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Page the HERALD- Communty News Wednesday July 17 1991 Local mechanic to take pit stop at Indy By ROBERT RISK Herald Sports Editor Alex Sekulovich is going to be an integral part of a pit crew at the Molson Indy in Toronto on the July 19 weekend While not exact ly on the Formula One circuit he will definitely be in the pits at Ex hibition Place Sekulovich has taken a rather roundabout route in becoming a member of the Keen Engineering team that races in the Formula Atlantic series cars which is two levels from the Formula One class When he went to the University of British Columbia in 1987 he had no idea he would soon be putting high performance machines into working order I was doing my masters thesis on Particle Physics and I needed to have a model built for my course To get it done I went to Marty Knoll who also happened to work on cars and he got me in terested in it Sekulovich said after he and his brother Andy marshalled the races at in he was hooked on the sport and began helping Marty put together the car raced Formula Ford and then Formula Atlantic until when I became a mechanic for the president of Keen Engineer ing Alex has been helping Tom Johnston since 1989 said Knoll who is hoping to move up to the Firestone Indy Lights class The trick is getting the spon sorship I know a lot of guys who won a lot of championships and arent racing because they dont have any backers Its really tough especially now with the economy i rough sh While Knoll is trying to get back into the drivers seat Sekulovich is thinking about making his way behind the wheel for the first time The best way to learn how to race well is to leam how to prep a car Its exciting and its a great way to get experience without having to spend the money I figure it will be a year or two before Ill be taking a shot at it if I can still fit in the car in the meantime both are more than happy to make sure driver Frank Allers is given the best performance the vehicle can put out which requires hundreds of hours of work between races Knoll said cars that reach speeds of 160 mph and can go from zero to miles in two and a half seconds can undergo a lot of stress In the Atlantic series each race takes about minutes For every hour the car is on the track it takes about 100 hours of maintenance to make sure everything is in top shape Its rough on your personal life too since you dont have much time outside of working on the car After Toronto Marty will be heading out to Calgary on July back to Rivieres on August and then to Van couver for an August 31 race Due to work commitments Alex said he will only be able to go to the Montreal race which is on September 1 NORTH END NISSAN 610 MARTIN ST 8784137 MILTON ONT SAVE YOUR BODY NORTH END NISSAN Ma St Milton T Established HALTON HILLS COLLISION RR 1 ACTON ONT CORNERS REVERSE MORTGAGES Available At CONCEPTS 8731877 MONO Marty Knoll left and Alex Sekulovich stand with the race car they have been working on to prepare it for the race at Exhibition Place during the on July Both are kept busy with the car which requires about 100 hours of maintenance for every hour It spends on the track Herald photo food stores target OPEN 24 HRS 7 DAYS A WEEK 51 ST GEORGETOWN