The Inaugural 2011 TCNJ Electrathon Racing Vehicle
Dr. Norm Asper
Professor Emeritus
School of Engineering
The College of New Jersey
Ewing NJ, 08625

As Professor Emeritus, I not only continue teaching classes each semester but also continue to be involved in the most enjoyable part of the academic year – the Senior Design Project. For several years, on this web site, I have encouraged students to become involved with the Electrathon America competitive events. I see the goals and objectives of this competition fitting perfectly with the goals and objectives of our Technological Studies Department. With Electrathon’s emphasis on secondary education Math, Science, and Technology, I can see this activity becoming a major recruiting tool for the School of Engineering. I can also see the School of Engineering working with New Jersey secondary schools in helping them develop Electrathon Vehicles with the intent of establishing a TCNJ sponsored competitive event for the State of New Jersey. For the 2010/2011 academic year, three Mechanical Engineering seniors, and three Electrical/Computer Engineering seniors built the first TCNJ Electrathon Vehicle specifically for the Solar Class. This group competed successfully in the Connecticut Electrathon Challenge held at Lime Rock Park and sponsored by Central Connecticut State University and their Department of Technological Studies.

The early decision to compete in the solar division necessitated a design that included large surfaces for the mounting of solar arrays. The vehicle was designed in Pro/Engineer and loaded into Fluent to analyze aerodynamic drag. The design materials consisted of sheet aluminum body panels with polycarbonate windshield and side windows. The same Pro/Engineer model was used to fabricate a 1/6 scale balsa model using a CNC router. The model was placed on a force balance in a wind tunnel to verify the Fluent data.

A full-size PVC mock-up of theframe was constructed to test the anthropometric viability of the frame design. In this illustration, Jon shows that the frame members at the shoulder are just too narrow, and the roll bar needs to be raised. As our two drivers, both Jon and Hunter will have to test a revised design of this of this frame. The selection of 6061 T1 Aluminum required an extensive ANSYS analysis of the frame and roll cage. The protection of the driver in the event of a frontal or side impact and roll-over were upmost in Zach’s frame design analysis. Frontal and side impact ratings yielded a safety factor of 6 while the rollover safety factor yielded a safety factor of 14. The industry standard for a motorized vehicle is a safety factor of 5.

With the frame members verified by the mock-up, Zach began cutting and forming the aluminum tube on the assembly table. The basic frame material size was 1 inch OD, while the side impact members were 1-1/4 inch OD tubing. Zach took over the TIG welding responsibilities for the whole project—no small effort. Jon and Hunter set up milling machines to cut “fish mouth” joints on the end of the tubes. Each joint had to be mitered separately to match the angle of the adjoining tube. Joe (on the left), Jon and Zach discuss the frame structure for the motor mount and rear wheel drop-out location. The frame members are now being clamped together and bolted to the assembly table.

Cutting the Aluminum tubing to length with the appropriate “fish mouth” joint angles, squaring and welding the frame took considerable time.

It always seems like a major milestone has been achieved when the basic frame finally comes together. It’s easy to misjudge the myriad of details that still remain. Now is the time to recheck the anthropometric changes that were made from the mockup. Notice the expanded side impact members at the shoulder area, and the raised roll bar. Now the front suspension and steering, drive train and rear wheel, seat, battery boxes, solar array, and body panels all need to be fabricated and mounted.

The front wheel location has already been established by the frame support members. The wire spokes of the selected bicycle rims were never designed to withstand the side loading that they will encounter in high speed turns. Negative chamber was needed to be designed into the front suspension. Some of this chamber could be achieved by an initial setting of the front suspension. Jon achieved additional “dynamic” negative chamber by designing an “Unparallel Equal Length Double A Arm” front suspension. As the car leans into a turn, the additional loading on the outside wheel creates an additional 3° of negative chamber. Since both upper and lower A arms were identical, a welding jig facilitated their manufacture. The A arm mounting brackets were fabricated from 6 x 2 in rectangular tubing. Initial mounting points were adjustable. The caster angle was established, and the mounting brackets were welded in place at the correct caster angle. Minor caster and chamber adjustments can still be made by turning the heim joints in or out. With the A arm mounting brackets welded into place, the shock absorber mounting brackets could also be fabricated and welded into place. These brackets were designed to accept the 700 lb mountain bike “coilover shocks” selected for this suspension system. The steel hub backing plates and A arm mounting tabs were fabricated and their installation was used to prove the suspension geometry.

