Susquehanna 500 Brings Good Results for Penn College

From Friday through Sunday, Pennsylvania College of Technology student drivers, mechanics and welders descended upon Williamsport's Brandon Park to participate in the 11th annual Susquehanna 500, a charity go-kart race sponsored by the Northcentral Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross.

Led by staff and faculty from the School of Transportation Technology that included John Macko, Roy Klinger and Chris Croft assisted by Eric Pruden and Gary McQuay the team was successful in taking second place in the championship race for the modified category. In the stock category, the Penn College team took first place in its heat to qualify for the championship race, and was doing well when its entry was hit by another kart and forced out of the race due to mechanical difficulties.

Also participating in the stock category of this race this past weekend was a team of students from Mexico, led by the School of Transportation Technology's Joe Tavani and assisted by faculty member Jeff Januchowski. Due to a series of unanticipated vehicle problems, the college's Mexican Team competed in the "Hard Luck" category of the stock competition and walked away with a fourth-place trophy out of a field of eight go-karts.

In spite of their "hard luck" finish, however, these students said that they walked away with some great memories of their visit to Penn College and the Williamsport area.

The following students are to be congratulated for their untiring performance and willingness to help the community in this important charity event:

• Penn College Teams One and Two Megan Gilbert, Aaron Rogers, Michael Julin, Mike Fisher, Shaun McQuay, Michael Pollock, Alex Kahler, Brian Stump, Michael Pollock, Nathan Romberger, Christopher Sclonff and Shawn Ferret
• Mexican Team Daniel Zuniga, Rene Garduno, Carlos Abaid, Rodrigo Bustamante, Pablo Olascoago, Marfred Umanes, Erick Valdez and Cesar Quiroz (faculty chaperone)

Behind the scenes, collision department head Al Thomas deserves praise for the outstanding work he did preparing and painting the go-kart bodies for the race. He spent countless hours of his spare time on this project. Faculty member Wayne Smith also deserves recognition for the work he has done over the past several years with internal engine repair and overhaul in preparation for this event. A team of student welders from the School of Industrialand Engineering Technologies, consisting of Casey Hamm, Kristy Frayvolt and Jim Allshouse, provided welding support not only to the Penn College team, but to the entire field of 31 go-karts.

The Penn College Student Branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, led by President Mike Bloom and members of the college's Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society student chapter, of which Blake Waybright is president, also volunteered for the event.

"The Susquehanna 500 was a great experience for all above who participated and provided support," said Steven Wallace, assistant dean of transportation technology. "The entire team should be congratulated for its accomplishments this weekend and admired for its willingness to give its service to a very important charity civic event."

( Photos by Larry D Kauffman, digital publishing specialist, and Scott D. Neuhard, instructor of electronics)

Neuhard also provided these QuickTime video clips of the racing action: