Science is golden to Firestone Racing's Cara Adams

DETROIT—Cara Adams knows the moment—or at least the race weekend—when the lightbulb went on nearly two decades ago.

"When I was in college, my husband won tickets on the radio to see the Indy cars at the Grand Prix of Cleveland," Adams recalled.

"Watching the cars go through turn 13 at Burke Lakefront Airport, watching the cars go through the chicane, watching the rear end of the cars squat down as they were going through the turns. I was watching the mechanical workings of the cars and thinking, 'Wow, that is really cool!' It was a piece of beauty, really."

That afternoon was her game-changer.

"I was never a race fan because of the drivers," Adams said. "I was a fan of the cars because of the technologies. When I saw those cars in college, I thought if I could work in racing and actually get paid to do that, it would be pretty fantastic."

Adams is living that dream today as chief engineer for Bridgestone Americas Motorsports. She heads the company's performance tire operation for the Firestone brand in the Verizon IndyCar Series. She's the only female chief engineer in the series.

And, yes, with the job and the job title come the occasional double takes.

"You get things from time to time," she says. "Even at a place like Indianapolis, you have people (who) ask just really silly questions and make assumptions. It happens. I remember that someone was surprised and impressed that I knew what a wicker was. It's just funny. Really, I'm an engineer. I know how a race car works."

Adams grew up in Akron. Her mom was a science teacher, a grandfather was an engineer at NASA. Adams looked up to fellow Akron native and astronaut Judith Resnik.

At the University of Akron, she learned how to build open-wheel race cars with Formula SAE Design Team and as a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. She took her degree in mechanical engineering to Bridgestone, which hired her in 2003 to work in the company's vehicle dynamics group.

"I was doing everything from learning how to write specifications to designing a street-course tire, designing a road-course tire, to introducing a new rain tire and going through the oval design process," she said.

"Most recently before I became chief engineer, I was responsible for the oval tire program that includes the tires that run at the Indianapolis 500. It's neat being able to do just about everything but the compounding side."

All the while,Adams said she had her sights set on racing.

"I knew Bridgestone had a strong racing department, and it was my goal to get into the group," she said. "I thought that someday I could be a chief engineer and manage the group for race tire development. But I didn't see it happening anytime soon. Those positions that open up are few and far between."

She didn't just sit around waiting. She introduced herself to the manager of race tire development and asked what she could do to put herself in a position to move up one day. She even bought textbooks and studied so that, as she says, "I would be comfortable to go in there and just kill the interview."

And kill it she did. She was named senior project engineer, race tire development, in 2008 and was promoted to chief engineer at the end of the 2016 IndyCar season.

"My focus has shifted from just the Indy 500 and ovals to helping everybody else with tire designs, to overseeing the department with various engineers, chemical engineers and technicians," Adams said.

"It's gone from low-level detail focus on the Indy 500 and ovals to a broader look at the whole series.

"My predecessor, Dale Harrigle, did a fantastic job getting me ready for this position. He saw potential in me early and made sure to involve me in all the IndyCar meetings, the aero-kit meetings, making sure I had the right contacts, right background and knowledge to do it."

Adams reports to Lisa Boggs, who has been director of motorsports at Nashville, Tenn-based Bridgestone since 2013. The company has been the sole tire provider to the Verizon IndyCar Series since 2000.

"We both take a lot of pride and put a lot of energy and passion into what is an opportunity to demonstrate that anything anybody wants to do—particularly young women—you can do this," Boggs said. "We've come to embrace this opportunity."

Adams shares that message.

"One of my huge passions is science and mentoring," she said. "I just love promoting science. At heart, I'm an introverted engineer. At heart, I am numbers, papers and formulas. I love leading my team. I love talking science."