The steering column support bracket, the heim joint steering column supports, the pitman arm, and the tie rods were machined and welded into place. The original battery location can also be seen in this illustration. The battery location was later moved to the area behind the driver’s seat in order to relocate the CG. The steering column was intentionally left long until the ergonomics of the driver’s seating position could finally be established.

The tubes for the motor controller and the initial rear axel dropouts have now been welded in place. The mounting base for the motor mount bracket has also been welded in place across the base frame tubes. The level across the base frame tubes was used to correct for some minor bending which occurred during the welding process. The dropouts had to be perfectly level with the ground. Zach designed a calibrated eccentric that will ensure the rear axel is always installed absolutely perpendicular to the centerline of the vehicle, even with a conventional bicycle rear axel dropout. The eccentric also serves to establish appropriate chain tension. An adaptor was machined to mount a 12 tooth sprocket faced down to accept an ANSI standard #40 bicycle chain. The sprocket is mounted rigidly to the motor shaft. A 22 tooth freewheel was used in conjunction with a 48 tooth front chain ring to provide an appropriate sprocket ratio. A 1/4 inch aluminum adapter plate was machined with mounting holes to bolt directly to the freewheel, and the face of the adapter plate was machined with a centering shoulder for mounting the chain ring.

Above, Joe’s motor controller (shown without cover and mounted on it’s heat sink) is mounted directly above the motor. His in-house designed and fabricated pulse-width modulated controller worked perfectly throughout several weeks of testing and the competition. Below shows the mounting of a commercial motor controller. Since one objective of this project was to show how local high schools could build a similar vehicle, we thought it unlikely that a high school would be building their own motor controller. A commercial controller of this type would be a viable option for a high school project. Notice also the relocation of the batteries to behind the driver’s seat. This change in weight distribution was necessary to achieve the appropriate stable “understeer” characteristic appropriate for a three-wheeled vehicle.

As for Joe’s motor controller, after the boards were designed, Joe made full scale layout mock-ups to review the traces and to ensure that each component fit the footprint properly. Once the printed circuit boards arrived, the parts were soldered in place and the testing could continue. The upper picture shows the “Control Board”, and the lower picture shows the “Power Board”.

With everything assembled, it was time to begin the testing process. Any necessary modifications could be more easily performed without body panels in place.

The 0.024 inch thick aluminum sheet was shaped for the rear and side panels, and each panel was clamped into place to verify the fit. The rear panels shown here, the battery cover panels, and the solar array will all be mounted with dzus fasteners. These fasteners will provide quick access to the drive system and batteries. With the dzus fasteners in place, the top Lexan cover can be fitted. The rear cover will be held in place with the same dzus fittings as the rear panels.

The Lexan polycarbonate cover (shown above with it’s protective cover) is held in place in preparation for locating dzus fasteners for the rear side covers. The polycarbonate material was chosen for this rear cover area to insure that no interference would be created for the telemetry box mounted high in this area.

The in-vehicle instrumentation and telemetry box contained both an Arduino microcontroller board and an XBee transceiver. Therefore, information was hard-wired to an instrument box for the driver as well as being transmitted to the pits. The cockpit display box was mounted on the handlebars directly in front of the driver. The 9-pin D-sub at the bottom connects the display directly to the telemetry box. The knob below the LCD screen is used to control display brightness.

