Personal Narrative: Winston Solar Car Team

My name is Joseph Cavuoti, and I am the captain of the Winston Solar Car Team. The mission of the team was to build a solar powered car, and then race it at the Texas Motor Speedway in July, 2017. My Junior year was when I was unexpectedly given the position of Captain. I didn’t know how to lead a group of people, but knowing that all of them were my friends made me feel better. As a team we had to decide what the car would look like, how it moved, what solar panels to get, the list goes on. Each team member worked together to learn welding, drilling metal, grinding/cutting metal, using a jigsaw, etc. It was my responsibility to make sure that the team was performing dangerous tasks under the safest circumstances. During the construction of the car we made mistakes. Our greatest challenge was the brake system.
We ended up spending over a thousand dollars on brakes we had remove from the car during the race because the calipers were locking on the top of the rotors. We ended up taking the brakes off of the back wheels. We had to manufacture our own brackets for the brakes so they’d fit on the rotors. After the construction of the car, we went to the speedway. Each team had to go through a process called scrutineering. This was where all the judges tested the teams on their knowledge of their cars. There were six stages: mechanical, electrical, steering, slalom/emergency escape from car, braking, and the track test. The car was bulky, heavy, and had a terrible turning radius. We were able to troubleshoot at the track and fix the steering system. The mirrors were not in the right spot, and