A.W. Beattie earns 6th Pedal Car Championship

A.W. Beattie Career Center students have won the Summit Racing Pedal Car Challenge at World of Wheels Pittsburgh for the fifth consecutive competition.

The Career Center is a six-time champion in the competition, having also won in 2015.

The most recent victory included collaboration from programs like Automotive Collision Technology, Automotive Technology, Robotics Engineering Technology, HVAC, and Carpentry and Building Construction.

“I couldn’t be more excited for our students who poured so much energy into making our pedal car the best it could be,” Auto Collision Technology teacher Pat Ciccone said. “They were creative, collaborative and challenged themselves again, and it shows with the end product. You couldn’t ask for greater commitment and dedication.”

Students chose to recreate Tow Mater from the movie Cars, an idea that originated with Pine-Richland’s Brandon Martin.

“He’s a great kid who did a lot of research, measurements and scaling to the size we would build,” Mr. Ciccone said. “We had a lot of kids coming up with solutions to different challenges we were facing.”

The project included interesting quirks like the use of two taillights and a yellow light from a 1940 pick-up truck. The eyeballs of Tow Mater are sanded down lexan. They poured coffee grounds into the paint job to give the effect of rust.

“It all looks amazing because of these incredible ideas,” Mr. Ciccone said. “It’s so much fun watching something so intricate come together. You have to appreciate the level of diligence that goes into starting from scratch to bring this to life.”

Ciccone said he’s proud of students for overcoming challengers to make the peddle car possible.

“We have truly special students who want to succeed, and they never fail to amaze me,” Mr. Ciccone said. “It all came together really nice, and all the work was well worth it.”