Nataliia Bon

The MUN Concrete Toboggan got 3d place “most improved” team in the annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR ) 2024 in Clarenville, NL.

Competing 16 teams, our team was tasked with designing a toboggan with steering braking and capable of carrying five people down the hill. Everything looked very promising, however guys faced with lots of challenges. Three skis were broken just in the middle of the race, unfortunately. So the crew made an extra effort to continue the competition. “Fabricating a wagon in time was another challenge, having a time limit”, added Riley Burt, Process Engineering student class of 2024, the co-captain of the team. 

It was a long process of getting ready before the competition started. William Cull-Whitten, Computer Engineering class of 2027, said they had 8 months in total, including 4 months of heavy preparations, lots of discussion about the costume, bringing the new ideas, follow up and updates. Riley Burt wanted to emphases about the Engineering Technical service role. “They helped a lot, they sponsored and did all the mechanical components for us”.

There were around two hundred people who came to cheer the team up. “My mom drove six hours from King’s point”, Riley Burt added. We are so lucky with such fans!

“I was really excited about the competition in general and was very happy we got 3d place most improved team. We will have lots to analyse for the next time”, William commented. “And I am very proud of my team too”, added Riley.

Next year the competition will be held in Montreal. Thou, it can be challenging in terms of shipping the stuff there. The team is going to focus on improving the skis and will try to find more funding. “Improving the skis, we would do a lot better”, shared the co-captain Riley Burt. 

The GNCTR is the oldest and largest student-run engineering competition in Canada, challenging more than 450 engineering students to design, build, and safely race toboggans with a running surface made entirely of concrete. Toboggans were judged on design, level of ingenuity and innovation, how well it performed on race day.