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For the second straight year, Division 5 NHRA member track Mid-America Dragway in Kansas hosted an NHRA Youth and Education Services (YES) event for local students. Last year, the track, located six miles west of Arkansas City, made history by being the first host of a YES event at a non-NHRA national event track.

Nearly 750 students from 16 schools registered to attend the event, where they learned how S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is applied to both real-world situations and NHRA Drag Racing. 

Two NHRA YES Program Partners, Western Tech and Mac Tools, brought displays and spoke to the students about career opportunities, and local sponsors also were represented at the event.

“We’ve got some of the companies that sponsor us,” Chris Maybrier, Mid America Drag Way owner, told local news station KSN. “They’ve come out here to go over kind of their trade with these kids. The other side of this, you don’t have to be on a racing team, you could go to work for a machine shop that builds parts for these race cars.”

The NHRA YES Program is the only full-time education program in motorsports that provides quality programs and activities for schools and youth organizations nationwide. The program is free and focuses on the importance of goals and continued education while allowing students to learn about and explore various career opportunities.

For more information about the NHRA Youth & Education Services Program or to participate in the Virtual YES Program curriculum, visit .