A change was made to the nose section. Hunter, being the taller of our two drivers, needed more room for his feet. We also needed an area to mount the peak power tracker for the solar array. Both were accommodated by extending and bending the roll cage tubes and welding them to extended bottom tubes. Sheet aluminum was then rolled and pop riveted to the extended tubes at the nose section. Brackets were also welded into place for the dzus fasteners that hold the solar array in place. A sheet aluminum replacement panel was also made for the solar array panel in case we had to carry the car on our open trailer.

With all panels in place (except the solar array), full-hour test sequences could be performed. Even without the solar array in place, the one-hour tests (without driver change) yielded times faster than the winning times from the fall 2011 event. The team was happy with that data.

With only a minor tuning of the motor controller (a change in the ramp rate for acceleration), all of the electrical and mechanical systems were working perfectly. Obviously there was time out to paint the car and apply the vinyl lettering.

On June 3rd, at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park Raceway, Zach, Joe, and Maxx prepare the car for the first heat event. In each of the two heats, half of the registered cars will be on the track at the same time. Below, Zach talks to Hunter on the grid as the cars are being positioned for the first heat.

As the green flag drops, Hunter falls into line with the leaders. His stint as the driver can only last from 20 to 40 minutes. The Electrathon rules specify that there must be a driver change within that period.

Hunter selected a speed that would keep him running with the leaders but would not create an excessive current draw. He, and the pit crew, knew that he had enough energy to continue running with the leaders and still have enough power remaining to run much faster during the second half of the race.

At the 35 minute mark, Hunter caught the left front wheel on the edge of the pavement and spun the car off into the infield. This turned his final lap, before the driver change, into a 5 minute ordeal, getting back onto the track and into the pits. The team’s immediate concern was to inspect the car for damage and prepare to get Jon into the driver’s seat. Both Hunter leaving the car and Jon entering the car had to be weighed again to verify that they still met the 180 pound minimum weight. Jon’s arm-band verifies that he passed the initial weigh-in (with minimal ballast).

Into the pits following the spin, the car had to be inspected and a driver change had to be accomplished. The rear wheel was found to no longer be true. We could continue to run at the same speed as the leading cars, but a high speed finish was out of the question.

Jon finished the race with respectable lap times, but was disappointed by not being able to go all out in the closing minutes. We would just have to accept the fact that we were going to finish the race with considerable unused energy. Despite the mishap, the car ran perfectly the whole time finishing in a very respectable position.

The NJ011 car completed 47 laps. Maxx describes the effort as “using less power than the average hair dryer with an equivalent energy consumption of 807 miles per gallon*! (*One US gallon of gasoline contains an average of 36.6 kWh of energy) This has been a great learning experience, and a great basis for future Electrathon projects, not only in The College of New Jersey’s School of Engineering, but also extended out into area high school technology programs.

Our most ardent supporter was Tracy McCarty (Joe’s dad) on the right above and in the center behind the banner below. He went with us in the fall when we took our first look at an Electrathon event. He supplied the material for the frame as well as generous funding support and fabrication resources. He also provided the truck we used to haul the car and our supplies to the event. This type of support combined with the support of several local sponsors, and especially the extraordinary support provided by Dean Schreiner and the School of Engineering made it possible to create a high level project that reflected well on the students involved as well as the engineering program. I look forward to continued involvement in future School of Engineering Electrathon projects as well as the possible expansion of Electrathon projects into area high school Technology programs.

RHS students’ electric car cruises to third
By The Ridgefield Press
Saturday, 18 June 2011 06:14

With their home-built, battery-powered vehicle, Ridgefield High School’s electric car team cruised into third place in their division at the Connecticut Electrathon competition at Lime Rock Raceway Friday, June 3.

The team, coached by Ridgefield High School physics teacher, Wes Desantis, spent the last five months designing, fabricating, testing and modifying their vehicle with the help of Ridgefield High School materials science teacher, John Nessel.

The team’s task was to design and construct a battery-powered vehicle that could go the farthest distance in an hour long competition. More than 25 area high schools from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts participated in this alternative energy and engineering competition.

