Two years of hard work paid off last week for Delta Secondary automotive students and instructor Casey Mynott.
The group completed the first runs with its electric drag racing truck at Mission Raceway last Thursday and Friday.
It was an "awesome" feeling to do the first test run, says Mynott, who had fellow instructor Duncan Cowen along for the initial ride.
It was "amazing to see all that hard work come to a head," he says, noting that it was the "first run ever of an electric vehicle in Canada on a track."
Four students got to do runs down the track on Friday.
The Toyota pickup, which runs on 60 batteries, had a best time of 18 seconds at 62 miles per hour with a reaction time of one second last week, says Mynott. In the future, the truck should easily get into the 13-, 14-second range at 100 miles per hour, he notes.
"That won't be a problem."
Mynott says future plans include working out some hiccups and continuing to drag race the truck.
"The next time we go out is going to be very impressive."
He says there's something special about this particular project.
"The dedication to the project, the engagement, is like no other I've ever seen," Mynott says.
He says around 120 students worked on the truck in some regard and one student passed up doing his convocation to be at the shop last Wednesday night to help prepare the truck for the racetrack.