2017 eV Challenge powered by Synergy - Event wrap up

Another year gone and another great event! Where do I begin to sum up the 2017 eV Challenge powered by Synergy...

I'll go back a bit.

When the event registrations closed we had 38 entries received - the most since 2010. This included four new schools for 2017, three new entrants in Class C and a massive 25-car strong field in Class B.

The decision was made early to combine the 7 car Class A and 6 car Class C fields into the first event, and run Class B as a standalone event following this. This marked a departure from the combined B/C event which had been a feature for over ten years.

As the event drew closer we had pre-event scrutineering at Sevenoaks Senior College where we saw for the first time two new cars - "Road Rage" and "Eveo" (pronounced EVO - as we were told repeatedly!!!). The second round of scrutineering saw a modified and improved Coulomb Motorsport machine, a squadron of Wesley College Wyverns, and a blue and black machine designed and built by yours truly. With so many new cars already shown to the scrutineers we were excited about what the event would hold in store.

We also saw a few teams start to pull out of the event for various reasons - technical challenges proving too much to overcome being the main reason. By the time Saturday rolled around, the field was down to 28 - 6 Class A, 17 Class B, and 5 Class C.

Scrutineering: a challenge for some, although all ended up coming through (more about this in an upcoming post) and being passed ready to compete. In the warm Wundowie sun we all gathered for the compulsory briefings from our Clerk of Course John Hurney before the traditional track walk.

We were then underway, albeit half an hour behind schedule.

Class A saw John Calvin Christian College #29 take the fastest practice time, whilst in Class C three cars were under the previous track record time, led by newcomer Road Rage.

The Class A/C event was delayed to allow the Synergy team to affect repairs and join the field before starting behind a beautiful black Tesla Model S.

In Class A the battle was intense with #29 John Calvin 2 and #33 Bender, from Comet Bay College, trading places for the lead with one of the most innovative cars in the 2017 event, #2 Highway Star from Melville SHS. It looked like Bender would hold on for victory until just after the final driver change when a loose bolt in the steering resulted in Bender having to be returned to the pits for repair.

This left Highway Star to cruise to a well earned victory, completing 37 laps, and giving Melville SHS their second Class A victory in 3 years. The 2016 Class A winning distance was 30 laps, meaning Highway Star covered more than 5km extra distance, or went 23% further from the same battery capacity than last year! In fact, on 62.5% of the battery capacity of the Class B/C cars, the 37 lap total for Highway Star would have seen it crowned overall champion in 2016! It was an amazing performance.

The Class C event was a classic. Once the pace lap was complete the top three in Class C streaked away, setting laps well and truly under the 2016 track record. In 2016 the lap record was a 1:19 - Sir Jackie set two laps in the 1:09 bracket on the way to the win, Road Rage's fastest lap was in the 1:10's, and second placed Coulomb Motorsport set the fastest lap and a new track record of a 1:06!

The top three cars in Class C - Sir Jackie, Coulomb 1, and Road Rage - all completed 46 laps, an amazing 11 laps more than the champion car from 2016. That adds up to an extra 8.2km, or 31% increase in range in 1 year!

The amazing performance of the top three in Class C laid down a benchmark for the Class B entrants - would they continue the tradition of the past 3 years and take out the Overall Champion title?

As night fell the Class B contenders completed their practice runs. A number of cars were slowed by traffic, meaning that #18 from Wesley College would lead the pack out behind the Synergy Nissan Leaf for the start of event 2.

The lead for #18 would be short lived however. By lap 3 #14 CCGS1 from Christchurch Grammar would assume the lead until lap 8, when #5 Brum from Guildford Grammar took over, and led for the majority of the event. But this is an endurance event, not just about speed, and it became clear during the last driver stint that Brum was suffering with drained batteries, and finally succumbed to CCGS1 on lap 35, with CCGS1 heading off to a well-deserved victory from there completing 41 laps.

There was action aplenty behind however. The fastest car in the event, #4 Blyatmobile from Guildford Grammar, was docked 6 laps for multiple overtakes under a full course yellow flag! This dropped them from a potentially winning position to finish 3rd on 38 laps. Their 2017 Class B fastest lap of a 1:14 was some 5 seconds faster than the best track record of 2016 - a case of what might have been...

In fact five cars finished on 38 laps - 2nd placed Wesley 5, the Blyatmobile in 3rd, CCGS3 from Christchurch in 4th, Highway Star from Melville SHS (now fitted with the Class B battery) backing up their win in Class A in 5th and the revolutionary EVEO from Comet Bay College in 6th.

So across all class some 11 cars all exceeded the maximum total number of laps from 2016 - a massive step up in performance across the board.

But in the end it was #44 Sir Jackie, driven by two teachers from Comet Bay College in Denis Niven and myself, who managed to not only win Class C but also were crowned Overall Champions!

I'll update the blog with all the winners of the various engineering, best dressed and best presented awards shortly and we'll post a full gallery both on the website and Facebook as soon as we get the photos back, but a quick recap of the winners:

Class A Champions & Champion Junior School:

Melville SHS #2 Highway Star

Class B Champions & Champion Senior School:

Christchurch Grammar #14 CCGS1

Class C Champions & 2017 eV Challenge powered by Synergy Overall Champions:

Comet Bay College "Old Farts Racing" #44 Sir Jackie

If you wish to check out the full list of times visit http://racing.natsoft.com.au/results/#4

Finally a HUGE thankyou to our volunteers - the Committee of Trish Woolcock, Nad Murugan, David & Janet Castaldini, Kyal Rees, Sam Davy and Peter Bosch - all of the hard working team volunteer helpers, the ECU Engineering boys, our engineering prize judge Clyde Carstairs, timekeeper Ray Shaw, commentator Rob, and of course our Clerk of Course John Hurney. The event cannot take place without you.

We also thank as always the Hurricane Go Kart Club for the use of their awesome facility.

Lastly to Synergy, our amazing title sponsor - thank you for all your support in making the 2017 eV Challenge powered by Synergy such a success. Hopefully this is the start of big things to come.

Cheers!