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The intersection of sports and science

Yarmouth High School students achieved their racing dreams by building their own race car

YARMOUTH (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- A lot of kids dream of being professional race car drivers, but what if you had to build your own set of wheels?

A crew from Yarmouth took on the challenge, combining their need for speed with their need for knowledge.

A group of future engineers from YHS built an electric race car and competed against 48 other teams from across New England in annual Connecticut Electrathon, held last weekend in Lime Rock Park.

The kids were able to compete thanks to a new class offered at Yarmouth High School called "Electric Car Design, Build and Race." Funding for the class came from the Yarmouth Education Fund.

The students spent the semester building the car, then acted as their own pit crew during the race, problem solving to get the car back on the as quickly as possible if anything went wrong.

Since this was Yarmouth's first year at the event, students raced in the high school novice class. They did not win, however they believed they performed very well for their first outing.

Mr. Tom Pitman, who teaches the electric car class, says the goal is to have future students build their cars from scratch.

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