Pomeroy-Palmer students tout electric cars in Fort Dodge
Electrathon club hot off national Kan-Am Electric Challenge victoryBy JESSE HELLING, Messenger staff writer
Article Photos
The roar of engines, the smell of exhaust - are nowhere to be found during an Electrathon competition.
Rather, the zippy little compact vehicles, which are generally no more than 12 feet long and 4 feet wide, silently circle a track, with the winner determined as the car that can make the most laps in an hour.
Through this weekend, the Pomeroy-Palmer High School Electrathon club's vehicles will be on display at Fort Dodge Ford, which invited the school to exhibit their work. Members of the team construct, fine-tune and ultimately drive their vehicles in contests throughout the nation.
Electrathon started at Pomeroy-Palmer about 12 years ago, said Russ Buddin, a retired teacher who helped get the team started and continues to advise its members.
''A student came to class, showed me a magazine article about it and asked if we could organize a team,'' Buddin said. ''I saw no reason why we couldn't.''
Using two automotive batteries that combined provide about a kilowatt hour of electricity, the object of the competition is distance, rather than speed. Traveling too fast drains the batteries faster, which means that the vehicle may not be able to continue for the whole hour.
"The objective is to build one of these things that is safe, brakes well, is highly maneuverable," Buddin said.
The school is hot off their victory at the Kan-Am Electric Challenge, which was held Oct. 6 at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.
There, one of the Pomeroy-Palmer teams took first in the standard class high school division, completing 29 laps, or about 43.5 miles in an hour.
This year, there are 12 Electrathon participants at Pomeroy-Palmer, Buddin said.
That includes the school's first-ever, all-girl team the Pink Ladies, whose pink-colored vehicle ''Lucy'' was designed to promote breast cancer awareness.
Work on ''Lucy,'' named at random after actress Lucille Ball, began in January, according to team member Leah Garrett.
''When the hair goes up, it's time to get serious,'' said Garrett, who, along with her teammates, designed a vehicle that took eighth place in the standard class high school division, traveling 33 miles in an hour.
''We wanted to have a girls team, so a bunch of us got together,'' said Audra Nelson, one of the team's four drivers. "It's for a good cause."
Contact Jesse Helling at (515) 573-2141 or jhelling@messengernews.net
|
verbiosa
|
|
|---|---|
|
10-16-08 10:28 AM
|
Good for them! It's a shame Fort Dodge students don't get involved in these kinds of competitions.
|