Owego Free Academy’s Winners Circle Project team wins the 2025 competition

By Wendy Post —

Over Memorial Day weekend, Owego took home the Winners Circle Project Championship for the second time during an event held at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Over the school year, students from six participating schools built Factory Five cars, assembling everything, testing them, and even marketing the cars. The project runs each school year, starting in September and ending in June.

This year 35 students were involved in the Owego project, where they built a Factory Five Shelby Coupe replica with a Kenne Bell supercharger, 302 small block Ford, and Holley fuel injection. They also participated in simulation racing and marketing efforts throughout the year. The final event was a race at Lime Rock in Connecticut, where driver Chris Dyson raced their car. 

The competition included several schools, with Owego competing against Waverly, Ketchum, Jay, Dover, and FDR High Schools. 

OA Schools posted on their website, “It takes a complete team effort to win the Winners Circle Project Championship, and that’s what happened this year for Owego.”

The school continued, “A year-long effort, from the building of a beautiful Type 65 Coupe-R race car from Factory Five Racing to domination in the simulator races, to the marketing and branding campaign to promote Owego Racing and WCP.”

With six schools participating, including Owego and Waverly in Tioga County, New York, the Winner’s Circle Project offers a hands-on learning experience that blends engineering, marketing, and teamwork.

“We don’t build cars, we build good human beings,” said Pius Kayiira, founder and executive director of the Winners Circle Project.

“I’m proud that Owego Free Academy is our first 2X champion,” said Kayiira.

“This project is the next evolution in reality-based education that is designed to inspire the next generation of innovators and creatives.” — Pius Kayiira

“This program brings high school students together to design, build, and race Factory Five cars, pushing their skills to new heights while preparing them for careers in automotive, motorsports, and beyond,” an article in What’s New by Nicole Smith says about Factory Five Racing.

In a post by Lime Rock Park on social media, they wrote, “Today we welcomed 180 students from six schools to Lime Rock Park as part of the Winners Circle Project, a non-profit organization that inspires fresh, young, innovative minds through STEAM programs embedded in the exciting world of car racing,” and added, “Throughout the course of one academic year, high school students build a Factory Five vehicle from the ground up. Today, they got to see those race cars on the track.”

Watch how it all unfolded during the Championship Event at Lime Rock Park on Friday, May 23, 2025, by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qztllBf_b5Q.

And stay tuned, as we will have more on this program.