DONNYBROOK teenagers proved their engineering know-how by taking out first and third places in the annual electrical vehicle (EV) challenge in Perth.

A story on the worldwide web — written by an apparently gobsmacked American — described the event as “a crazy weekend for a bunch of kids Down Under, where 45 homebuilt electric, um, vehicles competed in an endurance race that was part Le Mans, part Soap Box Derby and all fun”.

The competition was divided into classes, for students who built the cars themselves, those who had some adult help and other categories.

There was also an “open” class with batteries limited to no more than 432 watt/hours.

Donnybrook was in Class A for “student-built cars from years eight to 10”.

Last year Donnybrook District High came second but this year it went even better.

The race is an endurance even with vehicles aiming to cover the greatest distance rather than travel at the fastest speed.

“Our aim this year was to run with lighter drivers and that made the difference,” said teacher Rob Doherty.

Donnybrook’s winning car came second in last year’s race while being driven by year 10 students.

This year it was driven by a team of younger (hence smaller) year eights, who took it for 43 laps between them, Mr Doherty reported. The young drivers enthused that the experience was “fun and awesome.”

This year’s Donnybrook Senior High School project involved two recycled cars and a new one.

One of the recycled cars took out first place, after being rebuilt by year 10 students Luke Dale, Liam Skilton and Odin Mansfield.

The other recycled car — worked on by year 10s Patrick Leary, Ryan Carmichael and Jade Nicholls — did not make it to the race.

Its speed controller caught fire.

Engineer Patrick Leary was disappointed by the mechanical failure.

“All that hard exhilarating work was for nothing,” he lamented.

But the car’s brand new motor, for which he and his team raised funds, would give next year’s EV students an advantage. “It’s a hell of a good motor that hasn’t been raced with,” he said.