ETO had a great 2016-2017 Race Season, we held nine races and had teams represent ETO at races in Pensacola (Five Flags Speedway – took 5 of 9 trophies), Quitman Georgia (Run for the Peaches race was cancelled week of race) and Leeds Alabama (Barber Motorsports Park – took 4 of 7 trophies).
Our last race of the season was held on May 13, 2017 in Cocoa Florida at the Energy Whiz Olympics. We want to thank Florida Solar Energy Center and The University of Central Florida (Susan, Kevin, Penny and Lillian) and everyone else that made the event a success.
A special thank you goes out to Rodney (Tiger Racing) and Lillian (Florida Solar Energy Center) for all of their help on Friday morning with setting up the course and safety barriers.
On Saturday morning a special thank you goes to Brandon and Middleton High Schools for helping with the tower and final course preparations.
We had a total of 12 teams and 19 cars registered for this race. Some of the teams came from Milton Florida (Archer Racing), Davie Florida (Pro EV Racing) and Hialeah Florida (Tiger Racing) to name a few of the travelers.
The lineup for the first race had 16 cars when the green flag dropped at 10am. By the second lap of the race the other three teams were on the track setting a new first race record of 19 cars. The first race went well as the drivers got used to the 1500’ track that had some tight turns and changes in elevation. We had a few teams that were challenged during the first race. Tiger Racing had the rivets’ come out of their floor pan when they found the one bad spot on the entire track, the chain came off of a few cars and we even had the Titan Racing Team battery strap break causing a battery to slide across the track at one of the turns. Due to all of our ETO safety measures no one was hurt in any of the issues and the cars were back in the race in a timely manner.
Between races teams were able to grab some lunch from the food trucks and walk around the Energy Whiz Olympics that had so many interesting competitions. The Western High School Solar Cats from Davie Florida had a solar powered vehicle displayed at the Energy Whiz Olympics and had the opportunity to give our road course a try with their solar powered vehicle. The vehicle did very well and impressed our ETO racers.
The lineup for our second race had 17 cars when the green flag dropped at 1pm. By the second lap the other two teams were on the track setting our second race record of 19 cars. The second race had a few interesting moments when Palm Bay Magnet and Pro EV went into a turn at the same time coming extremely close to one another causing Pro EV to hit the brakes, causing the back side of the car to slide sideways. Electrocutioners car #90 had their chain come off, locking up the rear wheel which caused the car to spin out.
At the end of the race day the results were:
High School Division 1st Middleton #365, 2nd Middleton #80, 3rd Middleton #133, 4th Brandon #14, 5th Palm Bay Magnet #101, 6th Brandon #9, 7th Brandon #60, 8th Brandon #30
Open Division 1st Tiger #4, 2nd Archer #321, 3rd Titans #242, 4th Hillsborough Community College #13, 5th Silver Bullet #94, 6th University of Central Florida #823
Advanced Battery Division 1st Electrocutioners #72, 2nd Pro EV #39, 3rd Electrocutioners #8, 4th University of South Florida #132, 5th Electrocutioners #90
We held the 2016-2017 Race Season Awards Ceremony since all of our teams were present and able to be part of the ceremony.
High School Division Season Points (Top 5) 1st Middleton #365, 2nd Brandon #14, 3rd Middleton #80, 4th Middleton #133, 5th Brandon #9
Open Division Season Points (Top 5) 1st Tiger #4, 2nd Hillsborough Community College #13, 3rd Silver Bullet #94 (aka Robinson and Son Racing) 4th Titans #242, 5th University of Central Florida #823
Advanced Battery Division (Top 5) 1st Electrocutioners #72, 2nd Electrocutioners #8, 3rd Pro EV #39, 4th Electrocutioners #90, 5th University of South Florida #132
Most laps for the season were:
High School Division – Brandon #14
Open Division – Tiger Racing #4
Advanced Battery Division – Electrocutioners #72
The members of ETO surprised ETO President Charles Harrison with a plaque for Board Member of the Year.
On behalf of Electrathon of Tampa Bay, we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer and thank everyone for their support.
We are already starting to plan our race season for 2017-2018.