I got out of the hospital on January 29th, just in time to do another seminar on the 31st! This one was at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa, Florida, just 20 miles from home. Four more schools attended this one. FPL has seeded 10 new teams this season and plan to seed 10 more next season! After that, who knows?

The University of South Florida's annual Engineering Fair was the weekend of February 10th. They host an Electrathon race in conjunction with the fair every year and it is one of Electrathon Florida's favorite events. Unfortunately, I was still recovering from my hospital stay and was too weak to attend. The next race, on March 2nd, was our annual "Dash Races" where the races are shortened from 1 hour to 20 minutes each. Without the need to conserve battery power, we can gear the cars up and let 'em fly. Unfortunately, Electrathon Florida chose to run this event at Kirkland Ranch. I just can't bring myself to travel 3+ hours there and 4 hours back to run two 20-minute sprints on a track that I deem unsuitable for a speed contest. So, I did not attend.

April 20th brought our annual race at the Florida Solar Energy Center. The course was redesigned this year to avoid a car-breaking bump from previous years, but it was still awfully rough. I had bought new batteries and converted my car to a 36-volt system. The difference in acceleration was impressive and I managed a 2nd place finish in the first race. The second race started out OK, but about 20 minutes in the race my seat pan broke loose and my butt cheeks were about .040 inch (aluminum thickness) from becoming friction brakes!

May 5th was our final regular season race at Mulberry High School. I took both cars. My red #13 Advanced Battery car hadn't been run since this same race last year. Just as we were staging for the first race, I discovered my purple #94 Open Standard car had a flat rear tire! It was OK when I loaded the cars Friday evening and still OK when we unloaded in the pits earlier that morning, but... Ryan Norden started the race in #13 while I stayed in the pits changing the rear tire on #94. The 13 car started shutting off every few minutes just like last year. Apparently, the modifications I made to cool the battery didn't help; the BMS in the batteries must be defective. When Ryan came into the pits for the umpteenth time with about 20 minutes remaining, I told him to get out of 13 and take the (now repaired) 94. He did and he turned some impressively fast laps. For the second race of the day I had Ryan stay in the 94 and I started the race in 13. After about 20 minutes and having to restart the 13 a dozen times, I parked it. Ryan continued in the 94 and ran to a 2nd place finish. With the abbreviated first race combined with the second (total laps), Ryan in the 94 earned a 3rd place class finish (5 cars).

At the awards banquet (after the races), it was announced that FPL was going to host a race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 8th!