Racing and going fast has always been part of Eric Ritter’s life. “It’s what I do.”

On October 1st Local 246 member Eric Ritter became the fastest electric vehicle driver on planet earth with an average speed of 353.870 mph. He captured the National Record on Thursday, September 29th with an average speed of 322.231mph, then improved on that time the following day with a blistering qualifying time of 350.234 with a backup run of 357.507.

Eric has been working on heavy duty trucks for the past 5 years with the Department of Sanitation and has
seen the city’s fleet go cleaner and greener over those years with more electric vehicles added each year. Keeping up with new technology is what you have to do and finding its weak points and limits is his other job at Team Vesco Racing. All that information transfers to his daily job at the department.

This incredible project was accomplished in just 5 short months with Team Vesco of Rockville, Utah and reVolt Systems of Oceanside, California. They got together and recycled the 1957 “Little Giant” streamliner chassis of Rick Vesco and an electric power drive system engineered by Eddy Borysewicz and Trent Wonsley using Two Tesla S motors stacked and battery containment unit. The chassis was built as a new aerodynamic design in 1957 by John Vesco, Rick Vesco’s father. John had been told that his design was too narrow and dangerous and may tip over so it had to be entered in its first event as an experimental class, meaning he could not run against other vehicles in his class. (Boy, did they get that wrong!)

This car holds more records than most cars ever built.