The Role of Data in Drag Racing
Advanced modeling and manufacturing techniques help a winning team move faster on and off the track
Kalitta Motorsports is one of the most successful drag racing teams in the history of the sport, having won seven world championships and over 100 national events. They have partnered with Autodesk to advance and expand their manufacturing capabilities. Scott Finnis, CNC shop manager for the team, shares how they have digitized the design and fabrication processes for their race teams to become more competitive. They use adaptive tool paths in their CAM machining for lighter and faster cuts, simulation to optimize systems, and they’ve even created digital twins for race car components like cylinder heads. Today, over 1,000 parts for the racing team are designed and manufactured using advanced processes. In a sport where races can be won by thousandths of a second, these changes are giving the Kalitta team an important advantage, helping the team to be faster on and off the track.
About the speaker
Scott Finnis is the CNC shop manager at Kalitta Motorsports. Finnis started as a mechanic at Kalitta almost 30 years ago, becoming a CNC programmer, operator, and production manager before moving up to shop manager in 2018.
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