“It was an amazingly exciting race” said Ridgefield High School Principal Jeffrey Jaslow, who attended to cheer on the team.

“I was at the edge of my seat watching as the mechanical and electrical pit crews from our team had to jump in mid-way through the race to repair a problem with the throttle.”

Despite the lost time in the pit because of the throttle failure, Ridgefield High School managed to pull in a third place finish as the entire team rallied to get the car back on the track. Reaching speeds of over 30 mph, the car held together very well enduring both hard banked, downhill turns and uphill climbs that stressed the vehicle to its limits.

“This was the first year Ridgefield has entered the competition and the team work was great,” said Mr. Desantis. “Everyone is fired up and looking forward to building next year’s car — they have great ideas and design improvements to try.”

High School Students Explore Future of Electric Cars
By Kathryn Boughton
November 6, 2009

SALISBURY — In January 2007 13 percent of Americans said they had never heard of global warming, according to an ACNeilsen poll of 46 countries. That figure may or may not have changed, but those Americans who had heard of global warming by 2009 are now choosing not to believe in it. A Pew Research report released last week said that 57 percent of Americans think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer-but that figure is down 20 points from three years ago.

But the scientific evidence appears to be irrefutable, and today’s young people form the group most likely to be dramatically affected by the global crisis. They are, in many ways, the ones charged with cleaning up the mess and schools throughout the state are responding to the challenge of preparing the leaders of tomorrow by engaging them in projects that challenge them to think about global solutions creatively. Such a group met last Friday at Salisbury’s Lime Rock Park where the annual Electrathon Competition was held.

Student teams from across the state met to test electric cars they had crafted, seeing which team could drive the most laps in one hour on a closed loop track. The single-person, lightweight, aerodynamic vehicles are designed with three or four wheels and must meet specific design and safety rules established by Electrathon America, The cars are powered by standardized deep cycle lead acid battery packs not exceeding 64 pounds.

The team from Nathan Hale Ray High School in East Haddam took the overall win last week. Entered in the “Composite” category (fiberglass, wood or carbon-fiber monocoque chassis), the car completed 119 laps of Lime Rock’s 2/10-mile autocross test track in the allotted one hour, for a total of 23.8 miles.

Second overall and first in the “Classic” category (metal space-frame chassis) was the Lyme-Old Lyme High School vehicle, which completed 115 laps (23.0 miles). Tied for second place in the Classic division were Old Saybrook High School and the Somers High School, with 109 laps (21.8 miles) each. Finishing third was Farmington High School with 97 laps (19.4 miles). Nonnewaug High School of Woodbury was fifth in the composite division with 61 laps (12.2 laps).

The Connecticut Electrathon program was initiated by by Mike Grella, a retired Terryville vo-tech teacher who lives in Litchfield. Mr. Grella first saw the program in Maine a decade ago. That program was for adults and “they were doing things we could never build in a high school,” he related. Nevertheless, the teacher was intrigued and brought the concept home with him.

He approached Central Connecticut State University and it indicated its willingness to participate in the program by managing events. With that promise of support, he then e-mailed every high school in the state encouraging participation in an annual competition with two meets each year-one in the fall and one in the spring.

“This is a year-long program,” he said, adding that some schools treat it as an extra-curricular activity while in others it is part of the technical education offerings. Roy Slater, tech teacher at Somers High School said, for instance, that his school has participated since 2004 and builds its car as part of an advanced Research and Development Class for seniors. Although operated out of the technical education department, students for the R&D class are drawn from all parts of the school, based on their performance.

“It is a cross-section of the school population-those excelling in math, science and technology,” Mr. Slater said, adding that a combination of students from the academics honor program who have been exposed to pre-engineering classes and those with technical skills make the best combination. There are typically 14 students in the class and this is the first year when there has not been a female student working on the car.

“It’s a high-level class,” he said. “The students are recommended by their teachers and are challenged at the highest level.”

