Award-winning teen is on the fast track in Utah

OGDEN — A Bonneville High senior is getting two national awards for his work in creating environmentally friendly vehicles — including two electric junior dragsters he's raced under aegis of the National Hot Rod Association.

Brent Singleton has been awarded a President's Environmental Youth Award through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is one of 10 students nationwide to receive the honor.

Singleton also has been selected to receive the EPA's Clean Air Excellence Award that honors programs, projects and technologies that reduce pollution.

He is expected to receive both awards next month.

"We just are really excited for him. It's nice to see a student stick with a project this long . . . something that can be applied to some of our energy problems," said Michelle Wood, Bonneville High biology teacher helping shepherd students at the state science fair this past week. There, Singleton won third place and an invitation to compete in May for scholarships at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Indianapolis, said his father, Kent Singleton.

Singleton aims to prove electric vehicles are a consistent, cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-fueled engines. The application: race cars.

"The main point is to show in its own event . . . (electric) can be better than them, so (people) can apply it to other things like transportation," Singleton said. "I don't really hate (petroleum). You're running out of it. You need an alternative source."

A junior drag racer since age 12 who has pushed to preserve the Bonneville Salt Flats, Singleton got into electric vehicles when he and his father, Kent Singleton, purchased a 1992 Weber State University electric vehicle hybrid above five years ago.

Young Singleton modified the vehicle and raced it at the flats. He later added a solar panel, creating what he calls a "tribrid," or vehicle with three sources of power. Finally, he mounted wind generators to harvest that form of energy to recharge the vehicle, creating a "quadbrid." He used to drive it to school, until too much power blew the transmission, he said.

The teen also races the National Hot Rod Association's first electric-powered junior dragster. Its electric motor looks like a cylinder, with a chain drive connecting to the wheels.

"The myth is that electrics are slower . . . (and) cost a lot," Singleton said. "It's myth."

Singleton's research, presented at the state science fair, shows electric dragsters cost $600 to $800. A traditional engine, with all its moving parts, costs around $4,800.