VIPER drive-train lab at VIR attracts business, students

Volkswagen officials, Gov. Kaine visit count for showcase weekend at track

 

VIR VISITOR - (Pictured below) Aneesh P. Chopra, the Virginia Secretary of Technology,

was on hand Friday as ODU and VIPER celebrated the opening of a new

motorsports engineering lab at Virginia International Raceway in Alton.

(TWM Jr. photo)

 

 

 

By Tucker McLaughlin, Jr.

News & Record staff

ALTON - Virginia International Raceway features a jewel of a road racing facility, and the complex may soon become an even more significant major economic player to bolster Southside Virginia's struggling economy.

The considerable potential of the high-tech Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research (VIPER) was on display Friday as national, state and local officials gathered at VIR for the opening of an Old Dominion University engineering laboratory "that will be used to educate a Southside workforce and support economic development goals for the region and state," according to a press release from ODU. The latest ribbon cutting ceremony at VIR officially opened a new engine and drive-train lab. The lab, located in the raceway's paddock

area, will be used commercially during weekend race events to evaluate horsepower output and other capabilities of a car's drive train and chassis, according to the release. During the week, the facility will be used by students seeking advanced degrees in motorsports engineering and by researchers investigating the potential of alternative fuels.

There is considerable investment from the Virginia Tobacco Commission at VIR, with the hope that these funds will bring a major economic boost to the region's economy. There are some intriguing new developments here, with the most significant coming with a new partnership between VIR and Volkswagen of America. Volkswagen officials announced that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine would be in attendance yesterday for their new Jetta TDI Cup race at VIR.

Volkswagen is now the official vehicle of VIR, and the manufacturer has decided to use the road course facility as the home base for its EastCoast wing of the new race series, which is sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing.

The Jetta TDI Cup race series is partly designed to educate American consumers about the advantages of biodiesel. The new Volkswagen race series showcases rising racing talent racing in clean-diesel vehicles. Clark Campbell, motorsports manager for Volkswagen of America, said Friday the company has new corporate headquarters on the East Coast in Herndon, Va. "VIR's a great facility, beautiful track. We were so impressed. We came

here for a tire test, actually. We talked to the general manager of the track and we were able to work out a promotional deal, with being the official car of the track. "And we think the proximity to our new head office, being able to bring our employees, who aren't really familiar with motorsports, bring them out (to VIR), put them in our cars, put them on the track ... I think the showcase of our performance and our technology, it's a great venue

for us," said Campbell, who said the track had other benefits for the company as well. And there may be a significant additional boost coming from Volkswagen's interest in VIR. Some 200 company executives were on hand

for the inaugural VW Jetta TDI series event, and Kaine's appearance here also underscores the potential of this partnership between VIR and the company.

In a release, Gov. Kaine said, "Volkswagen's unique racing platform offers an innovative new dimension to Virginia's racing tradition and we're excited to host the first Jetta TDI Cup race at VIR." Volkswagen was not the only significant corporate visitor attending Friday's ribbon cutting ceremony. Officials from the Danville-based

Institute for Advanced Learning and Research are working with VIR and their academic partners to sell the high-tech advantages here, along with the region's opportunities for year-round testing, in an effort to expand the customer base. Academic opportunities are here for students seeking to enter the high-tech world of motorsports.

Steve Southward, VIPER's technical director, said Friday that the program has already produced four graduate students who have found jobs in the motorsports industry. "We've got one who's still working on a PhD, and I've got one new student who started last year working in the area, and I've got three or four more coming." Southward elaborated, "That's just my student population. There are two other faculty members and they each have students as well." Southward was pressed to answer how many jobs the new VIPER initiatives at VIR will create. He noted, "That's a hard question to answer. There are two different kinds of jobs that are going to be created.

