It will be a downhill battle for Waterloo Engineering’s Mighty Geese and 18 other concrete toboggans at the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race hosted by the University of Waterloo this weekend.
About 500 engineering students from 18 universities and colleges across Canada and one from the United States are participating in the two-day event.
The annual race features toboggans engineering students have designed and built with a concrete running surface. The toboggans are required to be less than 150 kg, withstand an impact at 80 kilometres per hour and include fully functional braking and steering systems.
Three alumni teams, including Waterloo Engineering’s 1998 Arctic Fire Circle of Death pictured here, will compete in separate
The public and media are invited to attend the two events both taking place in Kitchener.
The schedule includes:
- Friday, January 26 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Technical Exhibition at Bingeman's Marshall Hall, 425 Bingemans Centre Dr, Kitchener. Students from Waterloo's Concrete Toboggan Team and the others will be on hand to answer questions about how their toboggans were designed and constructed.
- Saturday January 27 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Race Day at Chicopee Tube Park, 1600 River Rd E, Kitchener. Races will showcase the speed, braking, steering and control of toboggans in three race styles entitled Drag Race, Slalom, and King of the Hill.
Russell Giles, a member of Waterloo's Mighty Geese team, says members have been putting in countless hours
Russell, along with his identical twin brother Graham, joined Waterloo's Concrete Toboggan Team soon after setting foot on campus in 2014.
"We would love to show everyone all the hard work and effort that have gone into making this year's toboggan," says the now fourth-year civil engineering student.
The Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race is the longest running engineering competition in Canada.