8th Straight EV Challenge title!!!

The Topsail High School Electric Vehicle Team won the EV Challenge final event for the 8th consecutive year this past weekend at the NCCAR complex in Roanoke Rapids NC.  Placing First and Second overall in the competition against 14 schools from as far away as Iowa and Miami.  Our now Lithium powered MR2 actually posted a better time than a $110,000 Tesla Roadster in the autocross event!  Our Ford Ranger scored a perfect 100 in the Vehicle Design category, a feat that has never been accomplished.  The Ranger team dominated in every category and tallied a perfect 10 cumulative score....the best score possible(Low score wins like golf).
The following students won awards:

Truck Team
Troubleshooting - Zach Fouty, Sal Castoro    First Place
Oratorical- Sean Bullock, Stephen Henderson   First Place
Vehicle Design- Alexis Demetrious, Chris Raynor   First Place
Range- Alexis Demetrious, Todd LeMaster   First Place
AutoCross- Joseph Graves   First Place

Modified Car Team:
Oratorical- Zeke Hartner, Joseph Graves     Second Place
Vehicle Design- Tony Capace, Joey Godfrey    First Place
Range- Tony Capace, Joey Godfrey    First Place
AutoCross-  Sean Bullock    Second Place

Website Design-  Shelby Sessions    First Place
School Initiative-  First Place

This has been by far the best class I have ever taught while a Topsail High School.  They represented the school with pride, dignity and class.  The class went into the competition with the motto "Dominate", and they did just that.  As Sean Bullock said, "Preparation = Domination", a formula that has worked for THS EV for 8 years!

Battery boxes and Lithiums

We had battery boxes fabricated by Billy Vaughn at Wilmington Sheet Metal and they fit perfectly!  We will now take on the task of mounting the boxes and wiring the 48 batteries in series.  The other technical issue is providing a means to secure the batteries once inside the boxes.  Always something to do...