THSCC worked with the EV challenge group to put on another successful electric vehicle autocross on April 3rd 2004. The course was a somewhat short one, setup in one of the parking lots at the McKimmon center. There were 20 vehicles entered from as far away as Florida.
This was the first EV challenge I’ve seen in awhile, since I had to miss last years event, and I really noticed how much the schools have improved their vehicles over the years. Gone are the days when the cars seem to slow down about half way through the day. At this event all 20 entrants made 8 timed runs and a bunch of fun runs with steady improvements in their times all day. The competition was fierce as well with all 3 classes having top spots within a few hundredths of each others times.
At these events, the vehicles are typically separated into three classes. The classes are car, truck and mod. Both car and truck are limited to running speed controllers at 96 volts and 600 amps. The mod cars are allow to step it up a bit and run up to 156 volts at 1200 amps. There were several mod cars that had very impressive power off the line. They could spin the tires at will and the good times went to the drivers that did well at controlling their right foot out of the corners.
I thought I’d list out the top three in each class so you could see how close the times really were.
Car
1st Wake Forest/Rolesville HS 1986 Mazda RX7 18.453
2nd Northeast Guilford HS 1986 VW Jetta 18.469
3rd Northern Vance HS 1983 Ford EXP 18.496
Truck
1st Lincoln County School of Tech. 1987 Ford Ranger 19.942
2nd East Gaston HS 1985 Ford Ranger 19.967
3rd Northern Vance HS Chevy S-10 20.459
Mod
1st Union County CC 1985 Toyota MR2 16.896
2nd Topsail HS 1992 Toyota Paseo 16.941
3rd Miramir HS 1993 Ford Probe 17.747
I’d like to thank the following THSCC members who came out and gave an extra effort to help make this event successful. Steve Blalock, Simon Wright, Gordon Taylor, Cathie Taylor, Malia Fredrickson, Dustin Fredickson, Stephan Westerfield, Mike Westerfield, Patrick Wellenus, Mike Chrzanowsk, Charlie Guthrie, Peter Guthrie, and last but not least George Bright. You guys and gals all get a big
especially the crew who did timing and scoring.
In the many years that the club has been involved with the EV challenge it has been a win/win situation for both organizations. By putting on autocross events for the electric vehicles we give the kids who build and maintain these vehicles a chance to test them in a competition environment. In return, Tarheel has used the income generated from these events buy additional equipment to improve our autocross program.
After Todd's post about environmental sound racing practices it makes you wonder when we will start seeing electric vehicles at our regular events?
Shawn
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