WELCOME BACK

The summer was a hot one and we hope everyone enjoyed the time with family and friends.

As we get closer to the first race of the season, we hope our teams have dusted off their cars and started planning for the race season.

We are excited to announce that our team list has grown again this year. We will have Plant HS, and I will Mentorship Foundation joining us this year. We are working with Leto HS and Mulberry HS and have loaner cars available to bring them on board. We will be seeing the return of the team from Simmons this year with their new Teacher William Knight. The Lennard Teams and Jim Reve should be back this year after their car issue at their race last season put them out of commission. Wharton HS should have their car ready soon and return to the track with their team. Jefferson HS has shown interest but has not made the plunge to join us with a loaner car.

We will hold nine races again this year and hope to attend races that others are hosting in Ft Myers, Pensacola, Alabama and Georgia. The race season this year will be exciting and challenging for our teams. We will hold two races at USF in the same parking lot but the courses will be different, the race in March will be a new course at St. Pete College in conjunction with Maker Con and Comic Con. Teams will be able to dress up in costumes to show our support for their event. In April we will hold our speed event at Brandon HS where teams can test their cars and watch as their Team Sponsor and Executive Board race against one another.

The first race of the season will be held on September 23, 2017 at Hillsborough Community College, located at 10414 E. Columbus Drive in Brandon Florida. The race day schedule will be sent to each team prior to the race. We will have a mandatory orientation for all team members. The drivers and pit crew for each team will be given a 25 question quiz on items from the Electrathon America Handbook. Make sure to bring a pen or pencil with you to take the quiz. We will also have a guest at our first race; Bobby Diehl will be presenting information concerning Electrathon races being held at the Desoto Speedway. Here is the course for our first race:

Yellow – Caution Tape

Red – Course

Green – Pits

Black – Tower/Start/Finish Line

Electrathon of Tampa Bay has been invited to the September 19, 2017 IEEE Meeting to give a presentation on Electrathon Racing and our group in a joint effort to bring on new teams.

The meeting will be held at the John F. Germany Public Library located at 900 North Ashley Drive, Tampa Florida. The meeting will start at 630 pm.

ETO members should attend to support this presentation and to have enough folks on hand to assist with anyone asking questions about our group.

We will need one or two teams to bring their car to this meeting as a display for those attending. Please contact Charles Harrison or Fredi if your team will be able to bring a car.

THANKS

The ETO annual membership meeting was held at the Cracker Barrel on July 17, 2017.

Charles Harrison gave a breakdown of last year’s season which saw considerable growth for ETO.  We met a large number of our business plan goals and objectives. There was a lot of discussion about the upcoming season which will see even more growth and be very busy.

The new season that starts with our opening event at Hillsborough Community College/Brandon Campus in September will see even more growth.  Representatives from teams as far away as Fort Myers (I Will Mentoring Foundation) and Orlando (Electrocutioners) were present and teams in South Florida (Pro EV) sent in material that was read at the meeting.  We were honored to have the new Electrathon America Vice President, Don Morgan from Quitman Georgia, attend our meeting.

Don went over the changes in store for Electrathon America.  Electrathon America has a whole new slate of officers headed by President Kirk Swaney who has a lot of new ideas to move everyone forward.

New rules at the national level are in the works for car and driver safety.  They are substantial but will not be difficult or expensive to comply with.  The main one concerns the roll bar set up and how it is measured.  More info will be forwarded when the rules are adopted in their final form.

Locally we should see the return of Lennard and Wharton High School.  Plant High School has a car ready to go for the season opener.  Brandon High School is working on a 3rd car but lost their sponsor and needs a new one to step up and help them out.  Middleton High School has new drivers and a new 3rd car in the works.

ETO has several loaner cars and we are working on getting new schools involved in Electrathon Racing.

Our local schedule and other out of town events will afford many opportunities for our teams to compete on a higher level and push that one hour envelope.

Sai and his guys from University of South Florida are working on their Lithium Powered car and have come up with some innovative ideas for battery management that will increase the reliability and safety of the batteries.  Sai has also come up with a very neat way to implement 2 way communications among the teams, officials and sponsors using our cell phones and an ear bud set up.  More info as the system is implemented.

Vic

In Electrathon Racing it is all about MAKING THAT HOUR 

In Electrathon Racing it is all about the BATTERIES

This information is for the teams that are using sealed lead acid batteries. The information has been around for a while and is presented as a reminder/refresher.

First off, not just any battery charger will do the job you need for your batteries. The charger needs to have an AGM/GEL cell Cycle. A charger meant for a regular liquid lead acid battery has only one cycle to charge a battery. The charger for an AGM/Gel will have multiple cycles to properly charge them. It will also extend the life of the battery.

Charge rates are also important. If you charge the battery at to high of an amp rate you can damage them. The Optima Battery web site has some real good information on battery maintenance. A 12 volt battery should be around 13 volts when fully charged and ready to race.

Testing your batteries is a lot more than just checking the Voltage. I have tested batteries for teams that read 12.6 and only had 400Amps. They would not have made half the race. Each team should have a DIGITAL BATTERY TESTER. This type of a tester will give Voltage, AMPS and also detect a Bad Cell. A battery with a bad cell WILL NOT charge properly and will leave you dead on the track.

Digital Battery Testers are available from most auto parts store and they can be expensive.  I have seen them on line for $50 – $80.

