Racing to the Future™ is now in it’s 5th year as a part of the Kentucky Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP). STLP is a fantastic program that allows students to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through events and programs like Racing to the Future™, Digital Videography, Computer System and Network Repair, Gaming and pretty much anything that can be tied to any of the STEM components and into a fun, learning experience. Racing to the Future™ explores the physics, engineering, technology and math in teaching students how to build a competitive slot car, be judged on their design and then compete against each other in a double elimination, bracket-style drag race. Students compete within their own age groups, elementary, middle and high school. So all of the Kentucky STLP students descended onto Rupp Arena, Thursday, March 28th. We had another huge attendance of over 5900+ students and teachers, with even more parents and visitors to add to the total!
This year 42 Student Racers from all three age groups competed on our 20 foot 7 inch, scale quarter mile, for prizes and bragging rights for the next year!
Once again our sponsors outdid themselves with their generosity and support of this program. AFX Racemasters, Auto World, Walther’s Life-Like Racing, Bud’s HO Racing and Speed Inc. all donated prizes abd other items or offered discounts of their products to Student Racers, parents and teachers. The prize packages make the event complete and memorable for the Student Racers. All of the sponsors went way beyond expectations again with race sets, cars, T-shirts and handout goodies for the students!
Tomy AFX – AFX Racemasters has been our oldest sponsor and came through again for us this year. Six race sets were donated as prizes for the racing competition. First place Student Racers from each age group took home one of these sets along with an Auto World “Legends of the Quarter Mile” T-shirt!
AFX has also started a new tradition this year with the AFX Kentucky STLP Racing to the Future™ Champion’s Trophy. One of these beautiful 27 inch tall trophies will be awarded to a Student Racer from each age group, for winning the racing competition. Their name and the year they won will be engraved on the trophy and it will be housed at their school’s trophy case for the year. At the beginning of the STLP Spring season, the trophies will be collected for the next yearly event and a new champion will get their name added to this perpetual trophy, along with bragging rights for the year!
Once again, Auto World jumped in Racing to the Future™ full throttle as a key sponsor! They sent 6 race sets (Tom Daniel Match Racing Drag Strip and the Top Fuel Dragster Pro Racing Set) as well as goodies for handing out to all entrants, some of which included newly released Funny Cars, flashlights and sticker sets of the new Legends of the Quarter Mile Funny Cars that are to be released soon. Second place Student Racers in the racing and design competitions of each age group won an Auto World race set!
Life-Like Racing came back again this year with some great sponsorship prizes! The Horsepower! and Police Pursuit race sets were given to Student Racers whose names were drawn from the entry list.
We would like thank our most generous sponsors in making this a unique event within the KY STLP State Championships. Racing to the Future™ has grown faster than any other event in the short 5 years it has been part of this educational opportunity. Having great backers in Auto World, AFX Racemasters and Life-Like really grabs the interest of the students and giving them wonderful awards for their efforts in this competition. We overheard other event directors asking “how many prizes do those guys have???” And that big prize table was key in getting us even more recruits for next Fall’s regional events and building the entry roles for the 2014 State Championship!
There was another 1:1 race car on display this year. Set up next to the Racing to the Future™ area, Barrett Racing had a wonderful display and worked right along with us. They were fantastic, showing all of the safety gear and science involved in keeping the race car fast and the driver safe. They even put kids in the car, took pictures and explained all the gear involved from the removable steering wheel to the helmets. I’m pretty sure they were worn out by the end of the day, but the students had a blast! I sure hope they come back next year.
The Racing to the Future™ Team
Top Row L-R: Helen Walker, Emily Shoemaker, Jessica Abbott
Middle Row L-R: Mark Vaughn, John Hornbeck, Donnie Walker, Dan Gorman
Bottom Row L-R: Donnie Walker, Paul Shoemaker
So let’s get back to the Racing to the Future™ event. We arrive at 6:00 AM at Rupp Arena to begin setting up the drag strip, displays, seating and projectors. It takes about 2 hours to get everything set up, tested and working. So by 9:00 AM we were ready to start registering the Student Racers!
