By MARIA KACIK

Staff Writer

On July 20, IndyCar drivers at the Mid-Ohio School’s Lexington race track will reach speeds of nearly 180 mph — roughly a football field traveled every second and a half — and pass under a bridge that bears a banner for Westfield Insurance of Westfield Center.

All the while, the race and the Westfield banner will be seen by national audiences on ABC-TV.

The company also sponsored last year’s Mid-Ohio Indy race. The event will be held once again this year, but Mid-Ohio and Westfield Insurance announced Tuesday they would take their relationship a step further: Westfield will become the official insurance company of Mid-Ohio and one of the sponsors of the Mid-Ohio School, which provides instructional driving courses to teen, adult and professional drivers.

“We’re blessed to have a facility like this right here in Ohio,” Roger McManus, chief operating officer for Westfield Insurance, said Tuesday at the unveiling of Westfield’s sponsorship of the Mid-Ohio School.

McManus said as an insurance agency, Westfield has had to deal in rare cases with the deaths of their insured drivers in traffic accidents. Sponsoring the Mid-Ohio School allows the company the opportunity to teach drivers preventive measures to avoid potentially fatal accidents.

You hear family of those who die in car accidents say, “ ‘If we had only done this. If we had only done that.’ Now we have the opportunity to do something about it beforehand,” McManus said.

Brian Till offers pointers to a participant Tuesday morning at the Mid-Ohio School in Lexington, Ohio. Till is one of several race car drivers who serve as instructors at the school. Westfield Insurance is the official insurance company of Mid-Ohio and a sponsor of the school, which provides instructional driving courses to teen, adult and professional drivers. (Shirley Ware | Photo Editor)

David Roush, general manager of the Mid-Ohio School, said educating teen drivers needs to be addressed.

“We have a national epidemic on our hands here, folks. We have a teenager being killed in a car accident every 60 seconds,” Roush said. “I certainly believe more teenage lives will be saved by this partnership.”

On Aug. 4, Westfield Insurance will sponsor 200 newly licensed drivers to attend the Mid-Ohio School’s Honda Teen Defensive Driving Program free of charge. McManus said the school will host teenage children of Westfield Insurance policy-holders as well as some inner-city teen drivers who normally would not have the chance to attend the school.

“This isn’t your typical driver’s ed. This is the X Games of driver’s ed,” Roush said.

He explained the program puts students behind the wheels of the school’s Honda Civic EX coupes, allowing them to learn firsthand how to drive in some emergency situations.

“Any time you get a kid in a controlled environment they get to learn the limits,” Roush said.

Students will attempt to brake the vehicles on wet surfaces, maneuver them back and forth through a series of traffic cones, and attempt to do an emergency lane change in a simulated highway environment.

Teens then will use the school’s skid car, which is equipped with hydraulically controlled outriggers that lift the car off the ground to minimize the tires’ contact with the road. The drill simulates over-steer and under-steer situations.

“We can teach them in the classroom all day long and it just doesn’t get it,” he said. “Give me 15 minutes with that teen in a skid car and you will see a major difference.”

Mid-Ohio, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, offers a variety of driving programs. Besides the Honda Teen Defensive Driving Program, for example, it offers one for adults.

Award winner
This is an award-winning year for Fuserashi International Technology of Liverpool Township. A supplier of steel cold-formed parts to Honda of America Manufacturing, Fuserashi received awards from Honda for the quality and delivery of its products.

In 2007, the company provided Honda plants around the country with 33,684,545 components that were delivered on time, in the right quantities, with the correct labels and with zero quality defects. Thus, Fuserashi received Honda of America’s quality and delivery awards last month at Honda’s annual conference in Columbus.

Fuserashi, which is Japan-based, received the same awards in 2004. During the 11 years it has been doing direct business with Honda in North America, it has received four other quality awards and one other delivery award.

“We’re a small manufacturing company here in Medina. We don’t have a lot of outside sales or marketing power. What this means for us is we become highlighted in front of many of our customers,” said Keith Albrecht, sales and marketing manager for Fuserashi.

Albrecht explained Fuserashi was one of 17 companies recognized out of Honda’s more than 650 suppliers.

“We ship every day to multiple Honda locations, so that’s a very difficult standard to maintain. … So when we get this kind of recognition, it’s a great achievement,” he said.

In addition to the awards from Honda, Fuserashi received the 100 percent and group awards from the Medina County Safety Council last week. The company has operated 3,858 consecutive days without losing production time due to an injury.

Kacik may be reached at 330-721-4049 or business@ohio.net.

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