CARA Charities and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course have teamed up to promote auto racing by engaging in community projects that benefit children’s safety and well-being.
Tuesday, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course President Craig Rust presented a check for $5,000 to the Friendly House in Mansfield and its executive director, Terry Conard.
The money comes from the first-ever Taste of Mid-Ohio held on Aug. 3 during the track’s Mid-ohio Sports Car Challange and the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Fans, drivers, officials and industry representatives dined at the event in the lower paddock.
The track assisted with space and ticket sales as CARA Charities organized logistics and invitations.
Conard says the check from Mid-Ohio will help out immensely and will pay for food for children, fuel costs and other things.
Thirty-six percent of the Friendly House’s budget comes from the United Way of Richland County and the rest is derived from $30 membership fees and private donations.
Children’s health and safety has been a primary focus of CARA since its inception, however, as an ambassador for the racing industry, CARA occasionally supports toher community-based programming and causes for members and organizations in the motorsports industry.
Friendly House, a United Way agency, is a community center in Mansfield that has been serving Richland County since 1899 and at its present site since 1949. Its objective is to provide crime prevention, recreational, educational, health/fitness, camping and day care programs to the immediate neighborhood and the community as a whole, at a cost everyone can afford.
A comprehensive motorsports facility, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course features a permanent road-racing circuit with two primary configurations: 1 2.4-mile, 15 turn, and a 2.25-mile, 13-turn circuit. The park-like, 330-acre complex is located in Lexington. The track has been called the most competitive course in the U.S. and annually hosts a diverse lineup of locally, regionally and nationally sanctioned racing events for amateur, club and professional drivers and riders.
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course opened in 1962 and is owned and operated by Green Savoree Mid-ohio, LLC.