Ava Viola is a 17-year-old intern with the Lime Rock Drivers Club. Ava assists with Drivers Club organization and outreach (look at the cake she made to celebrate the drivers at the HF40), but has also taken the opportunity to work with different sanctioning bodies and teams when they visit Lime Rock Park. Ava has been coming to Lime Rock since she was very young to watch her dad race. 

She is currently a high school senior looking to pursue mechanical and motorsport engineering and is in the middle of her college search. After college, her goal is to work for a professional race team in IMSA, NASCAR, or INDYCAR.  

Ava had the chance to work with  BOSCH engineers during the IMSA Northeast Grand Prix presented by FCP Euro weekend, and shared her experience below:

During the IMSA Northeast Grand Prix presented by FCP Euro, I had the opportunity to mingle with the IMSA and BOSCH engineers who work behind the scenes at all the IMSA races. During this fantastic experience, I talked with each engineer about the motorsports industry and how they got started and heard some fascinating individual stories. As I will be going to college next year, it was beneficial to learn where they went and what they studied. They all made me feel extremely welcome, and they answered all my questions of which there were many!  It was such a blessing to have this opportunity to speak with these incredible people, and it made me more excited for my future. During the race, I watched how the engineers monitored each car during the race to ensure nothing unusual happened, that no one was cheating and therefore a fair race.  As a student with my goal of pursuing a career in motorsports, it was exciting and eye-opening to say the least.

In addition to meeting these engineers, I was also able to go into the hot pits and watch each race team function under the stress of a race.  You can only imagine the pressure they were under when things didn’t go to plan when the unpredictable happened and they had to react instantly to an unpredictable changing situation.

Overall, this was the most exciting race I have ever been to, and I learned so much about so many different aspects of the industry.  I can’t thank the IMSA and BOSCH engineers enough for everything they did for me during the weekend.

-Ava Viola

The LRDC is seeking interns for the 2023 season. Interested parties should reach out to Jeanette Veitenheimer at jeanette@limerock.com for more information. Click here to learn more about the Lime Rock Driver’s Club internship.