The Much Anticipated Race

Over a year ago, Hank and I sat down and discussed what he should do for his final engineering project. He had two options: participate in a randomly assigned project for a reputable corporation or build the 2012 Formula Hybrid car for the university, if chosen to be on the team. We weighed the pros and cons and decided it was worth the extra effort to try to get on the formula team and pursue that path. Hank swears at this point we discussed in detail the time commitment this option would involve. I beg to differ. Or maybe I was asleep by this point? Not sure...

The last year has been truly difficult. Hank spent every waking moment at school, either working on the race car or attending classes and finishing a full semester. When he wasn't at school, he was at his shop making money for us to live. Three full-time commitments outside of the home didn't leave much, if any, room for family time. Kellen and I hated it. I think Hank did too....but he didn't have much time to really stew over his feelings like we did :)

A week after graduation, the team went to New Hampshire for over a week to compete against 40 other schools across the country (and world.) I tried to keep myself extremely occupied so I didn't just sit at home panicking about how they were doing out there. Kellen and I went to Las Vegas for a wedding and that really helped ease my nerves. The thought of them not doing well hadn't really crossed my mind all week, but as I was waiting to hear how they placed, I freaked out--what would I say to Hank to comfort him if they lost? I'm not good at that kind of stuff. Would I be super resentful that the last year of my life was for nothing?! Probably! You can imagine my relief when I got Hank's call informing me that they just placed FIRST!!!!!

I nearly peed my pants (mostly because we were driving back from Vegas and I really had to go.) But really, it felt like a ton of bricks were taken off my shoulders. Some people claim that feeling when they go through the repentance process. I feel that way when my husband wins competitions, apparently.

I am so proud of Hank. He really deserved his hard-work to pay off. I've always known he was smart when it comes to mechanics, but to beat out a bunch of Ivy League schools has given him a little extra jump in his step.

I have access to a ton of pictures from the event at Dartmouth but I'm not smart enough to download them correctly, so here are some pictures I took of Hank driving the car and with the media before and after the competition.

If you want to read more about the race car and competition, check out BYU, KSL, Daily Herald, Fox 13 and Wired. Hank is interviewed in the video on BYU and KSL (first two links) below.

http://news.byu.edu/archive12-may-formulahybrid.aspx

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=20355501

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/byu-students-win-at-formula-hybrid-competition/article_f6de4820-59aa-5a6d-bdfd-d5ef1f2b17cd.html

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05/student-built-hybrids-evs-compete-in-new-hampshire/

Reunited at last.  This week Kellen has been yelling "Daaaad" about every five seconds. Yesterday, he would not let go of his dad, delaying Hank's arrival at work by a few hours. Today Kellen was flipping through photos on my ipad and yelling "Dad!" I came in to see what he was looking at and it was just a picture of a race car. Although we're still very proud, we all need a little race car detox.