We welcome everyone back from their summer break. We hope everyone had a great summer and are ready to start another fun and exciting season of Electrathon Racing. Over the summer, ETO has not been very active due to a few personal family obligations that required all of my time and energy.
The Executive Board will be meeting on Thursday, September 6, 2018 at Cracker Barrel in Seffner for our kick off meeting of the minds for our 2018 – 2019 Race Season. Executive Board Members arrive around 5:30 P.M. for dinner, meeting will start at 6:00 P.M.
The All Team Board Meeting / Sponsor and Team Captains meeting will be held on Thursday, September 13, 2018 at the Cracker Barrel in Seffner. Board Members arrive around 5:30 P.M. for dinner, meeting will start at 6:00 P.M. Please contact Charlie or Fredi to confirm or decline attendance.
Our 2018 – 2019 Race Season is posted, we are waiting on confirmation of three race locations for our races. As soon as we have them confirmed, they will be added to the schedule. The out of area races (not ETO Events) have not been scheduled, as soon as we get the information, they will be added to the website.
On Saturday, May 12, 2018, Electrathon of Tampa Bay held our ninth and final race day of the 2017/2018 season at the Florida Energy Center in Cocoa Florida. The race was held in conjunction with the 2018 Energy Whiz. We had five High School Division cars, five Open Division cars and three Advanced Battery Division cars.
A great BIG THANK YOU goes out to Florida Solar Energy Center Staff Members for everything they did to make our last race a success. Charlie wants to recognize Rodney Schreck for always coming a day early from Hialeah to help set up the race tracks this season.
The day started out pleasant as the teams arrived for the races. Inspections were completed and a few cars took advantage of the 30 minutes for practice laps. During the race day, drivers had to be careful as the water sprinklers came on and watered part of the track in one of the turns. It was great to see Pro EV, Seminole State College, Brooks Debartolo, and our new team from STEM Tech at our last race of the season. Mulberry High School Sponsor Todd Thuma came to the race to support ETO but his team was unable to make it, wish he stayed to receive his team’s award. Simmons ran strong until they destroyed the front end of the car as the wheel supports/frame finally let loose. Brandon continued to have challenges with their tires/tubes. Titan racing found out that the throttle was too sensitive as they approached turn one and almost met with the side of the Pro EV car. USF car 132 and Pro EV car 39 were the cars to watch as the competition and driving skills came out.
Here are the results from the race day:
High School Division – 1st place, Brandon HS car 14 with 121 laps, 2nd place, Brooks DeBartolo car 55 with 87 laps, 3rd place, Brandon HS car 9 with 76 laps, 4th place, Simmons Career Center car 35 with 24 laps and 5th place STEMTECH car 823 with 14 laps.
Open Division – 1st place, Tiger Racing car 4 with 153 laps, 2nd place, Silver Bullet Racing car 94 with 149 laps, 3rd place, RYNO Racing car 13 with 49 laps, 4th place, Seminole State College car 314 with 40 laps and 5th place, Hillsborough Community College car 30 with 3 laps.
Advanced Battery Division – 1st place, Pro EV car 39 with 171 laps, 2nd place, University of South Florida car 132 with 121 laps and 3rd place Titan Racing car 242 with 80 laps.
Electrathon of Tampa Bay also held their end of the year awards ceremony for the 2017-2018 Race Season
Season Points Winners:
High School Division, 1st place, Simmons Career car 35 with 348 points, 2nd place, Brandon HS car 14 with 328 points and 3rd place Simmons Career Center car 53 with 324 points.
Open Division, 1st place Tiger Racing car 4 with 464 points, 2nd place Silver Bullet Racing car 94 with 228 points and 3rd place Hillsborough Community College car 30 with 214 points.
Advanced Battery Division, 1st place, University of South Florida car 132 with 404 points, 2nd place, Pro EV car 39 with 330 points and 3rd place, Titan Racing car 242 with 158 points.
We recognized:
The Volunteer of the Year: Aditya Chelikani
The Executive Board Member of the Year: Brady Weber
Team Sponsor of the Year: Mark Knowlton (Brandon HS)
I Broke Mine Award went to Dustyn Clark (Brandon HS)
The fastest Lap per Division:
High School Division, Mulberry HS car 38 at the HCC Race with a lap time of 30.774
Open Division, Tiger Racing car 4 at the HCC Race with a lap time of 30.69
Advanced Battery Division, University of South Florida car 132 at the HCC Race with a lap time of 26.471
The Most Laps for the 2017-2018 Race Season:
High School Division, Simmons Career Center car 53 with 729 laps
Advanced Battery Division, University of South Florida car 132 with 790 laps
Open Division, Tiger Racing car 4 with 1,141 laps
Our last race of the season is approaching quickly. We will be holding our last race in conjunction with the Energy Whiz Olympics located at 1679 Clearlake Road, Cocoa Florida 32922. After the race we will hold our the race awards followed by our end of the year awards. Saturday evening, we will all meet at a local restaurant for dinner and fun.
