- March 25, 2025
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An inflatable monkey stands watch over a track obstacle.
A trio of cars lines up for an elementary-school division race.
One of the race cars takes flight over a ramp on the elementary and middle school track.
Olivia Ramsdell, 10, a student at Wilkinson Elementary shows off her team's creation.
Jonathan Keisacker reacts to his team's race car on the track.
Trophies awaited the winners and runners up in a variety of categories for both on-track performance and design.
Shri Raj and teammate Brendan Jaikaran show off their winning car after the final race.
The Spectre Robotics Team and Jungle Robotics team teamed up to run the concessions. (back row) Roger Benson and Johnathan Vinson and (front row) Josh Bowen, Elliott Bang, Sophia Woodbury and Samuel Wright.
Shri Raj pilots his car through a preliminary race.
A crowd gathers around the elementary and middle-school track.
The inner workings of one of the radio-controlled cars.
Volunteer Gary Morin helps diagnose a technical issue on a car belonging to Gary Morinvol and Asher Woods. It won the next race.
Volunteer worker Diego Morales helps secure an inflatable monkey to a race track obstacle.
Tallulah Brand steers her car through the obstacle course.
Tallulah Brand steers her car through the obstacle course.
Natalie Carrion and Emre Muessemeyer update the standings.
Although the point probably didn't need to be made, owing to the smiles, cheers and generally happy times, Ping Faulhaber made clear that Saturday's Suncoast Science Center/Faulhaber Fab Lab 7th Annual Remote Control Custom Car Open was supposed to be fun.
"If it's not fun, we don't want to do it,'' said Faulhaber, the executive director and co-founder of Faulhaber Fab Lab on Beneva Road.
Around her, more than 160 kids from elementary school through high school and their families confirmed it. They were either racing on a pair of obstacle courses, supporting the event or cheering on the 60 teams from 18 schools.
Saturday's races were the culmination of weeks in the lab, designing and building their radio-controlled cars to match the event's jungle theme. There were snake cars, alligator cars, exotic bird cars, a tank (in jungle camouflage) and more.
And there was competition. Teams were not only aiming for prizes on the track, relying on skill since the insides of the cars were identical, and off the track in the form of design and presentation awards. The competition is designed to help students learn to work as a team, through design, building and racing.
Many of the high school aged volunteers are graduates of the program that Faulhaber said also helps encourage independence by keeping parental involvement in the work to a minimum.
