Our brilliant Marmon Wasp Engineers come from a wide range of backgrounds and skill sets. For Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting two of these talented team members: Alex Sparks and Thérèse Stevens. We spoke to Alex and Thérèse while they took a break from their work on the Wasp at Honest Charlie Speed Shop in Chattanooga to hear more about their experiences.
Alex is the Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager at Amarillo Gear Company and came to the Wasp team with a background in manufacturing engineering and a love for getting her hands dirty. While working with Corky Coker at his shop, she got to do a bit of everything, from sandblasting to taking apart the engine and rebuilding it.
She even got to achieve a lifelong dream: “Getting to drive the Wasp was bucket list. It’s so cool to be able to say that I’ve driven a race car, especially one from 1911!” And while the replica Wasp might be a little harder to handle than a modern car, the experience was worth it. “My face hasn’t stopped hurting from smiling so much,” Alex said. Hear more from Alex when you check out her spotlight video below.
As a product development engineer at Marmon Industrial Energy & Infrastructure, Thérèse is used to working on a very different kind of vehicle: the electric car. But she brought all of her automotive knowledge to the Wasp team and learned at the same time.
“I’ve never driven stick before, but when Corky said to hop in, I did, and he was right there with me the whole time giving me instructions,” Thérèse said. “So I can say that I learned how to drive a manual 1911 race car. So that’s a pretty cool story!”
Alex and Thérèse were impressed by how collaborative their Marmon teammates were. “Everybody out there is supportive. That’s such a great atmosphere to be in, where I can say, ‘Hey, I’ve never done that before, I want to learn,’ and they say, ‘Yeah, jump right in, let’s do it!’” said Thérèse in her spotlight video below.
