Chapel Hill Tire backs high school motorsports program

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Chapel Hill Tire has donated $10,000 to the Chapel Hill High School's racing program, in addition to a previous donation the tire dealership made to the school's automotive program.

According to Chapel Hill High School, the latest donation will make the school's racing program a team sport. It will go toward a second race car that lets the school bring more students to the race track on Friday nights.

The high school program looks after a late-model NASCAR stock car running a Chevy 350-cubic-inch engine. The car competes at Wake County Speedway, a 1/4-mile paved oval track in nearby Raleigh, N.C., with students from the school making up the pit crew.

With two cars, Chapel Hill Tire said students can now learn about every aspect of racing, including the "rules, safety, pit stops, suspension and weight setup, spotting, measurements of tires the vehicle using geometry, weight distribution, drafting, physics, work ethics and teamwork. And they will receive valuable experience in the process."

Chapel High School said the donation has opened the door to a career in motorsports for many CHHS students, including Isaiah Allen, a current student at CHHS and team member at Chapel Hill Tire who recently was accepted to the NASCAR Technical Institute to continue his career in motorsports.

Chapel Hill Tire operates 11 stores in the Triangle area.