Imagine going to school in a classroom that’s going 130 mph. Sound like a tough learning environment? Maybe for some, but if you’re an aspiring automotive engineer, then behind the wheel of a speeding Ford Focus is the perfect place to learn your craft.

That’s why Patrick Dessert, a professor in the engineering department at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., established the PDMC Motorsports Club as a vehicle for his engineering students to learn. The club provides invaluable hands-on racing experience to prepare them for their roles in the automotive industry.

“It’s getting harder to find car guys these days, so we started the club to build them,” Dessert says. “The club’s racing efforts give our students the skills that will give them a huge advantage in the job market and help rebuild the American auto industry.”

PDMC Motorsports’ racing efforts have already paid off. In its first professional race in the touring class of the Speed World Challenge last September, the PDMC Motorsports Focus placed 17th out of 27 cars at Mosport International Raceway in Ontario, Canada. The team also received the B&M Shifter Holeshot award, which is given to the car that advances the most positions from the start of the race.

“The Speed World Challenge racing series is the Speed Channel’s No. 1-rated event for viewers between 18 and 34,” Dessert says. “The series averages more than 750,000 viewers, so it’s great exposure for our team.”

In the team’s second outing, it captured the Sunoco Hard Charger award at Road Atlanta and once again finished in the top 20.

Perhaps more important than the success that PDMC is having on the track, however, is the success it is having off the track — specifically, helping students at two pilot schools in Pontiac, Mich., with math.

“We established a supplemental math program to help the fourth-graders of the schools,” Dessert says. “We take the car to the schools to get the kids excited and then show them that math is the way that they can get to work with cool cars.”

After 18 months of tutoring, he reports that the efforts have paid off.

“When they took the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test, 100 percent of our students passed the math portion of the test. The average is just 60 percent,” he says.

Dessert’s enthusiasm for the Ford Focus continues.

“We are working hard to promote the Focus as the tuner car for kids,” he says. “We have created the Focus Tuner Design Challenge, which will invite student teams to create a design for the ultimate tuner Focus.

“We are creating a love of cars as well as a buzz around Ford products for a whole new generation.”