Italy-based motorsports school sets up shop in Indianapolis
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA motorsports training school that has seen success in Italy is shifting into high gear on the northwest side of Indianapolis.
Indianapolis is the first location for Motorsport Technical School US, which offers eight-week, hands-on courses for individuals interested in becoming racing mechanics and data engineers.
“We wanted [the students] to be facing situations and conditions that they will face once they go in the working world,” MTS Chief Operating Officer Rosella Manfrinato said. “[Students] can expect, for sure, to be very hands-on, where they can learn the ropes, go into teams and be prepared to what the actual work environment is going to present to them.”
MTS has been training some of Europe’s most talented race mechanics and engineers for well over a decade. The woman-owned school aims to bolster the motorsports talent pipeline.
The program is designed to provide students who are at the beginning of their path in motorsports with the fundamental skills they’ll need to work on a race team.
“A lot of racing cars have a lot of similarities. So once you’re familiar with the territory…it’s very translatable across a lot of different platforms,” instructor Brad Kettler said. “Having operated a lot of race teams myself and so forth, I know the kind of skills that you’re looking for in someone who’s going to come in as a new personnel.”
Kettler has spent the last 13 years working as the director of operations and engineering for the Audi Sport customer racing program. He says MTS will focus on teaching students to perform at a high level of performance and quality.
“One of the things that’s very important is to understand that a human being is going to be driving this thing, and they go extremely fast, and it’s very dangerous,” he said. “I’m very interested in making sure that the fundamentals are followed very, very closely.”
The school says it has successfully placed 80% of its graduates into racing teams in different competitive series around the globe such as IndyCar, F1 and MotoGP.
“There certainly is a very strong racing community, and the passion for motor sport is ingrained, for sure, in [Indiana],” Manfrinato said. “The driver is the one that usually gets portrayed more in front, but there is a crew behind it. It’s very much a team effort, and this couldn’t happen without having a team.”
Dallara CEO Stefano DePonti says he expects MTS to be successful in Indianapolis based on their track record and the city’s passion for racing.
“Whatever they are forecasting to teach, I think, will not only benefit the racing community. There’s a lot of synergy that motorsport and racing industries have in common with other industries and fields, especially in aerospace and the defense [industry],” DePonti said. “If you go [to] any country in the world, you mentioned Indianapolis, the first thing that pops up in the mind is the Indianapolis 500. Around the Speedway there’s a lot of suppliers, vendors, company [and] industry.”
Ryley Lynch is part of MTS US’ inaugural class, which launched earlier this month. Lynch tells Inside INdiana Business he went to college for a semester, but realized it wasn’t for him.
“I’ve always been super, super passionate about cars and in my free time, I’m out there building on my own car,” Lynch said. “Finding this opportunity and being able to work on race cars and use my passion to sustain a living is also an opportunity that I never thought I would get…I hope to be able to work with these cars full time and make a career out of it.”
The second group of students is scheduled to start class in August. For more information, click here.