Toledo Machining<br />
karts and a member of the<br />
Grand Prix race <strong>com</strong>mittee. “The first<br />
The Junior Achievement Grand Prix<br />
offers cause for celebration.<br />
time I drove one,” he adds, “I was<br />
amazed at the workout these little<br />
karts can give a person.”<br />
“They don’t look like they’ll go that<br />
fast,” agrees Zimmerman, who drives<br />
for one of the Jeep Assembly teams.<br />
“But when you’re three inches off the<br />
ground, it feels like 70 or 80 miles an<br />
hour, and when you’re out there with<br />
the rest of the teams, believe me, it’s<br />
fast.” ■ — Molly Rose Teuke<br />
TOMORROW SPECIAL RACING <strong>2006</strong> 11
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