Approximately 140 students from elementary and high schools from throughout Utah and West Wendover met on Saturday, 24 October at the Historic Wendover Airfield for the first GEAR UP! Greenpower Exhibition. Driving both the elementary school GOBLIN and the high school F-24 series electric cars, the students competed in a timed exhibition, each high school completing 18-laps with 6 different drivers. With perfect weather, the students quickly adapted to this first of its kind event, and not only drove their vehicles, but completed minor repairs and adjustments.
Prior to the actual exhibition, each student was given a safety briefing, a race etiquette briefing, and rules of the track. Each high school’s F-24 raced against each high school and the team with the fastest time for the 18 laps was Manti High School. Both Wendover and West Wendover High competed and the students from each school’s racing team are already at work making adjustments and modifications to their respective cars to increase stamina and staying power, both part of the judging criteria for future races.
The next race is scheduled for spring at a site to be determined. At that point, each school will have completed initial modifications which will enhance the competitiveness of the event.
The GEAR UP! Program is a federally-funded project with the goal of helping students from lower-income regions realize that post-high school education is a possibility. The program in Utah is administered by Utah State University.
Greenpower is the trading name of a charitable organisation, the Greenpower Education Trust, whose objective is to inspire more young people to become engineers by presenting the engineering industry as an interesting and relevant career choice which could help to solve problems relating to the personal, social and emotional development of individuals and societies. The main idea is for teams of students between the ages of 9 and 25 to build and race their own electric powered race cars on top racing circuits.
