The motor wouldn’t start.

Not exactly a promising sign when you’re about to race in the Grand Prix. Or in this case, Purdue University’s version for EV go-karts. 

But at 5 a.m. on April 13 — about half a day before the start of the race — that’s exactly what happened. 

Isabella “Bella” Cardarelli and Aidan Guzman, then first-year engineering students at the College of Engineering, had worked too long and too hard for this. 

The kart they had spent months designing and building from scratch was getting on that track. 

Neither Cardarelli nor Guzman, both 18 then, had experience racing a go-kart, much less building one.  

Cardarelli, a mechanical engineering major, had built a computer at 13. Guzman, an electrical engineering major, had fallen in love with circuitry in a high school physics class. Both love cars. And racing. 

Cardarelli and Guzman had spent their first semester learning the basics of electric vehicles and how batteries work. But even with their newly acquired book knowledge, they never imagined the energy it would take to figure how to make a viable EV go-kart. Nor did they imagine they would even place in the race. 

Let’s hit the brakes here. You’re probably wondering: How did a couple of student engineers get here? 

Cardarelli and Guzman met at the Minority Engineering Program’s freshman orientation. MEP, which supports underrepresented engineering students, and Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) combined efforts to create a class for credit. The latter program pairs undergraduates with upperclassmen and faculty to do stuff. Like build an EV go-kart. 

Isabella “Bella” Cardarelli on the track.

For Rick Womack, one of the VIP class instructors who had extensive experience with combustion engine karts, building an EV go-kart had been a longtime goal. 

“EV is a newer technology that the world is embracing,” he said. “We wanted students to learn what Tesla, Mercedes and Ford are doing with electric vehicles and … to keep teaching leading-edge technologies.” 

And what better excuse than to enter Purdue’s evGrandPrix, a university staple since its inaugural race in 2010. Open to college teams across the country, they race at Purdue’s Grand Prix, where combustion engine races have been running since 1958.

Known as the “Greatest Spectacle in College Racing,” according to the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, the race now takes place at the McCormick Road and Cherry Lane track. 

A mix of machine and mettle, the races boost budding engineers’ minds.  

“Go-karting is really big here, and motorsports is really big in this part of the country,” Womack said. “It’s a business. It’s engineering entertainment. You’ve got to create a product and make it do something.” 

The students needed parts. They already had a chassis and steering wheels. But everything from the front of the kart, to the wiring, harnesses, nuts, bolts and tires they had to buy. Working with a budget of about $30,000, Aptiv, a global tech company, contributed most of the money; Jiffy Lube and Crown Painting also sponsored the kart.

Students designed and built everything, even the high-voltage lithium battery, Womack said. “We are one of the first groups to build a battery cell by cell,” he said.

Acquiring parts took time, slowing the process of building the go-kart and getting it to run. 

“It was probably two months before the race when we had the motor mounted … and it started looking like a real race cart,” Cardarelli said. “There were some doubts that we were going to be able to build it in time for the race.”

The week of the April race, with finals swirling at the end of spring semester, Guzman accidentally broke part of the contactor, which switches the battery on or off, while installing it. Purdue’s Electric Vehicle Club loaned them a new part — and lots of advice, Guzman said. Finally, on race day, their biggest hurdle materialized: The motor. About 12 hours before the race, it would not start.

“We were probably up for more than 48 hours trying to figure out why this motor is not running,” Guzman said. “We all wanted something to race. We wanted to be a part of the (ev)GrandPrix. To see no results was unacceptable.” 

Another go-kart was being built, but it wasn’t as far along as the one Cardarelli and Guzman had spent sleepless nights working on. With options and time running out, they decided to “cannibalize” the other motor for their cart, Cardarelli said. 

The students had to work quickly. They reprogrammed the motor controller and cleaned up the kart. The new motor came alive. 

“I had a feeling it was going to work out in an almost spiritual way,” Cardarelli said. “I had this insane amount of hope.” 

With eight hours to go before race time, problems persisted. The EV go-kart was underpowered, the motor wasn’t going in the right direction and they still had to get it inspected. 

“No one had driven the kart before it got down to the pit lane,” Cardarelli said. With no time to practice or do a test run, she would be its inaugural driver. 

The goals were simple: Stay on the track, keep pace, maintain control, complete each lap and finish the race. And most importantly, avoid other vehicles.  

Unlike racing in a gas-powered car, with an electric battery, “you cannot just mash on the gas and go as fast as you can,” Womack said. “It’s the turtle versus the hare: Slow and steady wins the race.” 

Cardarelli drove the go-kart — “GRIT” spelled out in black on the white bumper — out of the pit. She was ready to race. Then the chain guard was “making this horrible clunking noise,” she said, “and I’m waving at my teammates like, ‘Come here.’”

“Aidan miraculously had a razor on him and cut off part of the chain guard that was making that awful sound,” she said. 

The numerous mechanical issues made them miss the qualifying race. The go-kart ended up in the last position of 13 others that had made it to the track.

Go-karts with experienced drivers passed Cardarelli. Some dropped out because of accidents. Others lost parts. She kept going. Finally, she made it. Cardarelli crossed the finish line in 24 minutes, 38 seconds. By then, participating in — no, finishing — the race had been a reward unto itself.

Until the news Cardarelli nabbed fourth place in the race. Her team landed third place overall in the championship. 

“Some people would say third place is just OK,” Guzman said. “From the position we were in, it was amazing.”

Cardarelli (in helmet, right) and Aidan Guzman shared a celebratory moment after the evGrandPrix.