A J Burns, a college student with a race car and his story from an article published online!

Engineering students love a challenge, and University of Oklahoma freshman A.J. Burns is no exception.

With a love for racing, Burns felt OU needed to build a project race car, so before his seat in class was even warm, Burns set out to make it happen.

"I walked into school at OU and said, 'We need a midget team here,' " Burns said. "They have all of these other competition teams, so why can't we have a midget team?"

Burns did some legwork to find out how to make it happen. He approached Jacob Henderson, OU Engineering College instructor and now team adviser.

As a result, OU's first midget race car team, Sooner One Racing, was formed and a team of 10 students, most with no racing experience, began the task of building a dirt track midget.

Six months later, OU has a car in the Chili Bowl.

"A.J. put together a small group of students who were passionate about this and went from this idea and concept to this car sitting here that is actually going to race," Henderson said.

Projects like this are a great way for engineering students to learn and put their skills to use, he said.

"Students get a great education at a university, but it is something to go from a concept to an actual car sitting on the ground ready to race," Henderson said.

"As an engineer, this is a great learning experience. There is nothing like bridging the gap between what we cram down their throat and what we actually do.''

The car was finished with just days to spare. The team is eager to see how it runs.

"We want to hit the ground running and take what we learn and start doing some design and make modifications," Henderson said.

The university provided space and tools to build the car, and Burns went about finding everything he needed. He also had the help of two fellow OU students and racers, Layne Himebaugh and Trey Marcham, who are racing in the Chili Bowl in their own cars.

"Walt Boyd in California donated a car for us, and we changed a lot of stuff on it and put it together," Burns said. "The university gave us use of an airplane hangar at the airport and two huge roll-around tool boxes, motor lifts and everything we need."

On Monday, the team got to fire up the car for the first time and run a hot lap at the Chili Bowl.

"We never got any testing time with the car," Burns said. "This is the first time we hit the track and besides one minor oil leak from overfilling the oil, we did not have any issues.

"The car felt great. We are running a motor that is a little down on horsepower. We did not come here with any wild ideas about winning; we are just trying to get our feet wet and see how far we make it. If we can just beat a few people, I will be happy."

Burns started last in his heat race on Wednesday and finished sixth after avoiding a couple of wrecks that resulted in a car flipping.

Burns returned in the C feature and finished sixth after starting outside front row.

Sooner One will race again Saturday, and plans are already in the works for next year.

"Next year we hope to have two cars," Burns said.