Not even the rain could have deterred the organizers of the first Box Cart InterCol, held at the Arima Velodrome on Sunday 7th January 2024. Nicole Johnson, Director of the Gravity Racing Association of Trinidad and Tobago applauded participating schools for making history. “Believe it or not, you are making history today. This is the first ever Box Cart InterCol in the world!” she said. For the past 3 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 STEAM principles 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 important than just the competition is the development perspective that comes behind it, and the educational aspects that can be utilized, 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. Penelope Beckles-Robinson, Member of Parliament for Arima and Minister of Planning and Development, 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 21st, 2023 at the University of the West Indies- Engineering Department, the association attracted 96 registered students, and 10 participating teams at the 2023 Box Cart InterCol which culminated at the Test and Tune/Race Day on January 7th, 2024. Teams came as far east as Blanchisseuse Secondary School and far south at Holy Name Convent, Point Fortin. Test and Tune Race Day winners were St. Mary’s College- 3rd Place (Team Box Lunch Killas); North Gate College (Team 1)- 2nd Place and North Gate College (Team 2)- 1st Place. Upon completion of marking all the submitted portfolios, the Gravity Racing Association of Trinidad and Tobago will announce the overall winner at the end of January.
The overall winning school will receive a year of free internet courtesy of Digicel.
Sponsors and supporters were TriniTuner.com, Blue Waters, Caribbean Airlines, Digicel, The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Education and the Arima Borough Corporation.
The organization 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.
For more information on the initiative, please feel free to contact us at 367-2900, email gravityracingassociationtt@gmail.com or visit them online at facebook.com/GRATT868 or trinituner.com/boxcart.
