Photos courtesy Thomas Eimermacher
By James Nwankpah/reporter
Most students, like Shelby Park on NE, can’t imagine their professors outside of the realm of academics and classrooms.
“I usually think of my professors as pretty normal and slightly boring, in a good way,” Park said.
Little did Park and her fellow classmates know, their anatomy and physiology instructor Thomas Eimermacher not only leads a non-academically driven life outside of academia, but he lives in rather extreme fashion.
Eimermacher is a member of Full Tilt Racing, a motorcycle roadracing team based in North Texas. A science teacher belonging to a motorcycle racing team might come off as abnormal to many, but Eimermacher happens to be one of the best racers in the area.
In Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association’s 2014 season, Eimermacher took first place in the Formula 2 racing competition. He also added a third-place finish in the Superbike B class, took fourth in Lightweight twins class and was seventh in the Superbike C class.
The divisions are named based on the displacement size of the engine, Eimermacher said. So, he excelled in multiple classes with anywhere from 12-50 riders with numerous types of motorcycles.
And as if that wasn’t astounding enough, he’s only been riding for three years.
“I’ve been competing since 2012. I started first riding on the racetrack in 2011,” he said.
Attracted by a group of friends who occasionally visited a racetrack, Eimermacher was admittedly a little timid about joining the racing circuit at first.
“I was pretty hesitant about this. I don’t know if I’m into this whole speed demon thing. That might not be me, but I wanted to try it out,” he said.
Once he had a taste, he was hooked. Riveted by the experience, Eimermacher described it as almost emotional because of how in tune with the bike a rider must be.
“You don’t have any of the distractions and obstacles that you have on the street,” he said. “You don’t have cars, you don’t have oncoming traffic, you don’t have signs, you don’t have curbs.”
Eimermacher was immediately captivated by what he calls a pure version of motorcycling. Everything that the bike is designed for, riders are doing, he said.
As infatuated as he is with the sport, Eimermacher does not give off the persona of a motorcyclist to his students. In fact, his teaching is almost contradictory to his interest.
“His teaching style is anything but extreme,” NE student Chasten Fregia said. “When first meeting Professor Eimermacher, I could tell he was a real laid-back and fun type of guy. He was straightforward with the workload of the class but still made jokes and laughed a lot, so everyone was comfortable.”
Eimermacher is also not the type to boast about his accomplishments. Fregia said the only reason she found out about her professor’s passion was because she ran across his name while looking at one of her friends’ racing photos.
“I almost couldn’t believe it because I knew how many classes he was teaching and thought there is no way he has time for this double life,” Park said. “He’s like Batman or something.”
Eimermacher has also created a wave of encouragement in his students.
“If Professor Eimermacher is as devoted to racing as he is helping students succeed, then I’m sure there will be several more championships to be won,” Fregia said.
Park reinforced the student support of her teacher, saying she does not feel it is a matter of if he will win another championship, but rather when he will.
“In the words of Ricky Bobby: ‘If you’re not first, you’re last,’” she said. “I’ll be cheering him on.”
