The 2004 edition of Astronaut High School’s Electrathon is history and
what an event it was! Six cars took the green flag at Noon on Saturday, May
1st; three from Milton High School’s Panther Racing Team, one private
entry from Hialeah, and two from Astronaut High School’s Eagle Racing
Electrathon Team.
The start looked pretty typical with everyone accelerating gently up to competition
speed, but it didn’t take long for things to go from sedate to wild. On
the second lap, Rodney Schreck accelerated his #4 off of chicane turn three
in an effort to beat Mattie Holland’s #03 into turn four. As he began
his arc into the turn his car “bicycled” up on two wheels, settled
back down for a second, and then did a wild three-quarter flip. The car came
to rest on its left side with the bottom against the chain link fence outside
turn four. The race was immediately red-flagged and the rest of the field stopped
at the start/finish line. Meanwhile, Rodney unlatched his harness and scrambled
out unhurt.
Track workers carry Schreck’s car back to infield (Schang photo)
The same could not be said of his car, however, as the left rear suspension
was severely bent and the frame seemed to be twisted slightly. Undaunted, however,
Rodney and the race workers pulled and kicked the rear suspension back into
a facsimile of its former shape and he rejoined the rest of the field at the
starting line. The important point is that the safety equipment did its job.
After a delay of just over 4 minutes, the race was green-flagged again and,
fortunately, there were no more accidents.
Just a few laps after the race restarted, Logan Tuck’s #00 blew the right
front tire as he was coming off turn 5. The Panther Racing crew scrambled to
put on a spare wheel, but 2 laps were lost in the process. After the stop, Tuck
picked up his pace slightly in an effort to regain some of his lost time.
Milton High School crew changing RF tire on Logan Tuck’s #00 (Smyth
photo)
The Milton High Panther Racing cars pretty well dominated the race from that point on with an occasional early challenge for position from Astronaut High’s new prototype car #14 with Andy Polk driving. Any hopes that were held by Astronaut’s team, however, went by the wayside on lap 26 when the chain came off. The Astronaut team fixed that problem, but then encountered a bearing failure on the right front wheel. After losing nearly 13 minutes in the pits to replace the wheel assembly, the #14 car rejoined the race some 20 laps down. Meanwhile, Astronaut’s #13 Aerocoupe with April Keyes at the controls had been experiencing electrical problems. The car would mysteriously lose power, coast to a stop, and then start up again. The #13 was finally retired from competition after only 39 laps.
Milton High’s Mattie Holland (left) leads Astronaut’s Andy Polk
through the chicane turn in the early
laps. April Keyes (white car) is in 3rd with eventual winner Kevin Farmer right
behind. (Smyth Photo)
The three Milton High teammates put on quite a show during the last five minutes of the event turning some of the fastest laps of the day. Mattie Holland in the 03 and Kevin Farmer in 01 traded the lead a few times throughout the remaining laps with Farmer prevailing at the end.
The victorious Milton High School Panther Racing team drivers.
Left to right – Logan Tuck 3rd pl; Kevin Farmer 1st; Mattie Holland 2nd
pl.
(Schang Photo)
The official finish showing driver, location/team, number, car type, motor type, laps completed, and status:
1st Place – Kevin Farmer; Milton High/Panther Racing #01; BlueSky Aerocoupe/E-Tek; 73 laps (running)
2nd Place – Mattie Holland; Milton High/Panther Racing #03; custom prototype/E-Tek; 73 laps (running)
3rd Place – Logan Tuck; Milton High/Panther Racing #00; BlueSky Aerocoupe/E-Tek; 72 laps (running)
4th Place – Rodney Schreck; Hialeah, FL #4; custom prototype/E-Tek; 59 laps (running)
5th Place – Andy Polk; Astronaut High/Eagle Racing #14; custom prototype/Scott 1.0hp; 52 laps (running)
6th Place – April Keyes; Astronaut High/Eagle Racing #13; BlueSky Aerocoupe/Scott 1.6hp; 39 laps (out)