On behalf of Electrathon of Tampa Bay / Electrathon of Florida we send greetings and prayers to everyone throughout the World. This is the time for all of us to unite in the prevention and cure of this virus that is still spreading around the world. May we all learn from this worldwide crisis and move forward in a positive manner.

Charlie

Please remember to cancel your hotel reservations for the Energy Whiz Event that was scheduled for April 25, 2020. According to Susan at FSEC most reservations have been cancelled. They have not been able to locate Jessica Parker to cancel her reservation as they are not familiar with the name or her role as a guest/event, team sponsor. We are posting this information to assist and support FSEC in their search for this individual.

Thanks

CONGRATULATIONS
Rodney Schreck of Tiger Racing has been traveling around the United States for close to 25 years to attend Electrathon races.
Some of you may know that Rodney wrote and had published his first book, Toby the Princess Warrior, A Fantasy Adventure. This week his book made it to Amazon Prime and Barnes and Noble. Buy your copy of his book and bring it to one of our races for him to autograph.

Florida public school campuses closed until April 15, state cancels all testing for K-12 schools.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida officials announced Tuesday they will eliminate testing requirements this spring for public-school students and extend the time in which kids will learn from home, as the state continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said testing requirements for school-readiness, voluntary pre-kindergarten and public-school programs will be canceled for the 2019-2020 school year.

“Requirements for graduation and promotion and final course grades will be evaluated as though those assessments did not exist,” the governor told reporters at a news conference.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran also said public schools will extend online learning until April 15. The state will re-evaluate after mid-April if kids should be allowed to go back to campuses, he added.

Most students are in extended spring breaks because of the coronavirus. Four school districts — Duval, Union, Collier and Sumter — have started to implement online learning as they wrap up extended spring breaks this week.

“It is essential that students do not fall behind and are still receiving instruction, even when they are not in the classroom,” Corcoran said in a statement after the news conference.

To ensure all students have access to online learning, DeSantis said school districts will be allowed to dip into “various” pots of unused state funds to help low-income students pay for computers and home-based internet services.

School districts will also be allowed to pay for “virtual” mental-health services for students impacted by the coronavirus, with the help of unspent funds lawmakers allocated for school safety and in-school mental health services, DeSantis said.

Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram told The News Service of Florida in a phone interview that he applauds the governor’s efforts to keep students from coming to school and to waive testing requirements.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay / Electrarhon of Florida, Executive Board has discussed the status of our pending 2019-2020 Race Season.

Electrathon races throughout the US have been cancelled for health reasons as a preventative measure of spreading the virus.

We agree that the health and well being of our students, members and community is the most important issue at this time.

We have cancelled the remaining 2019-2020 race season events.

We are looking forward to starting our 2020-2021 season in September 2020.

Charlie

We received word from Brian Copes in Alabama that the April 13, 2020 Barber Motorsports Electrathon Races have been cancelled. They wish everyone a safe and healthy year and look forward to seeing everyone in 2021.

Our Mulberry High School Electrathon Team Sponsor, Todd Thuma has been named the 2020 Distinguished Manufacturing Secondary Educator of the Year.

The honor is presented by the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), an organization “for manufacturing and advanced technical education, best practices and resources supporting the high performance skilled workforce for Florida’s manufacturing sectors.”

FLATE’s Distinguished Manufacturing Educator award recognizes outstanding teachers, and their work with local business partners to improve academic programs and keep programs closely tied to industry needs.

Todd Thuma is an engineering and technology teacher at Mulberry High. His programs emphasize manufacturing and robotics; he also sponsors the the school’s Technology Student Association Club and oversees MHS electric car racing program, Panther Racing.

We received the email today from Colleen McCann Kettles, Interim Director at the Florida Solar Energy Center that stated “As a result of COVID-19 Energy Whiz 2020 has been cancelled. Thank you for your continued support of our program, and we look forward to next year”.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay / Electrathon of Florida is searching for an alternate venue for our last race of the season and have reached out to four of our high schools to see if the sponsors can arrange for us to still have a race on April 25, 2020. We will advise as soon as possible if this occurs. Please remember that most schools in our area are off for spring break next week which may cause a delay in getting a venue.

Charlie

The race day started out cool and windy at Mulberry High School for our Electrathon races. Mulberry HS Team Sponsor Todd Thuma had his team ready to assist us with setting up the course, the scoring tower and walking the course for safety issues, they even helped Rodney with sweeping areas that had sand in the curves.

As the teams arrived the sun came out but the wind just would not go away, it stayed windy all day which made a challenge for our canopy to stay on the ground.

Our new team from Plant City High School car #21 arrived with a few last minute things to finish on their loaner car (the original long nose car donated to us from the Electrocutioners). They were unable to use any of the ETO sprockets for their wheel motor that we had and after checking with other teams, it was determined their motor shaft was not the normal size that the Etek motors normally have. Rather than leaving because they could not race, the entire team stayed and assisted other teams in the pits and on the track. What a great group of folks.

USF arrived just as the first race was lining up, they got their driver into their car on the line up in time to start the race when the green flag dropped.

Both races went very well with just a few pit stops. Between races there was dancing in the scoring area by Trish to stay warm from the cool breeze. At the end of the race day it was Mulberry HS #38 finishing in 1st Place in the High School Division with 158 laps. Silver Bullet Racing #94 (Jim and Jerry) took 1st place in the Open Division with 186 laps. Tiger Racing #4 finished in 2nd Place with 147 laps. Titans Racing #242 finished in 3rd Place with 103 laps. It was USF #48 that finished in 1st Place in the Advanced Division with 172 laps. USF almost broke the courses fastest lap record the first race. They came out determined in the second race to beat the courses fastest lap record. After pitting towards the end of the second race to tighten some loose spokes, they went for it and broke the fastest course lap of Pro EV #39 25.621 in October 2019 by doing a 25.335 with USF Team Driver Noah.

Our next race will be in conjunction with the Energy Whiz Olympics in Cocoa on April 25, 2020. Hope to see everyone there for another fun filled day of racing and our end of the year awards ceremony.

Charlie

Our next race is going to be at Mulberry High School in Mulberry Fl.
First race will be at 10:00 AM with the second race at 1:00 PM
Go all the way to the end of the road to get into the track area at the back of the school.

This is a short turnaround from our race at USF where Mulberry took top spot in High School.
The race will be on their 1/4 mile track and will be a great opportunity for teams to try out new gear ratios and tactics. It will be easier on equipment and batteries.

This will be a good tune up for our season ending race at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa in April.

Vic