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GBHS EV race team featured in state magazine
Preparation for spring races beginning
january relay Layout 1
Travis Straub, club sponsor, Cory Burten, Nate Brungardt, Zack Schridde, Jun Rui and Skyler Zamarripa (seated), VTC members, pose with the experimental electric car while the standard-class vehicle rests in the background. The team is busy getting the cars ready for the spring racing season. - photo by photo BY JENNIFER SCHARTZ

On Sept. 27, Great Bend High School’s electric vehicle (EV) team competed against other area high schools in the Kansas High Plains ElectroRally in Hays.  It was the culmination of several months of planning, designing, building and testing an electric vehicle.  The race and photos of the team were highlighted in the Dec. 2012 edition of Kansas Country Living magazine.
“The student teams designed, built and raced their electric vehicles,” according to the story.  “They used lightweight components that were smaller versions of a full-sized electric vehicle.”

What’s next
It’s a work in progress and probably always will be. But that doesn’t slow down the enthusiasm Vocational Technologies Club members who are learning that the education is in the process and not the end result and that’s what’s important.
“It’s an ongoing project,” said Travis Straub, Great Bend High School woodworking teacher and Vocational Technologies Club sponsor.
Straub noted that several different teams of high school students have worked on the electric cars during the seven-year affiliation with the program.
“The number-one thing they are learning is team work,” Straub said. “They have a new appreciation for NASCAR,” he said, adding that the project takes money, time and knowledge to be successful.
Each year, club members address new issues and rules that apply to the cars. They tackle what they can, raise funds to do more and plan for the future.
“The goal is to get the cars ready to race,” Straub said, noting that if they can be competitive when they race, so much the better.

The High Plains Rally results, courtesy of Kansas Country Living magazine, were as follows (listed in order):
Spirit Award:  Great Bend.
Experimental Class:  Dighton 1, Dighton 2 and Hays.
Heat Race 1:  Beloit High, Great Bend, Hoisington, Scott City, Hays High, Clearwater, Stockton, FHSU, Hays High, Wheatland, Dighton 1, Dighton 2, Hays High, and Wheatland and Minneapolis.
Heat Race 2:  Stockton, Scott City, Great Bend, Clearwater, Beloit High, Hoisington, FHSU, Dighton 1, Dighton 2, Wheatland, Hays High and Weatland and Minneapolis.