He said the class is school sanctioned but that the students must raise the money for the production of the car. “The school underwrites the program by providing space and me,” he said, but the young people must develop the skills needed to find corporate sponsors.

“I’ve been waiting for this group for four years,” he said, as he watched his team preparing the car for its Lime Rock run. “I have watched them since they were freshmen. This program brings all their skills together.”

Because this year’s class has raised $10,000 for the project, there is enough money to branch out into other areas, Mr. Slater said. In addition to the car, the young people are working on a solar-powered car and will try to build a hovercraft.

Such innovation is at the core of the Electrathon competition Mr. Grella said. “This is not a racing event,” he clarified. “The schools are racing against time, to see how many laps they can run in one hour.” He said the use of Lime Rock Park is particularly fortunate as it provides all the necessary ingredients-elevations and right and left turns such as would be encountered in on-street driving.
“The cars are 90 percent built by the students,” he reported. “Some schools will buy a kit that provides the body and frame, but then the kids have to come up with the ideas. They design the car on a computer and have to deal with such issues as aerodynamics and resistance of the wheels. They have to learn about composites.”

He said the cars take hundreds of hours for the students to complete and often require the young people to work during the evenings and on weekends. “When we were working on cars in Terryville, we were supposed to finish at 9 p.m., but they were always trying to finish something up and we never got out before 10,” Mr. Grella said with a smile. “I usually got home about quarter to 11. They couldn’t wait to work on them.”

Beyond the academics of designing an energy-efficient car, the students also learn “life lessons,” according to Mr. Grella. He recounts the story of the construction of Terryville’s first car, which was crafted by hand out of metal. When it came time to bend the metal, the students took the pieces to a local body shop where the owner volunteered his time and equipment to help the school. “It was a life lesson [about community service],” he said, “and the kids’ first question was, ‘What can we do for him?’ So they bought him a gift certificate to a restaurant.”

“[The students] form life-long relationships,” he added. “It gives them life values.” He said that students from a decade ago still seek him out to share what they have achieved in their professions. Mr. Slater noted that two of his former students were on the field Friday helping with the 2009 Electrathon competition. The program is steadily growing and more and more schools are joining. A number of schools were at Lime Rock Friday to observe the competition in anticipation of launching their own programs. “The spring competition is much bigger,” he said. He said he would like to see schools such as New Milford enter the competition in coming years.

Electrathon Challenge brings purring race cars to Lime Rock Park Track
By Cynthia Hochswender
November 05, 2009

LIME ROCK — It was a pep rally, of sorts. Students from all over the state traveled to the race track at Lime Rock Park on Friday, Oct. 30, to take part in the autumn edition of the Connecticut Electrathon Challenge. Only 13 cars were entered this time; the big race is in spring, when about 35 of the peppy little electric cars whiz silently around the track.  Someone noted that, “If this is what the future is going to be like, it’s going to be awfully quiet.”

The cars are powered by regular car batteries, usually two. The combined weight of the batteries can’t exceed 64 pounds, according to the national Electrathon rules. Weight is an important element in this contest.

There isn’t a weight requirement for the car but there is a rule that says the driver must weigh at least 180 pounds. All of the drivers are juniors or seniors in high school, and all must be small enough to fit in the tiny cockpits of their mean machines — all of the drivers in Friday’s competition had to carry metal ballast; and when they stopped to change drivers halfway around the course, each driver had to be weighed, with ballast, immediately by race officials.

A race of ratios

One would think that there would be fierce competition among the students to get a chance behind the wheel of the car. But in fact, most teams have trouble finding someone to pilot the team vehicle. All drivers must have a valid driver’s license, and many of the team members are just old enough to have a permit.

All the participants stressed, however, that this race doesn’t really glorify the driver. The cars aren’t moving at breakneck speed; 35 mph is pretty much the maximum. And while there is some passing on the curves and in the straightaways, it’s fairly quiet and contained. There are no squealing tires in the Electrathon Challenge.

