Courtesy NHRA Communications
INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 12, 2024) – NHRA officials are pleased to announce the NHRA Youth and Education Services (YES) Program will host 15 live events during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, as well as six virtual programs during the summer portion of the upcoming season.
The NHRA YES Program will also hold two “Pilot Program” events during the 2024 season at a pair of NHRA Member Tracks: April 15 at Kansas International Dragway in Wichita, Kan., and May 17 at Toronto Motorsports Park. The pilot program events will allow the two NHRA Member Tracks to host YES Programs for local schools in the community.
The event at Toronto Motorsports Park also marks the first NHRA Yes Program that will take place outside of the United States.
The NHRA YES Program is the only full-time education program in motorsports providing quality educational content and activities for schools and youth organizations nationwide. The YES Program invites students to NHRA national events to see first-hand the career chances within the motorsports field, bringing thousands of students to the track each year, while the pilot programs offer those same opportunities at tracks without a national event.
In 2023, the YES Program hosted more than 31,000 students at tracks across the country and in 2024 the team of partners for the YES Program will again include Ford, Mac Tools, Gerber Collision & Glass, and the United States Air Force.
“We enjoyed incredible success with the YES Program in 2023, welcoming more than 30,000 students to tracks to learn about career opportunities in motorsports, and we’re thrilled about the direction of the program in 2024,” said John Baadilla, NHRA Director of National Event Marketing Operations. “We have four amazing YES Program partners in Ford, Mac Tools, Gerber Collision & Glass, and the United States Air Force and to now extend the program to a pair of NHRA Member Tracks, including the first in Canada, it’s a great opportunity for these tracks to build exciting relationships within their communities.”
The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season begins March 7-10 with the 55th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. The YES Program will host live events from Gainesville through the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals on June 7-9 in Bristol and then from the 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park through the end of the season. The six virtual YES Programs will take place from the Virginia NHRA Nationals in Richmond through the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd.
For more information about the NHRA YES Program, please visit www.nhra.com/yes. To register to attend, please visit www.nhra.com/yesprogramregistration. For more information about NHRA Launch – Motorsports Careers, visit www.nhralaunch.com.
