Super Mileage Challenge is not about speed, it's about gas mileage.
Four area high school teams will travel to Indianapolis Sunday to see if the cars they built can get better gas mileage than other competing Indiana schools. Miles per gallons is expected to be in the hundreds or more.The Indiana Math, Science and Technology Education Alliance Super Mileage Challenge will be held at O'Reilly Raceway Park Monday beginning at 8 a.m. Thirty-seven Indiana high schools have entered 49 cars in the two classes of competition.
Students build their own cars under the supervision of a faculty member. They are responsible for the design and construction of the car and for raising all funds needed for the project. Engines are furnished by Briggs & Stratton Corp., but all other items must be either purchased or donated by sponsors.
To be eligible to compete, each school must submit a detailed technical proposal covering all aspects of the design and construction of the car. Such things as aerodynamic drag, friction forces, braking forces and cornering forces must be calculated and discussed in detail.
Locally, Triton, Warsaw and Whitko each have entered a car in the stock class; and Warsaw, Wawasee and Whitko each are entering a car in the unlimited class. Unlimited class allows engine modifications and will have a total of 24 entries. The unlimited class typically average more than 1,000 mpg.
Students in Jay Ocken's classes at Whitko started on their cars in November when they put together their 30-page proposal. They actually started building the cars in February, Ocken said.
The Whitko students fell behind their timeline and had to play catch up, he said. "But that's a good lesson to learn."
The frame took the longest, Ocken said. All the welding and aluminum work was done in-house. Once the frame was together, Ocken said everything else happened faster.
Whitko's team will go to Indianapolis Sunday for technical inspections, and then spend the night. The track will open at 7 a.m. Monday, with the first heat at 8 a.m. A heat is run every half hour until 3:30 p.m.
"Our strategy is to get up to speed, shut down and coast as far as possible before we lose momentum," said student Garret Vandeputte.
Student Dylan Marshall said he, Vandeputte and Rex Slusher all built and raced go-carts before. "This race is not like racing go-carts," Marshall said.
Vandeputte said they think their stock car can get 450 mpg. Marshall said they hope the unlimited car can get more than 500 mpg.
Monday's competition will be the first for the Triton team. Triton teacher Sam Davis said he saw last year's competition.
"That helped us a lot for this year," Davis said. "We helped the Whitko team last year. We learned some of the pitfalls there. This car is electrical conduit with an aluminum body on top of it," said Davis.
They thought about other ways they could do it, but like other schools, the Triton team didn't have all the time or finances needed. Next year, Davis said they hope to have a fundraiser.
For the challenge this year, Davis said, "We're hoping to at least qualify." He said he thinks their car will get 900 to 1,000 mpg. "I think we have the components and design to get at least that much."
Student Doug Nordmann said of the challenge, "It's fun. We learned a lot - welding, sheet metal work."
David Long, student, said the sheet metal work was the hardest part. "If you screw up, then you can see it and you have to fix it," he said.
WCHS's team advisor, Joe Bryan, said planning for their car started in October with a first meeting. Warsaw had planned to do a second unlimited class car, but in early November found out the rules had changed regarding the width of the car for safety purposes. People got upset, so the sponsoring organization decided to grant a waiver for this year. However, Bryan said he decided not to build a second car to the new specifications because it would be a waste of resources. They planned to just modify the car they had, the yellow No. 75.
Some of the modifications they made included lowering the steering wheel, changing the engine to unlimited and putting covers on the wheels for better aerodynamics.
In 2007, Warsaw students competed in the stock class and won the Performance Concept Award for coming closest to their projected mileage of between 700 to 800 mpg.
"It's basically a rolling race," Bryan said.
More importantly, Bryan said, the competition is "about working together as a team and competing."
Participants at WCHS on the team work on the car voluntarily. No class is offered for the competition. Everyone puts in a lot of hours on their own time, Bryan said.
This year, helping out for Warsaw's team are Jeremy Meadows, Geoff Morris, Benjamin Bryan, Kevin Rich, Mercedes Plummer and Chris Allen. Plummer is the veteran and primary driver for WCHS. Two students in Bryan's machine tools class, James Walton and Todd Lincoln, helped Bryan work on the engine.
"Guys from last year's team came in and helped," Bryan said.
Like the other schools, Warsaw's team relies heavily on sponsors. "You have to have sponsors," Bryan said. "Like, NAPA has given us so much, and that's one example."
"I learned a lot of things," Benjamin Bryan said of working on the car. "In the very beginning, we worked on the mold. We learned a lot about the engine and how that works. I learned a lot of little things."
Morris said, "I'd really like to win, but I'm not sure about that. I hope we do as good as we can. Hopefully, the engine won't break down or stall."
Benjamin Bryan said it'll be fun just to see the car run after all the work they put into it. Chris Allen said it was tough to work on all the components. He'd like to see the car average 1,000 mpg.
Modifications also were made to Wawasee High School's car this year.
Student Brandon Clingaman said they lowered the top of the body and the rest of the car a couple of inches, and formed the windshield better. Craig Johnson said they also cut the space down on the wheel wells. With the changes, Clingaman said they hope to decrease the drag of the car because it will have less surface area.
Student Scott Plummer worked on the steering for the car. He said they made the steering lighter and simpler. They added a knuckle for more steering movement. Welding was a challenge, Plummer said, because they couldn't weld at the high school. They had to outsource it.
The body top design of the car is better than last year, said student Jacob Haneline. Plummer said they put more time in engineering the car. Haneline said they started working on it in August.
Wawasee's drivers will be Johnson, Clingaman and Tyler Ritter. Michael Lackey said the driving strategy is for the drivers to "coast as long as possible" after getting the car up to speed.
Sponsorship for the car is huge, said teacher Allen Coblentz. Whether a company gives money, expertise, materials or time, Coblentz said he talked to the students about how important it is. They try to seek out local sponsors, and then follow up with the sponsors after the race. The sponsors appreciate that, he said.
