Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Day 1 at the Smartt Challenge

We arrived in Raleigh, NC late last night on the 14 of May. Thanks to Mr. Butler's cousin, we are staying in his home free of charge. Since our money supply is limited, it was a blessing for him to let us stay in his home while we were there in Raleigh.



Our arrival at the Historic Oak View Park gave us all a chill of excitement in hopes that we would conquer today's events. After unloading the car and registering our team in the competition, We then toured the park and were allowed to view the other teams' electric vehicles. We found out pretty quick that our car was one of the better built automobiles out of all of the schools who entered in the competition.



After weighing the car, we headed up the hill for a brief inspection of today's entrees. With no problems, we were allowed to continue in the day's events. We then decided to divide up into our separate groups and practice for the upcoming events.



Representing McMichael in troubleshooting was Zac Plummer and Brandon Smith, in oral presentation was Johnny Roupe and Dale Yates, Matt Miller and Nick Melms were going to be our photographers, and I was going to take part in driving the car in the range competition.



In the beginning, Zac and Brandon dominated the troubleshooting board. For first year students, we brought home the high honor of 3rd place in troubleshooting. This was exceptionally good due to their crash course on how the car was wired.



Jonathan and Dale presented to a panel of 5 judges in the first round and were chosen along with 3 other teams to do a second presentation. Because of their suave style and slick tongues, They came out of the oral presentation competition with 2nd place.



Later in the day, the tension rose as we were rounded up and staged to go out on the street and complete the range competition. Amazingly enough, our EV conquered 20 miles of pavement through residential areas, traffic lights, and main roads! Not in comparison to many of the other EVs, but it was a victory in our hearts. We are all exceptionally proud of our placement in the SMARTT Challenge. Hopefully next year the guys will place higher in the competition than we have.