April Monthly Report

This month our team successfully completed the documentation. We used a lot of new technologies to aid us in creating our documentation books. The students in grades 9-12 are 1-1 with Macbooks.  This enabled the students to collaborate and share ideas when they have technology at their fingertips every minute of every day. Matthew W. a member of the Advanced Computers class helped us construct a video for the A-21 car’s documentation. Jenae G. and Anna B. worked all semester on developing the journalistic layout. With the help of others in the Power Drive class, pictures were added to the topics to give a more polished result. Once the documentation was completed, our documentation specialists digitally transferred the files to the judging committee.

 The Cuming County Open was a huge success! We had tons of dedicated volunteers helping us set up the race, work the concession, throw bales and clean up. Without our volunteers and sponsors that race wouldn’t have been possible. Our A-21 car ended up finishing 3rd, and unfortunately the E-31 car got in an accident.

            The team has continually been working on the S-20 car in order to get it finished for the Hastings race that is held on April 20th.  We have also been testing our batteries hoping to make improvements in our finishes.

Team travels to West Point for the Cuming County Open

The Bancroft-Rosalie Power Drive traveled to West Point on April 2nd for the Cuming County Open. The team knew that this track was very fast, has long straight aways and very sharp corners. They always had troubles in the past at this track, always got caught up in a lot of crashes. But for the drivers A. Berg driving the A21 and D. Wortman driving E31 had to prepare for this track and avoid getting into wrecks. Berg started the race with being last but his teammate D. Wortman began in the middle of the pack. The Power Drive team had two strategies, one D. Wortman was going to get out front and stay out of trouble and two for A. Berg to keep a steady pace in hope of avoiding getting into a wreck. D. Wortman jumped out to an early lead and was lapping cars within 4 laps then finally took the lead for the first 10 minutes; the car was very fast and handling well. Sooner or later the Syracuse driver ran D. Wortman into the bails and flipped the car and almost ran into the water. The E31 car was damaged and not fixable. Bad luck struck B-R again. “Syracuse car gave me no room, drivers must have not had a clue I was there. It’s a shame, our car was very fast believed the team had an excellent opportunity to score a win. Really appreciate all the hard work the team put in on the car. "I hated it for them that we got taken out and lost the race for a stupid reason” stated D. Wortman. Luckily driver A. Berg hung around the pack for most of the race, with 20 minutes to go A. Berg picks up the pace and starts to pass cars and running down the A52 car from Raymond Central. A. Berg made up one whole lap on the field but unfortunately ran out of time. Team member M. Smith stated, “A. Berg was by far the fastest car the last 20 minutes on the track." He was 5 to 6 seconds lap faster then the leader, we just ran out of time.” A. Berg finished 3rd place with a very fast car. The team was in charge for the set up of the concession stand and the race track. Help to the surrounding community for their huge volunteer help, Nebraska public district, Omaha public power, Cuming county district, and the sheriffs for donating radars. The Power Drive Team would like to say thank you for all the effort, it would not be possible with out them.