#137 Navy Racing

Navy Racing is not just about going fast, it’s about learning how to perform when everything is on the line. We sit down with Kevin Burnett to debrief a huge year for motorsports at the Naval Academy, from legitimate NASCAR exposure to the real, gritty work of building a Formula SAE car that can survive the hardest event on the schedule. If you care about leadership under pressure, mechanical engineering that actually gets used, or how great teams operate, this conversation delivers.

We talk about what it meant to see Navy Racing represented on a NASCAR car and why that kind of visibility matters for recruiting future midshipmen, connecting with sponsors, and showing the country what project-based learning can look like at USNA. Kevin also lays out the military-to-motorsports parallels that are impossible to unsee once you hear them: logistics, comms, crew roles, precision, and trust when stress spikes.

Then we get into the Formula SAE details that engineering-minded listeners will love: why “brilliance in the basics” beats flashy fixes, how serviceability and manufacturability change everything, and how NR26 fought through rain and adversity to finish endurance for the first time in a decade. We also zoom out to the human side, including Kevin’s motorcycle racing and how motorsports becomes a family bond and a focus reset in a distracted world. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves cars or leadership, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

For any real estate questions, please text me at 650-282-1964.

The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country.  If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email [email protected]

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The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.