North Gate College takes top two spots at Box Cart Intercol Test and Tune

North Gate College earned the top two spots of the Gravity Racing Association of TT’s inaugural Box Cart Intercol Test and Tune Race Day which rolled off on Sunday at the Arima Velodrome.

North Gate’s second team took top honours, followed by their first team and St Mary’s College’s Box Lunch Killas, who placed third.

A statement issued by organisers on Tuesday said that upon completion of marking all the submitted portfolios, the overall winner will be announced at the end of January.

For the past three months, students (guided by their teachers and parents) designed, built, tested and tuned their box carts.

A researched written portfolio, detailing the team’s build process, their testing results and the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) principals applied to the project, was also part of the entrance requirement.

Director of physical education and sport in the Ministry of Sport and Community Development, Gabre-Jesu McTair congratulated teams and urged students to continue to apply what they learn to real life.

“More importantly than just the competition is the development perspective that comes behind it, and the educational aspects that can be utilised, not just in school and for your SBAs, but in real life.

“This is where you really now apply, and that is the aspect of education that becomes most important. The theory is great, but you need to be able to apply what you learn to real life”

Carts on race day bore little resemblance to the carts many of the senior spectators remember from their childhood.

Minister of Planning and Development and Arima MP Penelope Beckles-Robinson 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 urged students to not be afraid to fail.

“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.”

“I’ve been an athlete myself, I’ve lost, you cry, but you have to move on and you have to capitalize on the opportunity that the Gravity Racing Association is giving you, which can take you to an international stage,” Minister Beckles-Robinson said.

After their official launch on September 21, 2023 at the University of the West Indies- engineering department, the association attracted 96 registered students, and ten participating teams on Sunday.

Teams came as far east as Blanchisseuse Secondary School and far south at Holy Name Convent, Point Fortin. The overall winning school will receive a year of free internet courtesy Digicel.

Sponsors and supporters were Trinituner.com, Caribbean Airlines, Digicel, The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Ministry of Sport, Ministry of Education and the Arima Borough Corporaton.

The organisation aims to continue to inspire students, grow their membership and strengthen the capacity of schools in Tobago to be able to participate in the next Box Cart InterCol carded for December 2024.