Milwaukee Makerspace’s Power Racing Series team proudly returned to Milwaukee from the Maker Faire KC competition last weekend with two medals and tons of ideas for September’s Maker Faire Milwaukee!

“What is Power Racing?” you are wondering. It’s the only sub-$500 electric vehicle racing series that features grown-ups driving kids cars. People make their own tiny electric cars, and then they race them! So, it’s basically the best thing ever.

The first 30-lap race featured MMS’s newest, scratch-made steampunk car, Iron Rose. Sadly, it debuted with a rough start: designer Tiffany Markwardt completed just three laps before being railroaded into the tire wall. Meanwhile, Audrey Horst  raced her pistol of a car, Lotasaurus Wrecks, while rocking her homemade dino suit. At race’s end, Audrey and Lotasaurus had emerged as the winners of third place!

MMS entered not two, but three cars into the second race – Joe Rodriquez had also qualified Lil Driver, the only non-modified power wheels car in the competition. In an unfortunate turn of events, both Iron Rose and Lotasaurus Wrecks had to retire early to the pits for repairs – Iron Rose with steering linkage issues, and Lotasaurus Wrecks with loose bolts on the sprocket that  jammed against the frame. Luckily, Lil Driver represented MMS at the finish line, coming in eighth place.

Next up was the 75-minute endurance race, in which Lotasaurus battled the fastest car on the track, Phantom Power 48. A bent sprocket put Phantom Power behind, and Lotasaurus’s repairs from Race 2 paid off, as it raced to the finish and came in at an awesome second place!

If this all sounds super rad to you (because IT TOTALLY IS), you should probably look into entering a car in Maker Faire Milwaukee’s Power Racing Series competition. Rules ‘n’ sign-up info ‘n’ stuff can be found here: www.powerracingseries.org.