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Nov. 17, 2004

Former Head of GM Racing to Visit NC State, Wolfpack Motorsports

Herb Fishel, former executive director of GM Racing, will visit North Carolina State University on Thursday, Nov. 18, to deliver a seminar on “Engineering Leadership: Racing, Relevance and You.” Sponsored by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the seminar will be held at 4 p.m. in Truitt Auditorium, room 1402, Broughton Hall.

Fishel will visit the members of the university’s Society for Automotive Engineers – known on campus as Wolfpack Motorsports – and will examine the team’s Mini-Baja and Formula SAE racing cars at 3:30 p.m. outside Broughton Hall’s Truitt Auditorium at the corner of Stinson Drive and Yarbrough Drive. Media are invited to attend Fishel’s visit. Enter the campus at Pullen Road and Stinson Drive and get a parking pass at the guard station. Follow Stinson Drive to its dead end and bear left. Broughton Hall will be on your left. Parking will be available on Yarbrough Drive.

Wolfpack Motorsports builds and races cars for two forms of SAE competition. The Formula SAE is a scaled-down Formula One car powered by a 600cc motorcycle engine and tuned for tight turns and ear-pinning acceleration. The Mini-Baja is an off-road vehicle with a roll cage, big wheels and a fully removable drive train that is welded with mud-slinging and durability in mind.

Fishel, who received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from NC State in 1963, was named one of the 100 most influential people in the first 50 years of hot rodding by Hot Rod magazine and one of the 12 most influential people in racing by Racer magazine. During his 40-year career, he was instrumental in forming the winning racing teams that propelled GM to the top of the racing world. Under his leadership, GM became the first automaker in 30 years to win auto racing’s “Triple Crown” – the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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