Comet Bay delivers electric result

Teachers from Comet Bay College, dubbed the “Comet Bay Old Farts”, were crowned the overall champions at Australia’s longest running electric motorsports event.

The eV Challenge asks teams to design, build, test and compete with a small single-seat electric vehicle.

The aim of the challenge is to complete as many laps of a track in one hour from a limited battery capacity.

The 17th edition of the challenge, sponsored in 2017 by WA power utility Synergy, was held at the Hurricane Go Kart Club.

Comet Bay’s team — made up of students ranging from Year 8 to 12 and teachers from the design and technology department — raced in all three categories — Class A, Class B, and Class C (open class).

In Class A, Comet Bay College finished fifth, with Melville Senior High School taking the top spot.

Comet Bay was in the lead until a loose bolt resulted in their vehicle, Bender, having to be returned to the pits for repair.

In Class B, Comet Bay College finished in sixth place, with Christchurch Grammar finishing first.

In Class C, Sir Jackie, driven by Comet Bay teachers Clay Woolcock and Dennis Niven, not only won Class C, the team was also crowned overall champions — completing 46 laps of a 750m circuit track.

Comet Bay eV Challenge co-ordinator and WA challenge president Clay Woolcock said students from Comet Bay spent about four hours a week after school to design and build the cars.

“We’ve got a 50-50 mix of girls and boys, with the youngest from Year 8,” he said.

“A lot of the engineering concepts learnt in science and aerodynamics are applied to the design and build. There are a lot of schools out there looking for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) projects — this is a really good one to get involved with.”