Race day for rocket cars at Plains School

A school gymnasium is the place for racing, but last week eighth-grader Cody West might have reached a speed of 55 mph with his CO2 rocket car, nabbing first place honors in the Technical Education Shop Class annual "CO2 Drag Race."

The 14-year-old was undefeated in his four heats and the championship round against classmate Emelia Rivinius. "I just tried to make it as aerodynamic as possible to go down the track as fast as it could," said West, who finished with a time of 5.537. Rivinius crossed the finish line at 5.554.

The ten girls and four boys in Kyle Mitchell's shop class made their cars from a foot-long piece of basswood, which they cut and carved into a design of their own making. They painted their vehicles and added metal axles and plastic wheels, putting a hole at the rear of the car for a CO2 cartridge. The cars have two eyelifts on the bottom. Fishing line was put through the lifts and ran from the starting to finish line to keep the cars straight on the 75-foot track during the race. Two cars raced at a time.

West's brown and white car was 7 5/8th inches long and at 84.9 grams was the lightest car in the competition, which was done over a period of three days. West designed his car like a dragster, long and thin. He was undefeated in all five heats. He said that most of his races were close except for the first one against Karlee Huffman, who had the shortest and heaviest car at 188.1 grams and made in the likeness of a baby unicorn. He knew he'd win against Huffman, but he didn't think he'd win every race. Not only did West get the bragging rights of having the fastest car in class, but he also got 10 bonus points in his grade for the project.

"It was nice to see some innovation and creativity with this group of students," said Mitchell, who's been doing the races for the last 10 years. The teacher said this class was a very competitive group. He said the first and second place cars finished within 200th of a second apart. "The calculated speed using a formula of time and distance said the cars were traveling over 38 mph. When you consider that the time starts from the car at a stop and the cars are accelerating most of the time down the track, some of the students' cars are probably reaching a speed of about 50 mph over the 75-foot track," said Mitchell, who added it would be interesting to use a radar to get the peak speed.

The 14-year-old Rivinius got five bonus points for second place. Her piece was made to look like a condiment from the fast food chain Chick-fil-A. Her car, which weighed 85.3 grams, took four out of six heats. Her best race was against Huffman, finishing three seconds ahead of her unicorn car. Rivinius said the closest race was against Ashley Ferlan, who didn't have time to paint her vehicle, but felt it actually helped her. "I think not painting it made it go faster because it doesn't have the paint weighing it down," said Ferlan.

Mitchell uses the project to teach mathematics, woodworking, science, and problem solving skills. He said they learn the concepts of thrust, mass, friction, aerodynamic, design, and measurements.

The students held a people's choice type vote on each other before the race. Jaycee Carr was voted "Most Likely to Win" and finished in third place. She received 10 bonus points for the vote, but third place got her only bragging rights. Ava Lawyer and her "Lightning McQueen" car was voted "Best Paint Job." Kaylene Morkert won "Most Creative Design" with her colorful circles that reminded her of the 1980s.

Mitchell got a new electronic timer for the class. The old timer wouldn't work last year, forcing the students to watch for the first car to cross the finish line. Quinn's Hot Springs Resort donated the money for the $1,800 system. "It was very valuable to have the students to see and measure the time it took for their cars to finish," said Mitchell, a teacher for over 25 years. "The new launcher truly added to the sense of competition and excitement to the races," he added. The students were able to also get mathematical equations to estimate their car speeds, according to Mitchell. "Using their times and distance, they were also able to find a relationship between the mass of the car and the speed it achieved," he said.