On September 22, 2018, Electrathon of Tampa Bay will hold our first race of the 2018 – 2019 season. We will be at Hillsborough Community College located at 10451 Nancy Watkins Drive, Tampa, Florida 33619. Set up will begin at 6:30 A.M. ALL team members will be required to attend the drivers meeting before our first race of the season. The first race line up is 9:45 A.M. and the green flag will drop to start the race and race season at 10:00 A.M. The second race line up is 12:45 P.M. and the green flag will drop to start the race at 1:00 P.M. Clean up and awards will follow. Hope everyone has their cars ready to go and remember to do all of your safety checks and be knowledgeable and understand the Electrathon America Rules and Guidelines for the car, driver(s) and teams.
Yellow – Barrier, Green – Pits, Red – Course, Black – Scoring Tower
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.
