Three Professors continued from Page 2

Upon her christening in the Netherlands, Wright was to put the Alexa S on a 10-day shakedown cruise in the North Sea, then deliver her to her owners in Newport, R.I., with a final destination of the Miami International Boat Show.

Was Gazo interested in signing on as a crewman?

“You bet.”

And why not? We're talking about a ship so luxurious, the S.S. Minnow would not be fit to be her dinghy.

But those 10 days dedicated to shaking down the Alexa S only shook up Gazo's stomach. Waves broke over the top of the ship's 40-foot high communication tower. Gazo was nauseous for the first 10 days of the voyage, until Wright tucked the ship safely behind the seawalls at Dover and Brighton, England, waiting for seas and stomachs to calm.

Rough seas forced the Alexa S to take the southerly Atlantic crossing, past Portugal and Spain, through the Azores and across, rather than the shorter northern crossing past Ireland to Newfoundland.

At nearly 5,000 nautical miles, the southern route is twice as long, giving Gazo extra credit toward his certification. But the extra time he spent in crossing the Atlantic meant he couldn't stick around for the final leg of the trip from Newport to Miami.

“I had to get back to school,” Gazo says.

And this summer? Now that he has conquered the Atlantic, Gazo says he would like to hire on a ship heading south through the Panama Canal and west through the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti.

“We all have dreams,” Gazo says. “I probably won't be able to make a living doing this, but for me, it has been a very nice hobby. It's fun to go through the process, to push yourself to do something like getting a captain's license.”

And best of all, Gazo says, “so far, it hasn't cost me a thing.”

Contact Gazo at gazo@purdue.edu

Peter Hirst takes a pragmatic view of his brief go-kart racing career. In three trips to the starting line of a race held annually through the streets of Lafayette, Hirst, 42, has broken down once, crashed once and finished once.

“Hey, at least I'm improving,” he quips.

Hirst, a native of New Zealand, took up racing just over three years ago. He was ready to sell his kart and give up racing altogether until a friend not only talked Hirst into keeping his kart, but also into forming their own racing team.

Dubbed KART, the initials for the Kiwi-American Racing Team, Hirst's team has deep Purdue roots.

“Our team is made up of a student, (Omar Delak), an alumnus (Dave Reason) and a professor (Hirst). Another team member is a local businessman (Paul Baldwin). We have a little bit of everything,” Hirst boasts.

Buzzing around on vehicles that sound like bees on steroids fulfills a need for speed for Hirst.

“When you are going 90 miles per hour with your body just inches off the pavement,” Hirst says, “believe me, you feel the speed. It's quite a sensation. But even with all that speed, serious injuries are very rare in go-kart racing.”

That depends on your definition of serious. There was that time at a street race in Anderson, Ind., in 2001, when Hirst barreled into a corner and stomped on his brakes like they were on fire. Only nothing happened.

Hirst slammed into the hay bales at 60 mph and briefly blacked out.

“The next thing I remember,” Hirst recalls, “I was smack into the hay bales and there were a bunch of people standing over me asking if I was all right.”

But the setback didn't deter him. Hirst, after all, is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He has ridden off-road motorcycles, bungee-jumped off a bridge, parachuted and para-sailed off a mountain.

It isn't just the fear factor that attracts him to the sport.

Go-kart racing means being your own pit crew, too.

“It's just a neat sport,” Hirst says. “There is such a wide array of people participating. You'll see little kids with their dads and brothers serving as pit crew members, teenagers who think they are the next Michael Schumacher or Jeff Gordon.”

There are lead foots trying to become the good 'ol boys who race on the NASCAR circuit, and then there are people like Hirst, who are just old boys looking for a good time.

“Pound for pound, go-kart racing is about as close to anything you'll see in real racing, in terms of power-to-weight ratios, acceleration, gforces in the turns and the competitiveness of the drivers. We're serious about the racing, but for the most part, we just want to have some fun.”

Plus, go-karting is a relatively inexpensive sport at the entry level.

“You can probably buy a new kart for around $4,000,” Hirst says, “a lot less if you just want to buy a used kart.”

Hirst got hooked on racing by watching Formula One races in his native New Zealand. “Those races are as popular around the world as the Super Bowl is in America,” Hirst says.

And while his kart-racing budget has several fewer zeros than a Formula One team, expenses can add up. Tires, fuel, uniforms and practice time on area tracks aren't cheap. To pay some of the expenses, Hirst says he is looking, although not too seriously, for a few well-heeled sponsors for his KART Racing team.

“We've got T-shirts, a logo, which we designed one night on the back of a napkin, a great name for the team, everything but a sponsor,” he says.

This summer, Hirst plans to do a lot of racing at the newly opened New Castle Raceway (45 minutes east of Indianapolis), owned by Indianapolis 500 racer Mark Dismore.

But sponsor beware. The earning potential for an investment in KART Racing may be somewhat limited.

Most racers share winnings with their team owners. But when it comes to go-karts, Hirst isn't sure race winners have any purse to pass around.

“How should I know?” Hirst says with a laugh, “I've never won anything.”

Contact Hirst at hirst@hort.purdue.edu