UPES team wins Go-Kart tourney

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 30

Students of University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) have won the Go-kart Championship carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. It was organised by ‘Virtualis Motorsports’.

A total of 39 teams from various colleges and universities across India had participated in the event. Out of these, 30 were shortlisted in the virtual round. The next round was the vehicle inspection round and only 24 could qualify for the final.

Judging parameters were divided into two sections-dynamic event and static event. The dynamic event included technical inspection, brake testing, acceleration test, autocross, skid pad, endurance test and fuel economy while the static event included business plan, design evaluation and aesthetics.

Last year, the UPES team could not perform up to the mark in a similar competition held in Coimbatore. However, the team under the guidance of Dr Shyam Pandey and Dr Suresh Kumar, HoD, mechanical engineering, made a couple of changes in the design of the vehicle this year. It introduced adjustable seats which provided better driving comfort and airpods were incorporated to increase the airflow over the engine for a better efficiency. Necessary improvements were made in the wheel base to reduce the turning radius.

The vehicle, “Blackbird”, with a fuel tank capacity of 4.5 l achieved a maximum speed of 80 km per hour and was rated highly by the judging panel on the parameters of acceleration, braking and handling. Apart from winning the overall championship, the team also won the “Best Business Plan” and “Best Aesthetics “ awards.

The Team Blackbird, led by Abhishek Sharma, comprised 14 members, including two female. Rahul Sharma, Vishant Dahiya, Rajat Seth, Tanuj Tripathi, Harman Sohi, Nipun Jalhotra and Divyansh Nigam from B.Tech (III) and Lokesh Chauhan and Manan Tyagi from B.Tech (II) and Priyansh Sharma, Wimanyu Singh, Raghav Budhiraja, Pranay Mittal and Shivalika Srivastava from BTech (I) were part of the team.