Dave Calabro skipped a college final exam to take the opportunity of a lifetime and turned it into becoming the voice of the Indianapolis 500 which just recently celebrated its 100th running on Memorial Day weekend.

The Butler Collegian:  Butler’s connection to auto racing:  Dave Calabro

While names like Andretti, Foyt, Mears, Castroneves, Hildebrand, and Kanaan race around the track, Calabro has been the man behind the mic since taking over from his mentor Tom Carnegie in 2006.

It was during high school and college, however that Calabro made the right contacts to get himself into the right position.  He worked himself into a position with Carnegie that allowed him the chance to see things from the announcer’s perch in the famous Pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he would assist Carnegie for 21 years until his retirement.

When given an opportunity to shine during a testing session, he spun out and put his opportunity car right into the wall.  But like racers at Indy, they get another chance and that’s when Calabro was given the choice of helping out with practice and qualifying, or taking a math final.  The professor denied his request for a later final to take advantage of this opportunity, so he did what most people would do when faced with an opportunity of a lifetime, he blew off the final exam and went to the track.  It was a great move, we think!

Featured image from Motorsport.com