Another tool that can come in handy is an Infrared Tachometer. Do you want to know how fast a given gear ratio will move your car? You need to know the motor RPM.  The number of teeth on the motor gear, the gear on the drive wheel, the circumference of the drive wheel AND the motor shaft speed will give you the max possible speed for each gear set. You can tailor the gear ratio for the individual track. gokartracing.org has a calculator that you can input the information and get MPH for any combo of gears and wheels.

The proper battery charger, a Digital Battery Tester, an Infrared Tachometer.  These will help keep those batteries in top shape and your car on the track.

Remember it’s all about the batteries.

See you in September

Vic

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will be holding our annual Board Meeting that consists of the Executive Board Members and representatives from every team (Sponsor/Team Captains/Designee) on July 17, 2017 at the Cracker Barrel located by Lazy Days RV, 6150 Lazy Days Blvd, Seffner Florida 33584. Arrive between 430 p.m. and 5 p.m. the meeting will start at 5 p.m.

Please reply to Fredi or Charlie to confirm your attendance and the number of attendees to the meeting by July 10, 2017.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will be represented at this event thanks to Aditya Chelikani and the USF Team. USF will display their car, hand out Electrathon of Tampa Bay flyers and answer questions about our organization and their car. This event at MOSI will run three weekends in a row. Here is some information from their website about their event.

Discover the science of fireworks, then build rockets and send them soaring more than 100 feet into the sky during MOSI’s three-weekend event.

For three exciting weekends leading up to Independence Day, you’ll be able to get hands-on with science that’s as American as Apple Pi at the Museum of Science & Industry! MOSI’s Rockets’ Red Glare Festival lifts off June 17 & 18, 24 & 25, and July 1 & 2.

Meet real rocket engineers from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the festival’s first day, Saturday, June 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They’ll show you how to design, build, and launch your own rocket made from paper up to heights of more than 100 feet!

Then that same paper rocket launching fun will continue on every weekend day during the festival, led by the staff of MOSI’s Idea Zone makerspace.

Plus, at various times on festival days, live demonstrations will give you an up-close look into the science that makes fireworks light up the sky, led by MOSI’s STEAM Team (STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math).

MOSI’s Rockets’ Red Glare Festival is included with MOSI admission, as is MOSI’s summer exhibit Cardboard Space Adventures, where families help create a huge outpost in outer space, made out of cardboard — exploring a towering space station, alien base, and maze; building cardboard machines; and even playing a giant Space Invasion video game using cardboard game controllers.

Dads get in free on the festival’s opening weekend! On Father’s Day weekend, June 17 & 18, dads visit MOSI free with a paid child’s ticket. (Some restrictions apply — visit the MOSI ticket office or call 813-987-6000 for details.)

We had a great location for our cars to promote ETO and Electrathon Racing, we even had the chance to drive the cars around during the event.

Emma Alaba, Director & Host Organizer of Robofest in FL looks good in an Electrathon car. There were 11 Countries represented at this wonderful event.

Mike Wilson and the Vibots from McLane Middle School and Alicia Ponds and the Space Falcons from Farnell Middle School were competitors at the event.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will be a part of the Robofest 2017 World Championship. We will have two cars on display with team members available to answer questions and hand out flyers about our organization all three days.

Robofest 2017 World Championship will be held on June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, hosted by the City of St. Pete Beach. The event will be held at 7701 Boca Ciega Drive, St. Pete Beach, Florida. Teams will be coming from all of the world to compete at this event.

For more information go to their website: https://www.robofest.net/

To volunteer at this event, go to their website above and then click on the word Volunteer

To make a donation to assist in making this event a huge success please visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/Robofest2017WorldChampionship-Support-OrganizedBy-Emma-Alaba

For hotel reservations visit:

http://www.tampabaybeaches.com/st-pete-beach.html

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 1^st Middleton #365, 2^nd Middleton #80, 3^rd Middleton #133, 4^th Brandon #14, 5^th Palm Bay Magnet #101, 6^th Brandon #9, 7^th Brandon #60, 8^th Brandon #30

Open Division 1^st Tiger #4, 2^nd Archer #321, 3^rd Titans #242, 4^th Hillsborough Community College #13, 5^th Silver Bullet #94, 6^th University of Central Florida #823

Advanced Battery Division 1^st Electrocutioners #72, 2^nd Pro EV #39, 3^rd Electrocutioners #8, 4^th University of South Florida #132, 5^th 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) 1^st Middleton #365, 2^nd Brandon #14, 3^rd Middleton #80, 4^th Middleton #133, 5^th Brandon #9

Open Division Season Points (Top 5) 1^st Tiger #4, 2^nd Hillsborough Community College #13, 3^rd Silver Bullet #94 (aka Robinson and Son Racing) 4^th Titans #242, 5^th University of Central Florida #823

Advanced Battery Division (Top 5) 1^st Electrocutioners #72, 2^nd Electrocutioners #8, 3^rd Pro EV #39, 4^th Electrocutioners #90, 5^th 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.

Our last race of the season is approaching quickly, this year the course will be more challenging than others that we have had at this event. We have 12 teams signed up and a total of 19 cars expected to be lined up when the green flag drops for the first race to begin. We will require some flag assistance so please check in with Mike Frederick (Race Steward). When the race day is over, we will present the awards for this race and then we will have our end of the year awards ceremony.