There is a great deal of discussion on the sidelines about ratios, however. This race is in many ways as much of a contest for math-letes as it is for race cars. The winning car is not necessarily the one that stays ahead of the others in the pack; it’s the car that completes the most laps around the Park’s upper auto cross .2-mile track  in the one-hour time limit.

Often, there is only one car still standing at the end of the hour. Students have to figure out how all the different parts of the car will work together to bring them a victory. A car that goes too fast, for example, can eat up all its battery power.

Slow but steady

Students from Nonnewaug High School were taking a tortoise-and-hare approach to piloting their vehicle around the track on Friday morning. James Whyte, president of the Nonnewaug Electric Car Club and a high school junior, was sanguine as his club’s diminutive racer glided around the course.

“A few other cars have passed us but we’re OK with that,” he said. “Our car can go faster, we’re pacing ourselves.”

Although Nonnewaug has not yet won an Electrathon, Whyte said his club is continually refining its vehicle, trying new motors and better body parts. In spring, the eight-year-old car lasted longer than it ever had before.

“But at 45 minutes one of the tires popped,” Whyte said. If not for that unexpected equipment failure, the car probably would have lasted 55 minutes, he said.

There were two heats, if such a word can be applied to cool little cars traveling silently along at low speed. The ultimate winner was Nathan Hale Ray High School in East Haddam. The school brought two cars; the winning vehicle went 119 laps (or 23.8 miles).

In addition to Nonnewaug, the other schools that raced were Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Somers High School, Farmington High School, Cheshire High School and Old Saybrook High School.

But in many ways, last week’s competition was really just a preliminary event, a warm-up to the big race in spring. Several schools came out on Friday just to watch, and learn. They will spend the comingmonths preparing cars of their own. No date has been set yet for the spring race, but it will be held at Lime Rock Park, which has hosted the Connecticut Electrathon since its beginning in 2001. At that race, there wil be entries from all over New England.

No local schools participate in the Electrathon, yet. Students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School are more involved in the national FIRST Robotics program and in the  environmentally oriented Envirothon.

Area private schools have come to watch the challenge, but none has brought a car.

Each student has a value

The Connecticut Electrathon is organized and managed by Mike Grella, a recently retired tech-ed teacher who taught at Terryville and lives in Litchfield. He now travels around the state, showing schools how to start an Electrathon team of their own (contact him at ths_solar_team@yahoo.com or 860-309-7954).

For Grella, the Electrathon is above all a teaching opportunity. It not only helps students understand the technology and logic of electric vehicles, which are likely to be the automotive future; it also teaches them about teamwork, respect and cooperation, he said.

Perhaps most important, it offers non-athletes an opportunity to take part in a team and take pride in their abilities, whether they are good with their hands or mathematically gifted.

“You see that each student has a value,” he said.

The cars themselves have a value, too, of course. Grella estimated that it costs about $2,000 to build a car. Part of the Electrathon challenge is that students have to raise funds for their cars; the same car can also be used year after year, although modifications are usually added by the students.

Many teams also have multiple vehicles. Of the seven schools that competed Friday, four had more than one car.

Some teams have sponsors. Nonnewaug is sponsored by EMS Pabst, a company that makes motors for industrial-sized fans. But fundraisers are still needed; most recently, the students hosted a successful videogame fundraiser.

Few of the teams come from large schools with fulsome budgets. The winning team, Nathan Hale Ray, has a population of only about 400 students.

A real electric racer

The teams at last Friday’s event got a glimpse of the future: Parked on one side of the field was a racey-looking maroon sports car, its hood and trunk open, its top down.

Lying on the grass behind the car were the electric cables used to charge up the cars batteries.

Mark Wilson of Farmington brought the vehicle so the students could see it, touch it and admire it. Wilson made his fortune in a variety of enterprises, including power plants and a chain of liquor stores. He now mainly does charitable work. Most of the time, he still drives a battered pickup truck. But on Friday, his pickup towed an electric Tesla sports car that he bought after his niece took part in the 2003 Electrathon, driving for the Farmington High School team.

