Word: medenica
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Harvard University, with its highly touted diverse student body, has within its current population two men bitten by the racing bug and actively pursuing careers in the sport. Gordon Medenica '73, a first-year student at the Business School, and David Aronson '79 are manager and assistant manager, respectively, of the Gordon Medenica Motor Racing team. Last season, the Medenica team, piloted by driver Herne, won the New England regional Formula Ford road racing championship...
Most Americans associate racing with either the Indianapolis 500 or Richard Petty and redneck stock car races on Southern oval tracks. Like actors and baseball players, racing enthusiasts are regarded as somewhat declasse. But the Harvard-dominated Medenica team defies all the stereotypes, both in racing style and in personnel. They compete in Formula Ford road racing, on Grand Prix-style courses with single-seat cars equipped with 1600cc. Ford Fiesta motors. While Formula Ford cars can't match the flat-out power of Indy types they still average 90 to 100 mph on twisting, graded courses...
Logically enough, each member of the Medenica team got involved in motor racing through a childhood fascination with automobiles. "I was just always into cars," Medenica says. "At 12, I was into slot cars. When I got my license, I drove fast...it's a long continuum that just kept building." "It's basically the same for me as for Gordon, although I never thought of racing until my brother took me to a race at Watkins Glen, when I figured it was something I wanted to do," Herne says...
...time of inchildhood. In 1975 he worked as a mechanic on Roger Penske's Formula One (the big name of international road racing) team, staying on until driver Mark Donahue died in a practice run crash late in the season. During his freshman year at Harvard he met Medenica on the street in Cambridge, and eventually the team was formed...
...think the response David gets from students is like what I got five years ago," Medenica says. "It was just generally unacceptable." Still, there was a very small group of us into cars. Five years later I'm back at Harvard and I find a lot more positive response. I think it's a combination of the Business School and it being five years later...