You seem to have various a classifications based on high school, college, etc, but what are the actual ages of students? Reason I ask is two students in one of teams I help are planning to spend a few months in the US next year, they'll be 19 at the time. If we can secure sponsorship it may be possible to crate up a car and ship it over so that they could compete over there. As far as I can tell it would only need suitable batteries to comply with Electrathon rules, and of course the agreement of other competitors and Electrathon America as they don't want to tread on any toes.
In the Electrathon America 2010-2011 hand out states you must have a drivers license. In the U.S., the lowest age limit that is allowed to drive is 16 years of age. Plus keep in mind it also depends on how you drive with others on the track too. If you drive aggressively, but keep running people off the road in a bad way while doing it, you may be asked to leave. But if you do drive aggressively, but in a good manner without running people off the road is legal (several Northwest drivers are pretty competitive, I being one of them. Hope this answers your question about age limits. I know Mike Hodgert, the Electrathon America president is a good aggressive driver. He is a pretty good driver, and he's 57 years of age. A driver several years ago when talking with the guys at Centennial High School said that Mark Murphy was an aggressive driver too, but he would always be running into people to get to the front unfortunately. Just check your mirrors, and your left, right and front and you'll be fine.
Both of these students hold full UK driving licences for the road, and have at least six years experience driving in Greenpower races which also has strict rules regarding over-aggressive driving.
Sorry, I didn't mention in the OP that it's a Greenpower car they may be able to ship over.
I would guess the quick answer is they would be competing as open class. Here we allow them to drive as students till the day school starts. So if you graduated in 2010, you could drive till the start of school in the fall. If you want to still drive you will moved to the open class.
I'm sure they'd be happy to compete in open class, having four wheels and an open driver position (Greenpower rules) means the car probably wouldn't be competetive but sounds like the idea is to do it for the experience of meeting with the good folk over there!
-- Edited by Orinoco on Tuesday 16th of November 2010 09:22:44 AM
You would likely do better in the NW than on the East coast area. Most of our cars are open cocpit because our races are usually held in parking lots. We have a lot of speeding up and slowing down, turn sharply then go again. We do not run near as fast, stearing, stability and brakes play a big part. Aerodynamics and speed play the biggest role on the big circles back east.
Thanks Electrathon. Sounds like they'd already settled on the west coast as the preferred destination so may fit in quite well, although I don't think they realise how far they'll have to travel just to visit the places they've already got on their list let alone a couple of electrathon races. Furthest we've travelled for a race in the UK is 150 miles each way, although there is one crazy school that travels the whole length of the country!
I got a quote for airfreighting a knocked down car to San Francisco, just under £500 each way, so need a friendly sponsor to come up with some cash.
If you are serious you want to get the car to Portland Oregon. The biggest race is here. There are numerous races all around the area but most are one day races. SanFransisco is a long way away from any races.
Orinoco, When will your folks be here in the States? We have a race here in Florida in April at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola. It's not as big as the stuff that goes on in the northwest, but it's a very well run event and a lot closer geographically. You would need to consult the calendar of events, but you may be able to go from Florida to Iowa for their events...
I looked at some of the gallery; are your cars required to have 4 wheels?
Jim
-- Edited by meangreen on Sunday 9th of January 2011 05:54:27 PM
Nebraska State Championship May 7 2011. Sponsored by OPPD & NPPD ( 2 electric co.). New baseball park parking lot track near Omaha. Generally draws around 50 teams. It's called Powerdrive. This is mainly high school, some college. Be sure to check Powerdrive rules. Expect speeds up to maybe 35 mph