The car cost him $145,000, he said.

“But it only costs me about $4 to recharge the batteries,” Wilson said. The car can travel at speeds up to 130 miles per hour (“It pins you to the back of the seat as it accelerates,” he said) but it only travels about 180 miles before it needs to be recharged. Wilson said he can only travel about 60 miles at a time (“you have to save enough power so you can get back home again”) but he doesn’t mind. He’s already ordered a Tesla sedan.

The Connecticut Electrathon Challenge is sponsored by Lime Rock Park; the Wicks Group, PLLC; the Diebold Foundation; and Central Connecticut State University. To find out when the spring event will be scheduled, visit limerock.com or contact Grella at ths_solar_team@yahoo.com.

The “60 Minutes of Lime Rock”: Nathan Hale Ray High School Wins Electrathon
November 04, 2009

It’s not the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it’s nearly as challenging… The team from Nathan Hale Ray High School in East Haddam, Conn., took the overall win in the Connecticut Electrathon race at Lime Rock Park October 30. Entered in the “Composite” category (fiberglass, wood or carbon-fiber monocoque chassis), the #X car completed 119 laps of Lime Rock’s 2/10-mile autocross test track in the allotted 1 hour, for a total of 23.8 miles.

The goal of each Connecticut Electrathon (formed in 2001 as a regional division of Electrathon America, whose purpose is “to develop a sport to improve public understanding of electric vehicles”) is to stage a twice-yearly competition where electric cars designed and built by students are driven as far as possible in exactly 1 hour’s time on a closed-loop course using limited electrical energy.

Second overall and first in the “Classic” category (metal space-frame chassis) was the #5 Lyme-Old Lyme High School vehicle, which completed 115 laps (23.0 miles). There was a tie for second place in Classic: the #395 Old Saybrook High School and the Somers High School #209 both finished with 109 laps (21.8 miles). Finishing third was the team from Farmington High School (#526, 97 laps/19.4 miles).

The Connecticut Electrathon  is sponsored by Lime Rock Park; the Wicks Group, PLLC; the Diebold Foundation; and Central Connecticut State University.

Final results, Connecticut Electrathon, October 30, 2009
Lime Rock Park autocross test circuit (5-turn, 1,056-foot track)
(Position, team and car number, town and county, laps completed/total miles)

Overall winner:
1. Nathan Hale Ray High School #X, East Haddam (Middlesex County), 119 laps/24.8 miles

Classic Category:
1. Lyme-Old Lyme High School #5, Old Lyme (New London County), 115 laps/23.0 miles
2. Old Saybrook High School #395, Old Saybrook (Middlesex County), 109/21.8
2. Somers High School #209, Somers (Tolland County), 109/21.8
3. Farmington High School #526, Farmington (Hartford County), 97/19.4
4. Nathan Hale Ray High School #537, 94/18.8
6. Lyme-Old Lyme High School #236, 89/17.8
7. Farmington High School #524, 73/14.6
8. Cheshire High School #701, Cheshire (New Haven County), 47/9.4

Composite Category:
1. Nathan Hale Ray High School #X, 119 laps/24.8 miles
2. Somers High School #009, 105/21.0
3. Somers High School #006, 73/14.6
4. Farmington High School #520, 69/13.8
5. Nonnewaug High School #665, Woodbury (Litchfield County), 61/12.2

I understand the excitement at the end of each heat, but please respect this request so that the CCSU inspection team can complete its task and ensure that all participants are treated equally.  Failure to comply could result in penalty.

I am working with Lime Rock to include the lower track to make the course ½ mile and thus accommodate additional cars in each heat.  This should keep the schedule as presented in the registration packet. 

Lime Rock is making every effort to make available the two tracks, but we must remember that they have to please their paying clients first.  When I am given additional information, I will keep everyone informed in a timely manner.