"There are direct jobs to support the VIPER activities, and those are going to be probably in the order of six to ten jobs altogether. "But the big numbers are going to come when we bring in additional companies. We've already got some (customers). "The ones I have I'm not allowed to talk about publicly, until we get agreements finalized. But we've got some that have already moved to the area," Southward said. "I've got a company that builds specialty suspension components for motorcycles and other race vehicles," said Southward. The manufacturing company behind the Ariel Atom race car is already here, he noted. Explaining the benefits from the VIPER investment, Southward said the new suspension company will hire all local staff. "They're looking at starting off with a staff of about six and building up from there," said Southward. "The other company that's coming is looking to set up a larger research facility for their organization, and that will bring in a larger number of jobs," Southward.

Southward said the most significant progress here "was not so much in bringing the jobs in, but establishing VIPER as a recognized entity that the motorsports community can look at and say, yes, we're real, we

can do the job that we're claiming we can do. "That's important in the motorsports world. You have to build

credibility. And so our first year has been building credibility. It's really starting to pay off now," Southward asserted.

U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, one of the featured speakers here, said, "What's going on here at VIR has tremendous potential." He noted the 8-post rig, officially opened last year, recently helped a race machine get in the winner's circle. "That's going to bring more (customers) and VIR itself right now has 350 employees (including part time) and that's a lot of people," said Goode. "It (VIR) has brought some jobs." Furthermore, Goode noted the advantages of military testing contracts and related applications going on at VIR. "A lot of jobs have already been advanced here and I think you'll see a lot more in the future," said Goode. Aneesh P. Chopra, Virginia Secretary of Technology under Gov. Kaine, assessed VIPER's impact. "There's a direct impact, which is how many jobs will immediately show up regarding the use of the facility, and how many people will be employed doing research. "And that may be modest," said the administration official. "What is unknown is the spillover, entrepreneurial outgrowth of the

activity. So someone here may come up with an idea that is worth tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. "So the theory is the research facility has a higher probability of coming up with those kinds of ideas and a higher probability that they'll involve the region's economy," said the Secretary. The researchers here hope to use this lab and its customers to also support the testing and evaluation of alternative fuels, specifically, algae-based biodiesel being produced by ODU and its Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium. "The new lab's instrumentation and testing capabilities will be used to validate the performance of the fuel and to develop engine technologies.

This could lead to producing highly efficient engines that run on this alternative fuel. Having already tested it in remote-control cars, the research team is on schedule to test their product by running a full-sized automobile on their biodiesel before the end of the year," according to the release. The new idea for this region is to bring corporations into university environments for research purposes, and establishing the link with the motorsports scene here.

"You hope that someone here will figure out what that hybrid engine looks like in the future, and if they're successful, that would be revolutionary to the region," said the Kaine administration official. "Someone here figured out textile manufacturing and furniture manufacturing, and it became a massive industry (in this region). "So you find that market niche, and my hypothesis is this facility has a higher probability of finding the energy efficient engine than

anywhere else in the Commonwealth, for sure, and probably in the southern region and maybe even as an asset for the country," said the Kaine official. Halifax County administrator Bryan Foster said the new lab opening "is

another piece, another dimension of combining motorsports technology and ... creating a lot of synergy between different constituent groups. The benefit here is the ability of the VIR-VIPER partnership to "add

more usage, attract more people to this facility and bring about further interested parties that can benefit from the testing facility," Foster noted. Foster said the advantage here "is being able to go right from the lab

right onto the track and see the immediate benefits." Foster said, "there's no question that this facility, both the track,

VIPER and all the other (assets), now the Ariel Atom, everything else out here, is an asset to the county."

The facility here includes 3,400 square feet of classroom and office space. The VIPER asset "will provide a rare educational opportunity for engineering motorsports students who have progressed from coursework at

community colleges to the New College Institute in Martinsville, or who have studied at other state or regional institutions of higher education," the release stated. A brief parade of academic representatives from ODU and others, including former state Sen. Charles Hawkins, who currently heads the Tobacco Commission, were on hand to praise the new lab opening and its potential for Southside Virginia.