The excitement was palpable. Hundreds of people crowded the stands. Drivers and their crews lined the fences waiting to roll onto the track. The smell of popcorn and gasoline filled the air along with excited shouts and chatter. Every year, Purdue University hosts the Purdue Grand Prix, a go-kart race that many organizations and students on campus participate in, including the Delta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho, which has placed in the top ten the last two years.
What makes the chapter’s involvement so unique is the legacy of brothers and other family who have participated and driven in the race.
Brother Joe Booher is the current driver for the chapter. His father, Brother AJ Booher drove in the race as well.
“I remember growing up at the racetrack, meeting other kids my age,” Brother Joe Booher said. “I knew one day I would love to race.”
When he was in about third grade, his dad got him his first go-kart and they would race every other weekend. In sixth grade, he moved on to dirt bike racing, which he still does today.
In 2018, Joe won a championship in dirt bike racing in the 85-cc senior class with Crossroads Cross Country Racing series.
Brother Joe Booher joined AGR his freshman year and started driving the AGR go-kart the same year, just like his father.
Brother AJ Booher grew up racing go-karts and mini sprint cars. When he was a senior in high school, some connections he knew at the Delta Chapter house came to him for advice about maintaining and racing a go-kart. AJ began lending them a hand that year, and when he began college at Purdue, he was initiated into the Delta Chapter in 1991.
That same year, he hopped into the driver seat and became AGR’s Purdue Grand Prix driver through all four years of his college career. His son did the same.
“As far as I know, we are the first three-generation competitors in the Purdue Grand Prix,” Brother AJ said. He noted that his father-in-law also raced the Purdue Grand Prix when he was in college, making Joe Booher the third generation in the family to participate in the race.
Brother Andrew Levine, a senior member of the chapter, has been the crew chief for all four years he has attended Purdue. He said both Brother AJ and Brother Joe Booher have been deeply involved and major helping hands in the overall process of prepping the go-kart to the day of the race.
He said last year, the AGR go-kart team went up against 72 other teams during the qualifying race and they were one of 35 teams to make it to the feature race.
“It’s pretty hard considering everyone is pretty stout on engineering and racing knowledge being in Indiana too with the IndyCar race not far from us,” Brother Levine said.
Brother Levine said the crew consists of 6 members including Brother Joe Booher. He said the chapter has put a lot of work into the go-kart. He said the biggest thing about the race that makes him feel accomplished in their work is that they finish. There are many variables to racing and anything can go wrong at any time, so making it across the finish line is a big accomplishment.
The other accomplishment, Brother Levine said, was their ability to give back to the university through the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation. Money raised by the races goes back to the students as scholarships. Brother Levine said he was really proud to attend Purdue University and give back to students who are looking to complete their college education there. Brother Joe Booher and his dad both said it felt good to give back to the University in this way.
The chapter looks forward to the next race on April 26, 2025, where Brother Joe Booher plans to race again. Brother Levine will be graduating but hopes that the crew continues to succeed after he is gone.
