The History of GNCTR
The original concrete toboggans were more reminiscent of concrete sleds! Thank goodness for rollcages.
The University of Alberta’s Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race Team is the oldest engineering student group project at the University of Alberta, where engineering students from across Canada take on the endeavor to build a toboggan where the entire running surface is made of concrete. These sleds must hold 5 people and be complete with brakes and a steering system, while weighing in at under 350lbs. The Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race, or GNCTR as it is more commonly known, was started here at the University of Alberta in 1972 as a challenge to civil engineering students from the American Concrete Institute Alberta Chapter.
The first event was held in the winter of 1972, was deemed a failure by the American Concrete Institute, and was promptly cancelled. Luckily for us, this was far from the end of GNCTR ,as the spirit of the competition lived on in the competitors of the initial race. The students banded together, and in 1975 at Canyon Ski Hill in Red Deer, Alberta, the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology were all invited to compete in a new re-birth of GNCTR where SAIT took home the championship recording a speed of 50 km/hr.
To this day, GNCTR is completely volunteer run and student led, and put on by a dedicated group of alumni from the host university. While we have the support of various corporate and industrial sponsors, the whole event is put forth by the dedication and perseverance of the organizing committee. While the rules have changed from year to year, the spirit of the competition has never been more alive with over 500 students competing yearly!