ETO and the USF Team was invited after the Pensacola/Five Flags Speedway Race to the home of Steve Archer of Archer Racing to perform some modifications to get Johns car ready for the Barber Motorsports Race. A HUGE THANK YOU TO STEVE AND HIS WIFE for opening up their home/shop to help us out. Steve’s knowledge and skills helped to get the car ready for race day. The USF Team headed to Alabama after cleaning up our mess in Steve’s shop while Charlie stayed in the area until the next day to travel to Alabama. Sunday last minute prep on cars were made and then came Dinner at Logan’s. Around 11pm Rodney arrived with his car for the race on Monday. Race day came and we were one of the first to arrive getting a great pit area close to the start line, bathrooms and the area serving lunch. All of the cars passed inspections. We want to thank Brian Copes, Barber Motorsports, Alabama Power and all the great volunteers that made the race day great.
Call to line up was called. ETO cars lined the front of the race. When the green flagged dropped for racing all of the ETO cars were off and running. While Aditya in the 132 Car was completing each lap in four minutes the 94 Car (Adam) was pacing itself to make it through the race. Tiger Racing (Rodney) in Car 4 was challenged with chain alignment during the first race. John had Steve drive the 60 Car in the first race and in the first downhill turn the motor controller decide it no longer wanted to work causing the team to be out of the races. When the green flagged dropped for the second race Aditya in Car 132 and Rodney in Car 4 were the first cars to complete laps 1 and 2. Aditya pulled away from the pack and finished the day with a total of 31 laps and first place in the open class. Second place went to Archer Racing in Car 321 and third place was the wiener Car 206 with 19 laps. Rodney in Car 4 completed the race day with 18 laps being beaten by the Wiener Car 206 and Archer Racing 321. Rodney was beat by a Wiener and an Archer, better luck next year.
On April 27, 2018 Electrathon of Tampa Bay members traveled to North Florida for the Emerald Coast 120/Five Flags Speedway Race in Pensacola. Team USF was able to bring three cars to represent ETO at the event. The morning started out cooler than we are used to. Our first challenge was at inspections. John and Stephen both passed weigh in and the 20 second exit of the car. The car did not do as well, it did not pass inspection as it is still in the developmental stages to get it 100%. The USF car 132 (Aditya) and Jim Robinson’s loaner Car 94 (Adam) passed without any issue.
During the first race Car 132 experienced issues with the rear wheel spokes and finished 10 laps behind Steve Archer of Archer Racing, Car 321. The Robinson loaner Car 94 experienced battery issues towards the end of the first race.
After an excellent lunch which was provided to everyone at no cost, we had everything on the cars ready to go. We want to thank all of the race officials, Vaughn Nicholas, Gulf Power and Five Flags Speedway for this great event.
We had to let the race officials know that we had a change in drivers for the 94 Car. Charlie had to suit up and weigh in. Passing the weigh in without a problem, the 20 second exit was next, It took 14 seconds and a not so pretty sight but we passed it also.
During the second race, Aditya was determined to make up the 10 laps and grab a couple more. He accomplished this task with 12 laps ahead of Archer Racing in the second race. Car 94 completed 50 laps and still had some battery power at the end of the race.
During the race day their were a few cars that had mechanical issues causing some of them to wreck/flip over. Race video battery died before the roll over of cars.
Car 94 (Adam and Charlie) took 3rd place in the Open Class, Archer Racing Car 321 (Steve) took second place and USF Car 132 (Aditya) took first place. USF Car 132 also took first place overall.
On April 28, 2018, Brady Weber and Fredi Beck represented ETO at the 5th Annual STEM Expo for Pinellas County Schools. We are getting excited to see who will be our first team from Pinellas County Schools.
Brady Weber will be representing ETO at the Pinellas STEM Fair this Saturday, April
28th! Come support us if you are going to be on that side of the bridge! Thanks Brady!
ETO posted that the new track record for Brandon High School was set this past race. We were asked to check last years results and found the track record for Brandon HS speed event was done by Pro EV Car 39 in 2017 with a time of 24.308 in one race and a 24.608 in the other. We are still compiling all race results from our past 10 years to develop a master file of the fastest lap at each track and the length of each track.
ETO also struck the wrong number key in reporting Titans Car 242 total of laps for the Brandon Race. In the first race they completed 29 laps and the second race 31 laps for a total of 60 rather than 80.
