[B]The Road to the National Championship is a learning lesson in life.
The Burns Middle in Brandon Florida.
The Rookie Team that believed.
We really did not know what we were up against. There were teams of schools that had Engineering Professors that were the teachers, and students that had years of experience with this competition. Some of the teams had been established for ten years and had seniors which began in 9th grade; however, we had to start somewhere and there was no time like now to jump in with both feet to learn from the new experiences before us.
Surprisingly, we learned that we were competitive from the start. The day’s first event was the Road Course. The driver had 5 minutes to turn the fastest lap to qualify for the Top 7 Teams to compete in a 10 minute Sprint Race. Chandler Blackmon was our driver and made it to the feature race with a fast time that landed him in second place. In the Sprint Race, the green flag dropped. Heading into turn one he was hit from the rear and had to come back through to field to a respectable 3rd place finish (2nd finishing Middle School). This set the stage for the rest of the day. The Pit Stop Event was next. Our team consisted of Robert Cunningham, Jack Lilly, Mike Previtera, George Rivera, and Nick Hodson. They stunned the crowd by setting a new record of 28 seconds; only to have a 30 second penalty for a loose wheel. Even with this penalty, it only dropped the team to 2nd. Chock it up as another learning experience. The next event was the team presentation showcasing the efforts of Noah Daniels and Stephen Oats titled "The Road to the National Championship.? Next, was an exhibition event that was the Destination Zero Carbon (DZC) car. The whole team worked to get their car ready and we WON!!! The win qualified us to compete in the Singapore International Challenge. The day had other competitions and we made respectable showings and learned from our experiences, but no top fives. The day ended with the Super Speedway Endo which was a 40 minute competition. For the first time, it started to rain which made for treacherous conditions for electric cars. Our team pitted for a 4 tire change that proved good and bad. The car was faster, but we went ten laps down and were now in 14th place. The driver drove hard, but steady and ended up with a 4th place finish. It was exciting and really capped our learning experience!
We finished 2nd place in the middle schools and a super 5th place over all. I couldn't be more proud of our Burns Middle School Rookie Team! They used what they learned and problem solved throughout the challenge. My statement to the Team was simple. "We have 364 days to get ready for the 2014 NASCAR S.T.E.M. Student Racing Challenge!
Congrat’s to the Students and their Families.
Bobby Diehl
Pilot Program for Hillsborough County Pubic Schools[/B]
