We had a great location for our cars to promote ETO and Electrathon Racing, we even had the chance to drive the cars around during the event.

Emma Alaba, Director & Host Organizer of Robofest in FL looks good in an Electrathon car. There were 11 Countries represented at this wonderful event.

Mike Wilson and the Vibots from McLane Middle School and Alicia Ponds and the Space Falcons from Farnell Middle School were competitors at the event.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will be a part of the Robofest 2017 World Championship. We will have two cars on display with team members available to answer questions and hand out flyers about our organization all three days.

Robofest 2017 World Championship will be held on June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, hosted by the City of St. Pete Beach. The event will be held at 7701 Boca Ciega Drive, St. Pete Beach, Florida. Teams will be coming from all of the world to compete at this event.

For more information go to their website: https://www.robofest.net/

To volunteer at this event, go to their website above and then click on the word Volunteer

To make a donation to assist in making this event a huge success please visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/Robofest2017WorldChampionship-Support-OrganizedBy-Emma-Alaba

For hotel reservations visit:

http://www.tampabaybeaches.com/st-pete-beach.html

ETO had a great 2016-2017 Race Season, we held nine races and had teams represent ETO at races in Pensacola (Five Flags Speedway – took 5 of 9 trophies), Quitman Georgia (Run for the Peaches race was cancelled week of race) and Leeds Alabama (Barber Motorsports Park – took 4 of 7 trophies).

Our last race of the season was held on May 13, 2017 in Cocoa Florida at the Energy Whiz Olympics. We want to thank Florida Solar Energy Center and The University of Central Florida (Susan, Kevin, Penny and Lillian) and everyone else that made the event a success.

A special thank you goes out to Rodney (Tiger Racing) and Lillian (Florida Solar Energy Center) for all of their help on Friday morning with setting up the course and safety barriers.

On Saturday morning a special thank you goes to Brandon and Middleton High Schools for helping with the tower and final course preparations.

We had a total of 12 teams and 19 cars registered for this race. Some of the teams came from Milton Florida (Archer Racing), Davie Florida (Pro EV Racing) and Hialeah Florida (Tiger Racing) to name a few of the travelers.

The lineup for the first race had 16 cars when the green flag dropped at 10am. By the second lap of the race the other three teams were on the track setting a new first race record of 19 cars. The first race went well as the drivers got used to the 1500’ track that had some tight turns and changes in elevation. We had a few teams that were challenged during the first race. Tiger Racing had the rivets’ come out of their floor pan when they found the one bad spot on the entire track, the chain came off of a few cars and we even had the Titan Racing Team battery strap break causing a battery to slide across the track at one of the turns. Due to all of our ETO safety measures no one was hurt in any of the issues and the cars were back in the race in a timely manner.

Between races teams were able to grab some lunch from the food trucks and walk around the Energy Whiz Olympics that had so many interesting competitions. The Western High School Solar Cats from Davie Florida had a solar powered vehicle displayed at the Energy Whiz Olympics and had the opportunity to give our road course a try with their solar powered vehicle. The vehicle did very well and impressed our ETO racers.

The lineup for our second race had 17 cars when the green flag dropped at 1pm. By the second lap the other two teams were on the track setting our second race record of 19 cars. The second race had a few interesting moments when Palm Bay Magnet and Pro EV went into a turn at the same time coming extremely close to one another causing Pro EV to hit the brakes, causing the back side of the car to slide sideways. Electrocutioners car #90 had their chain come off, locking up the rear wheel which caused the car to spin out.

At the end of the race day the results were:

High School Division 1^st Middleton #365, 2^nd Middleton #80, 3^rd Middleton #133, 4^th Brandon #14, 5^th Palm Bay Magnet #101, 6^th Brandon #9, 7^th Brandon #60, 8^th Brandon #30

Open Division 1^st Tiger #4, 2^nd Archer #321, 3^rd Titans #242, 4^th Hillsborough Community College #13, 5^th Silver Bullet #94, 6^th University of Central Florida #823

Advanced Battery Division 1^st Electrocutioners #72, 2^nd Pro EV #39, 3^rd Electrocutioners #8, 4^th University of South Florida #132, 5^th Electrocutioners #90

We held the 2016-2017 Race Season Awards Ceremony since all of our teams were present and able to be part of the ceremony.

High School Division Season Points (Top 5) 1^st Middleton #365, 2^nd Brandon #14, 3^rd Middleton #80, 4^th Middleton #133, 5^th Brandon #9

Open Division Season Points (Top 5) 1^st Tiger #4, 2^nd Hillsborough Community College #13, 3^rd Silver Bullet #94 (aka Robinson and Son Racing) 4^th Titans #242, 5^th University of Central Florida #823

Advanced Battery Division (Top 5) 1^st Electrocutioners #72, 2^nd Electrocutioners #8, 3^rd Pro EV #39, 4^th Electrocutioners #90, 5^th University of South Florida #132

Most laps for the season were:

High School Division – Brandon #14

Open Division – Tiger Racing #4

Advanced Battery Division – Electrocutioners #72

The members of ETO surprised ETO President Charles Harrison with a plaque for Board Member of the Year.

On behalf of Electrathon of Tampa Bay, we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer and thank everyone for their support.

We are already starting to plan our race season for 2017-2018.

Our last race of the season is approaching quickly, this year the course will be more challenging than others that we have had at this event. We have 12 teams signed up and a total of 19 cars expected to be lined up when the green flag drops for the first race to begin. We will require some flag assistance so please check in with Mike Frederick (Race Steward). When the race day is over, we will present the awards for this race and then we will have our end of the year awards ceremony.

Visit this drop box link for pictures from this trip to Alabama and the race:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6xn6p634yoasn64/AABpAD5_Du9WK6aceUmmFITNa?dl=0

Electrathon of Tampa Bay had a good showing at this race in Alabama. Middleton High School had three cars in the High School Division, University of South Florida and Pro EV had cars in the Advanced Battery Division and Tiger Racing was in the Open Division. Our teams met at a rental house and worked on cars the day before in preparation for the race. Teams worked beside one another getting the cars ready. When the race day was over, our Electrathon of Tampa Bay Teams were a winner in each division.

University of South Florida Car 132 – 2nd Place Advanced Battery Division

Tiger Racing Car 04 – 2nd Place Open Division

Pro EV Car 39 – 1st Place Advanced Battery Division

Middleton High School Car 365 – 2nd Place High School Division

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will have High School, Open and Experimental Battery Division teams represent our group at this out of state race in Alabama. Our teams have been working on their cars so that they can compete and bring home an out of state trophy. ETO will hand out flyers to others teams at this race to attract interest in our website and races. This is a great opportunity for our teams to show others what Electrathon of Tampa Bay is all about.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Don Morgan had to cancel the last Run for the Peaches Race at Brooks County High School. Don Morgan retires this year and does not know what the future holds for his high school Electrathon team. We are excited to here that Don was nominated and chosen Vice President of Electrathon America. We support and wish Don success in not only his retirement but in his new position with EA. Here are a few pictures from an earlier Run for the Peaches Race.

Electrathon of Tampa Bay will have teams attend this out of state race in Quitman Georgia. We are hoping to bring interest to our website and have other teams join us at our races.

We posted our season points and had quite a few members inquire about their total points for the season. The maximum points for placing first at every race after eight race days would be 480 points, some teams had in excess of that amount. Here are the correct season points after eight race days, a total of 16 races.

Electrathon Teams, please make sure to pre-register your teams for this race as it is required by our host. You can click on this link to register.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EnergyWhizElectrathon