Bob Seger Jr. of Frankfort will begin living his dream next month.

The stock car racer will be leaving either later this week or next Monday to attend the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, N.C.

The five-year-old facility is designed to develop NASCAR-specific automotive technicians.

The $12-million facility covers 146,000 square feet on 19 acres of land in Mooresville, where 75 percent of the Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series teams are located.

“I can’t wait to go,” said the 18-year-old Seger, who recently graduated from Hampden Academy.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to do something like this,” said Seger. “I’m going to be learning everything from building chassis to aerodynamics to engine building. It should be pretty fun.”

He said he learned about the school on-line.

“It looked like something I’d be interested in. I sent an e-mail and they sent a representative to my home. Only 600 people get in,” Seger said. “The course takes a year and a half. You go straight through.”

It will be costly, but he said he has some money saved up and has earned some scholarship money.

He said there will be a little classroom work but most of the time “it’ll be hands-on work in the shop.

“Some of the people from teams like Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Penske Racing will come over and serve as instructors. Sometimes, they’ll snag a kid right out of the school and give them a job. One of my dreams is to work in a Nextel Cup or Busch shop,” said Seger.

“And being right there, in the heart of NASCAR, is pretty exciting. I’ll learn all kinds of new things,” said Seger who also noted there are a lot of race tracks in North Carolina.

Seger has been driving race cars since he was 14, starting with the Little Enduros and working his way up to the Limited Sportsman class. He is from a racing family as his dad, Bobby Seger Sr., raced for 18 years and the Segers are related to the Harnish family from Winterport, another prominent local racing family.

He won a Street Stock points championship at Unity Raceway in 2004 and was second in the Strictly Street class at Speedway 95 the following year. He moved up to Limiteds last year and raced at Speedway 95 and Wiscasset.

He has been racing at different tracks this year but is fifth in the Limiteds class at Speedway 95 with a pair of feature wins to his credit.

He said he hopes to do some racing in North Carolina.

“One of the instructors down there told me that a lot of the time, young kids go down there and find a Pro Stock ride. I might build a brand new race car [and race it] if nothing else works out,” said Seger.

“There’s nothing like driving a race car. It’s the most exciting thing to do,” said Seger.

He said he will definitely miss his family and friends but this is a chance of a lifetime.

Seger would love the opportunity to drive in one of NASCAR’s top series.

“Obviously, it’s a dream. Realistically, it’s a long shot. But you never know. I’m still young,” said Seger who, in the meantime, is eager to learn everything he can about the cars and the business.