Story by Kate Minutillo / Video by Jenn DaSilva

William Carangelo, applied technologies department chair, has been working alongside Travis Bioski building a race car that will be entered in the Connecticut Electrathon America competition competition in May at the Lime Rock race track as Bioski’s senior project.

This project was started a couple years ago by former teacher at Woodland, Nicholas Piotrowski’s, class. Because there was not enough time to finish it at the time, the project sat for two years before it was picked up again by Carangelo.

Piotrowski purchased the starter materials through local and online vendors. The welding of the car’s frame was also done by an outside vendor.

The students worked on the design and fabrication and Travis works on it during his and Carangelo’s free blocks. He has chosen three or four students to help him as well.

Carangelo describes Travis as a good leader. He admires his determination to get the project finished and recognizes his ability to assign tasks.

“Travis is just really good with his hands, he likes working on cars and he is good at problem solving,” said Caranglo.

Each step in the process of building this race car will ultimately influence their success at the competition. The car will not be raced- the cars will be judged based on the car that could travel the farthest distance in one hour. Travis and Carangelo look forward to a speed of thirty-five miles per hour for their first time compared the cars built by professional companies that have traveled sixty-five miles per hour in the past.

“I want to race at Lime Rock where I could proudly say, I built this,” said Travis.

With all the planning and hard work that has gone into this project, Carangelo recognizes Travis’ devotion and hard work.

“I’m proud of him and the product that he has built,” said Carangelo.