Although the Electrathon competition started in England with older men building small electric cars for competitions. It eventually developed an earnest following in the US school system as students became involved in designing, building, innovating and fine tuning their vehicles for the competitions.
These semi-annual events were begun in Maine in 1994. The Maine Energy Education Program has been managing the program since 1996. (Link below)
C. Michael Lewis from Maine is the Electrathon National Champion
He is the present Electrathon National Record Holder after travelling more than 53 miles in one hour in this vehicle on a track while consuming a total of less than one killowatt, as much as the averge hand-held hair dryer.
The Electrathon Meet is held semiannually. This one was held on May 13th, 2007. This time the organizers decided to spice up participation in this event by also including electric and pedal-powered vehicles of all kinds.
The Electrathton is a competition of small electric cars, mostly built by high school/technical school students. The contest is to see who can build a vehicle powered by two batteries that can average the fastest speed in one hour on either a road course or a circular track.
It is challenging because it is much more than just building a vehicle that goes fast. Since the vehicles have a purposely limited power source, that power must be strategically managed by the driver over the duration of the hour of running time to maximize the distance travelled.
This competition was started in the UK, it later spread to Australia and then on to the US West Coast, and finally to the Eastern US over time, but it has suffered from flagging enthusiasm lately, so bringing in a variety of people-powered and electric vehices has livened up the event. The photos below show some of the vehicles that were at this event, such as neighborhood electric vehicles and pedal-electric hybrid recumbent bikes. This diversification of the Electrathon meet turns it into a more eclectic and interesting event. There were also many pedal-only vehicles present, such as recumbent bikes, but we did not photograph them for this website since our focus is on electric vehicles.
Photos below may take a minute to load.
A homemade pedal/electric
An Electrathon competitor
And on the track
A commercial pedal/electric
A pedal/electric running on only electric power
Another Electrathon conpetitor. This one was the Maine State Champion in 1999.
The same vehicle as above
Here it is on the track
Another pedal/electric vehicle
A commercial pedal/electric vehicle with a wire cage outlining a future surrounding fairing
Art Haines on the Track in his Low Speed Electric Vehicle, the Sunn Solar Kit Car Prototype
Here’s Art Haines showing the new differential for his electric car kits
There were many other non-electric vehicles there which were not included in this report.
The Electrathon Event at Beech Ridge Speedway on Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Article by Peter Zack, board member of the Maine Energy Education Program
The Electrathon event at Beech Ridge Speedway on May 18th in Scarborough, Maine went very well. There were 14 vehicles in attendance---7 Human Powered Vehicles, 6 Electrathon Vehicles and 1 Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (a solar electric pick-up truck manufactured by Art Haines of SunnEV.com from Norridgewalk, Maine).
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What is Electrathon?
It is a Learning Competition for 9th to 12th Grade Students
Teams of students construct single-person, battery-operated vehicles for regional and national competitions.
There are also categories for other age groups to compete.
For more information, see the Maine Energy Education Program’s Electrathon page.
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The morning Electrathon race saw Michael Lewis, an independent from Portland, win the Open Class with 71 laps in one hour. He is shown in this photo with MPBN’s Tom Porter.
Neshoba Valley Tech (Westford, Massachusetts) was top Rookie High School with 51 laps
This is another photo of the Neshoba Team and their vehicle
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In the afternoon we held our first “Race to the Grocery Store”, bringing all of these eclectic vehicles together in a joint competition. We timed participants for acceleration,
maneuverability (ability to slalom around a series of buckets) and a
“Race to the Grocery Store”, with drivers running to their vehicles,
jumping in, lapping the track, parking and racing to the “store”
(card table) to pick up their ”groceries” (a cup of grapes), then
bringing the groceries to their car. One lucky shopper, Michael Lewis, found a special marker below his grapes, redeemable for a copy of the *sunrise guide*, a coupon book for healthy and sustainable living in Southern Maine!
This is One of the Human-Powered Vehicles at the Event
KUDOS
EVMaine.org thanks Peter Zack, a board member of the Maine Energy Education Program for both this report, and for his tireless dedication to this wonderful and constructive activity for our youth.
And our thanks also to Beth Otto, an Americorps Volunteer who took all of the above photos.
This Event was Sponsored by the Maine Energy Education Program
http://www.meepnews.org/
For More about Maine Electrathon Events go to these other EVMaine.org pages
Click Here and Click Here
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