Purdue Grand Prix: Innovating Success

On April 13 2019, the Purdue NSBE Chapter made an impact during the 62nd running of the Purdue Grand Prix. While it is only the chapters' second year racing after reviving the team, it was the first time in a little over a decade that NSBE has been able to finish the 160 lap (50 mile) race. Only 17 teams were able to finish the race this year out of the 50 teams that registered. I feel honored alongside Morgan Eberhardt to have helped lead this team to a 11th place qualification, 16th place finish, and receive multiple other awards during this year!

As a team, each member had an important role to play. We all learned from our experiences and we are a stronger team because of it. For me, the lessons learned have helped me grow as a leader. These are the steps I took to help lead a team that finished, placed, and received awards during this past year.

Step 1: Put Your Best Foot Forward Knowing Failure is not Fatal

We must embrace failure, soak it in, let it fill your whole body, ponder upon it, let it motivate you, and ponder upon it again. Let it wake you up in the middle of the night. Let it be the topic of every conversation. Let it do everything but hinder your purpose and drive for success.

The year prior to our successful race, Nadeem Ali had restarted the team. He led me as the driver and the rest of the team through a year full of adversity and triumph. We started the season with very little in terms of resources:

This was an older chassis from the mid 2000's that had

• Been stripped of its engine
• A rusted back axle and brake disk
• Problematic steering system

Unlike some other teams, we didn't have the budget to buy a brand new kart. We had to learn to be resourceful. Fortunately enough, the team was able to work with a local alumni, Doug Wright. He had won the race in '85 and allowed us to use his work space. The months leading up to the race were spent sanding off the rust of old parts, transferring over pieces from our older race kart, and scrambling through our containers to find the right pieces to rebuild whole components. After many late nights and headaches, we had a moment of bliss when we started our engine for the first time.

Approaching the race, we faced even more adversity. The team barely passed technical inspections and was unable to put a fast time down to qualify for the main race. Fortunately, we were placed in a smaller sprint race. These smaller races allow teams that don't have a fast enough track time during the qualifying session to fight for the remaining spots in the long 160 lap race.

The start of race day was spent with last minute fixes of our kart rather than out at practice. It was only inevitable that mid-race maintenance would occur. It only took one lap for us to realize our mistakes. Shortly after the flag to start the race was waved, I heard the kart slowly lose power. I knew immediately the clutch had failed and was irreparable for the rest of the race. Just like over the past 10 years, our whole season had diminished to failure and this time within the first 15 seconds of the race. In that moment we could either sulk and turn our backs on our progress or we could reflect from this failure and have it inspire us to do better. We chose the latter and that season became the first step to innovating our success.

Step 2: Reflect on Your Team's Performance, Climate, and Brand

Reflection is one of the most powerful tools used in survival. We all reflect on different decisions we have made whether they be large or small. The most important part is that when we reflect on decisions, we learn from them and push ourselves to make more efficient and effective decisions.

The week after the race, we had a meeting to reflect on the season and talk about what went wrong during the race and how we could improve as a team. Of course the obvious question was "how do we fix what went wrong?". In order to answer this, here are certain questions I needed to answer before the "obvious" question could be meaningfully answered:

• Who are we trying to be?
• What did we do well?
• What are we really trying to accomplish?
• How can the team be more effective?
• What do we need to do in order to get there?

The team was trying to be a respectable force that challenged, developed, and inspired black engineers towards technical engineering competitions. We had learned to be resourceful by operating under a "shoe string" budget and making use of outdated parts. As a team, we decided to break up our goals into something more obtainable and decided to manufacture a reliable kart that could qualify and finish the next race. To be a more effective team, we ultimately needed to reinvent ourselves. As I continued to ponder these questions, I saw an opportunity for me to make an impact by leading the change I envisioned. The following year, I ran for the position of crew chief and began leading the team that following summer.

Step 3: Reinvent your Team Culture, Brand, and Product

A driven and respectful team culture is essential for outstanding results. Promote a culture that will set the level of excellence that is expected from both teammates and leaders. From this culture, foster a brand that your team can identify under. Finally, let that brand define the level of products your team manufactures.

As a new leader, I challenged my team to see Grand Prix as more than just a race. Our team needed a sense of ownership, a brand, and a story to rally behind. The race itself needed to have a team culture behind it. I pursued a leadership style that aimed to accomplish the following:

• Never settle for mediocrity
• Be driven and responsible
• Take pride in NSBE and let your work inspire others
• Understand and value each others diverse strengths
• Open communication about each teammate’s challenges and a commitment to providing support

When creating the team brand, I approached the team as being a startup company. I first started off the year with a vision: "to challenge, develop, and inspire black engineers in the automotive field." With our purpose clear and our team aligned, we began to execute our mission and build our brand by:

• Creating pitch decks and independently securing $9500 in promised assets and resources
• Traveling to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to inspire youth to explore engineering through NSBE and our Grand Prix team at the “end of season ceremony" for NXG Youth Motorsports
• Competing in the "Whiteland Fall Collegiate Race Series" and receiving a 3rd place finish
• Engaging alumni and corporate sponsors with a Team Design Overview

As we began to affirmatively build our brand, the resources followed and the money came. Our team became unified in purpose, with each team member taking individual ownership in carrying out our vision, mission and values--- and our ultimate success.

The team then preceded to develop its product. The value of networking cannot be understated. I pushed to create a network of knowledge for our team to learn from. I contacted people from all over the country for advice on kart setup. I also reached out to previous winners and alumni from the Purdue Grand Prix and learned about their challenges, defeats and successes. 

From these conversations and a lot of insight from our Driver, Christian Jones, the team was able to decide with confidence on a top performing racing setup. The team learned how to tune our kart for maximum performance as well as troubleshoot issues we faced throughout the racing season. This approach allowed us to build a high performing vehicle that lasted the race.

In the end, the team as a whole had persevered, grown, and created its own story and brand. We had a different kind of victory, not one that was a first, second, or third place, but that we had created the platform to continually increase success!