We want to thank those that take the time to review the information we send out and bring things to our attention to check on. It means that everyone is committed to ETO and making us the best Electrathon Group in the USA.
The last local race of the season went off without a hitch. A few blown tires and spinouts and car issues notwithstanding.
Our normal format is two races of one hour each. Battery management is a big player in how you finish since you cannot do anything with the batteries once the race starts. The race this time was based on a series of 20 minute races going for speed. It’s hard to kill a set of batteries in 20 minutes so it’s wide open racing from the get go.
The Brandon 1/4 mile track was ideal for this event. Teams went full throttle with a few slight turns for 20 minutes. Mark Knowlton and his team was a great host for this event as the track was one of our cleanest race venues, we had lighting for race day setup and they did a fundraiser selling hot dog, chips and sodas so teams did not have to leave the campus and fight the Brandon traffic. Brandon High School Principal Jennifer Sparano came out to the race to support her team and Electrathon Racing for a short period of time as she had several events going on throughout the campus she had to oversee.
In the Open/Advanced Battery Class it was University of South Florida (Aditya Chelikani) taking both races and setting a track single lap record with a time of 24.7 seconds for a speed of 36+mph and a lap count of 84 laps at the end of the day. Silver Bullet Racing (Jim Robinson) was back on the track with a brand new car design taking 2nd with 83 laps and Tiger Racing (Rodney Schreck) taking the 3rd spot with 81 laps. The second race Silver Bullet and Tiger Racing fought it out for the second place finish coming down to the race time to make the determination. Silver Bullet had 20.13.575 race time and Tiger Racing had 20.13.952 race time. Titan Racing with Brady Weber at the wheel and making only their 3rd start of the year took 4th with 80 laps. This was a very close race for our advanced and open battery folks. Titan Racing had a blow out in the first race (just by chance close to his pit area) and finished the race in the pits. Otherwise they would have been contending for the top spot. When Titan Racing blew the tire it scared some of the spectators who had never heard one of our high pressure tires blow. No noise when a tire goes flat but when they blow, at 80-100 PSI, it sounds just like a gun shot. Several flat tires during the day but only one blow out.
Jim Robinson AKA Silver Bullet Racing AKA Robinson and Son Racing have been building Electrathon Cars for a LOOOOOONG time. He has outdone himself with his latest design. It has enclosed wheels, wide front end, VERY aerodynamic, a full suspension and a great color combination that if flashy. It will give other teams a run for its money. If Jim used lithium batteries it would not need rear view mirrors.
In the High School Class the Brandon #9 car (Dustin) took the first race with 40 laps and in the second had the fastest time in class with 27.9 seconds. The #9 cars luck ran out late in the second race when a tire went flat and it finished the race on the sidelines. It still managed a 2nd place overall with 65 laps.
Lennard High School ran strong in both races and took a 2nd place in the first race and a 1st place in the second race. This gave them 1st place overall in class with 75 laps. Their best lap of the day was 28.2 seconds.
The Simmons 53 car took 3rd with 61 laps and a best lap time of 36.0.
Brooks DeBartolo showed up with a team trailer that was bigger than a tiny house (we think they are planning ahead and will fill the trailer with a number of cars and become very competitive) They ran into vehicle issues in the first race allowing them to only complete 3 laps in the first race. During the sponsor’s race they experienced a flat causing the car to do a scary zig zag in the turn and had to withdraw when the throttle control went out and they were not able to start the second race in their class.
The Sponsors Race was held between the regular races. This race is where team sponsors and race officials take their life in their hands when they get into the cars and race for 20 min.
The USF 132 car with Titan Sponsor Mike Kaufman driving took 1st place with 42 laps and the fastest lap for the race with a time of 25.4 seconds. The Lennard 86 car with Sponsor Jim Reeve driving took 2nd place with 39 laps. The Silver Bullet Racing 94 car with Mike Frederick (Race Steward) driving took 3rd place with 34 laps (20.03 race time). Simmons 353 car with Sponsor William Knight driving took 4th place with 34 laps (20.23 race time). Simmons 53 car with Cleto Chazares (Principal) driving took 5th place with 34 laps (20.32 race time). Brooks DeBartolo 55 car with Sponsor Chris Hochman driving took 6th place.
Our Electrathon teams are gearing up to represent ETO at the Five Flags Speedway Race in Pensacola on April 28th followed by Barber Motorsports Race in Leeds Alabama on April 30th. Good Luck Teams
We end the race season next month at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa. We expect to have another big field and a great race to end the season. Season Awards will be presented at the end of the races. Hope to see everyone there.
