Joseph Burke drives a car, only it isn't for his commute to class.
Burke, junior in mechanical engineering, competes in "rallying," which is a form of auto racing that involves racing street-legal cars on rough-terrain courses.
Burke said family ties led him to rally racing. His father, Seamus, is a two-time U.S. rally champion.
"My dad has been in the sport for a long time, so I grew up with it," Burke said. "I got my license when I was 16 and did my first race right before I turned 17. In 2010, I won the Rookie of the Year Award and the year after that I won a spot to compete in the X Games competition," Burke said.
Rallys are divided into two stages with drivers competing for the shortest time.
Burke Motorsports serves as Burke's team and crew, and during special stages of races he uses a co-driver to help with directions.
"We are a smaller team compared to the factory team efforts, but at most events we usually have three to four crew guys just in case some damage does happen," Burke said. "It's nice to know that even with a smaller team we are still able to compete with the bigger teams."
Challenging course conditions can affect even the most skilled drivers, Burke said.
"For the RallyCross venues, X Games was probably the most difficult because every team competing had their best equipment on the car," Burke said. " It was a great experience being able to race through the center of downtown Los Angeles, but in order to make that happen, they used concrete barriers to define the course. Those barriers don't move, so any mistake would result in big damage," Burke said.
Burke has driven many tough courses and said he has lots of great memories from the competitions.
"The rally world is a somewhat close-knit community, and I have been fortunate enough to race against the likes of Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, Dave Mirra, etc., over the past few years," Burke said.
Burke said he is continuing to work toward competing in and winning future competitions.
"It's definitely something I will continue post-Auburn," he said. "It's a tough sport due to the large budgets that are needed in order to be able to compete with the top."
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