Engines were started at the first Box Cart InterCol this past Sunday at the Arima Velodrome.

Hosted by the Gravity Racing Association of Trinidad and Tobago, the competition involved teams from participating schools designing, building, testing and tuning their box carts for three months.

They were also required to submit a researched written portfolio, detailing the team’s build process, their testing results and the STEAM principals applied to the project.

For Sunday’s Test and Tune/Race Day, teams came as far east as Blanchisseuse Secondary School and far south at Holy Name Convent, Point Fortin.

Dominating the day was NorthGate College of St Augustine:

• 1st Place – North Gate College (Team 2)
• 2nd Place – North Gate College (Team 1)
• 3rd Place – St. Mary’s College (Team Box Lunch Killas)

Upon completion of marking the submitted portfolios, Gravity Racing Association will announce the overall winner at the end of January.

The winning school will receive a year of free internet courtesy Digicel.

Speaking at the event on Sunday was Arima MP, Penelope Beckles-Robinson, who reminisced about the role a box cart played in her childhood: “Growing up in San Fernando, without lights and water, a box cart for us served the purpose of carrying water. As a girl, I was not supposed to be riding a box cart, but the excitement of falling, assisting my brothers and cousins in building a box cart to go down the hill to the river for water. The most difficult part was going back up the hill”

She also urged students to not be afraid to fail saying, “Success is about failure. If you want to improve on your product, you have to fail!,” she said. “If you go back to people like Sebastian Vettel in Formula 1 who improve on their cars every single time, you [also] realize you are not going to succeed except if you have a team.”

After its official launch on September 21st, 2023 at the University of the West Indies- Engineering Department, Gravity Racing Association attracted 96 registered students and 10 participating teams for the 2023 Box Cart InterCol.