Very few people involved in the Power Drive program today were involved when it originated.  It’s been over 25 years since the first Power Drive season in the 1998 / 1999 school year.  It’s been a wild ride with ups and downs since then!

In 1999, in the same week of April as the first-ever Power Drive rally, the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado took place.  That news overshadowed everything else, including the good news coming out of the start of an incredibly positive program in Power Drive.

Unwelcome news struck again with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Every school which participated in Power Drive instituted strict travel and quarantine protocols, with no room for participation in outside events.  The entire 2020 Power Drive season was canceled as a result.

But the news for Power Drive has been overwhelmingly good.  Power Drive started when an electric car enthusiast in Papillion, Nebraska, (a suburb of Omaha) called his electric utility, the Omaha Public Power District (“OPPD”).  He suggested an electric vehicle program that wound up being adopted by OPPD.

The first season of Power Drive was organized and operated by OPPD in its 13-county area of service in eastern Nebraska.  Twelve vehicles participated in the first season, and it was enthusiastically welcomed.

The first Power Drive Championship Rally – April 1999

 

For the second season, OPPD was joined by the Nebraska Public Power District (“NPPD”) to become a statewide program.  The number of vehicles participating in the program doubled.

OPPD and NPPD turned the program over to EVERON beginning with the 2016 season.  Power Drive retained its statewide participation, with frequent entrants from schools in other states.  The program has seen teams from Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Florida, and even Alaska!

Vehicle from Kodiak, Alaska, in a Nebraska competition

Through the years, teams got better and better with the safety and performance of the vehicles.  From simple frames and single rollbars in the early years, vehicles now must use much sturdier bar frames for front and side protection, plus an entire roll cage instead of single roll bar to protect the driver.

Attaching protective seat belts Inside a strong roll cage

Performance has also improved dramatically.  Look at the Power Drive Endurance event for the best example of this.  In the Endurance event, each vehicle must drive for one hour, without replacing or recharging the battery.  The vehicle with the most laps wins.  This is difficult to do!  In the championship Endurance event of the first season, the winning vehicle averaged 15.2 MPH.  Today, vehicles must average more than 30 MPH to even be competitive!

Such improvements in performance don’t come by accident.  It is not enough to simply weld a few bars together, slap on some wheels, attach a motor, drop in a couple of batteries, and then go win races.  Teams must figure out how to make the wheels be aligned, choose batteries that carry the most power for their weight, design steering mechanisms that turn accurately, and build them to be dependable to avoid breakdowns.

As vehicles went faster, aerodynamics became important.  Studies by Power Drive teams show that above 22 MPH, it was better to have some kind of aerodynamic body on the car to reduce the “drag” caused by air resistance.  This caused teams to research aerodynamics effects, build small wind tunnels to evaluate body shapes on models, and change the thinking about how to build the body of a vehicle.

Carefully shaping an aerodynamic vehicle body

It also meant that teams needed better training for their students.  Drivers need to know how best to go around a turn.  Pit Crews need to be faster at making repairs and adjustment, especially during a race.  Vehicle designers had to learn how to adjust the center of balance of a vehicle so it would be more stable.  All of this must be learned and then applied in each later season to get better and better.

Using cones to simulate different curves during practice

High school classrooms teach the underlying principles of these items.  Power Drive teaches the students to go further, applying the lessons to the “real-world” challenge of building a vehicle, getting it to move, and then making it move well for an hour.  It’s no wonder that the vehicles have gotten so much better.  It’s because the students are learning so much better!  Thank you, Power Drive!

A modern, aerodynamic Power Drive vehicle