Brandon Rater, left, a senior at Wawasee High School, Luke Kompagne, a senior, and Collin Fiedeke, a junior, work on a mold to make a new top for a supermileage car at Wawasee High School.
The school’s supermileage team is being honored this week for its regional championship and celebrates its 25th anniversary. Photo by Lauren Zeugner.

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Wawasee High School is hosting a unique two-day celebration to honor the remarkable achievements of the Wawasee High School Supermileage Team, which has historically competed on the international stage. Most recently, the team traveled to India to showcase their skills in the world regional championships.

Due to the current unrest in the Middle East, Shell will not be holding the international competition this year, instead celebrating regional championships in their hometowns.

The fire celebration will be a community celebration at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Wawasee High School’s agriculture building.

Community members are invited to enjoy the evening with refreshments and displays of the Shell/Penske NASCAR vehicle alongside Wawasee’s supermileage car.

The championship award presentation will be made at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 15, in the Wawasee High School Gymnasium. The Shell/Penske team will officially award the Wawasee Supermileage Team with its regional championship title during an all-school pep rally.

Wawasee started the supermileage team in 1999, building cars and competing at various events. At the time, Allen Colbentz, who teaches the class, wanted a practical project for the machine class to tackle, which was more holistic and class driven.

Back then, the team competed in the Indiana Supermileage Contest.

“That race, the car made it a half mile before it broke down,” Coblentz said.

The car needed to make 10 laps in the event.

Over the years, Coblentz said he has been blessed with students with incredible abilities. He noted the team doesn’t have the same success every year because he wants them to try new ideas.

“Sometimes those ideas work, sometimes they don’t and that’s OK,” he said.

As the team worked on the car, Coblentz acts as the lead engineer managing the project, letting the students try new ideas, while at the same time keeping them from walking off a cliff.

“Many former students have said this class has helped them more because of how it was run,” he said.

In order to travel internationally to compete, the team raises money from sponsorships in the community. Community support has been incredibly important.

In 2011, the class moved into a (then) new space which offered more space. Over the years, the materials the car’s shell is made out of has changed from fiberglass to carbon fiber.

“We’ve learned a lot about composite materials, how to make them and how to shape them,” Coblentz said.

Carbon fiber is lighter and stronger than fiberglass.

The team works with other companies in the community in making the molds as those companies have some of the machinery the class doesn’t have at school.

Coblentz explained while the outside of the car doesn’t change much, the internal components do.

“We evaluate week points, always pushing to make them (the controls) as light as possible,” he said.

Senior Luke Kompagne was the back- up driver for the regional championships earlier this spring. It was stressful as the car refused to move for a few minutes in the final race.

“I thought that was the end,” he said. However, the car did start and the driver was able to end the race in first place. That first-place finish was the end of a nerve-wrecking time as the car arrived from India about a month before the regional championship.

Kompagne explained in the main races, the cars are collecting data and trying to finish the course using as little fuel as possible. The top three finishers in each fuel class goes to the finals. The final race is four laps around the course within 45 minutes.

Driving the car is noisy and cramped. Kompagne is about 6-feet tall.

“You can hear the top shaking a bit on the bottom of the car,” he explained.

As the backup driver, when he wasn’t driving the car, he served as part of a two-man pit crew. As a driver, he was allowed to take a practice drive on the course as well as walk the track, which allowed him to note where landmarks were.

He joined the class to work on the team. After graduation, he plans to attend Purdue for an integrated business and engineering degree. He said he really enjoys the hands-on experience the class provides.