UA Baja Racing Places 33rd in Highly Competitive International Race
Baja SAE, organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers, consists of three regional competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. UA Baja Racing develops a prototype vehicle every year and competes in the Baja SAE Collegiate Design Series every summer. Teams must design, build, market and race a single-seat off-road vehicle while generating financial support for their vehicles and maintaining educational priorities.
“This was the first year that our team has ever attended the Midwest competition, which is known as the most difficult of the three regional competitions,” said UA Baja Racing team leader Andrew Smock, a mechanical engineering senior. “We scored the most points in our team’s history, and placed 33rd out of 120 entrants.”
The SAE Collegiate Design Series challenges students to conceive, design, and build off-road vehicles powered by a 10-horsepower engine. Vehicles are judged on design, cost and technical aspects, after which they are put to the test in acceleration, chain pulling, maneuverability, suspension and traction, and mud bogging. The scores garnered from these events determine where the cars will start in the 4-hour endurance race.
The endurance race subjects vehicles -- and their drivers -- to bone-jarring obstacles combined with twists and turns and rough terrain, often including sand traps, rock fields, moguls, log fields, plowed fields, jumps, sinkholes, and water splashes.
Although U.S. teams dominate the series, the competition is truly international, with 35 of this event's 120 entrants coming from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, South Korea, and Venezuela.
Were it not for a misunderstanding during the endurance race, Smock feels certain that the UA team would have placed much higher. “We would have been 11th or 12th if the course workers had not accidently towed our car to the pits during the endurance race,” he said.
The mix-up occurred after another vehicle T-boned the UA vehicle off the course and flipped it over. “Normally, you would get flipped back over, checked for frame damage, and sent on your way,” Smock said. “Instead, course workers were told that our vehicle was disabled and we ended up losing 40 minutes in the endurance race.” According to Smock, 40 minutes equates to about 8 laps, which was the distance between the UA vehicle and the race leaders.
“It was a tough break,” said Smock. “But we will learn from our mistakes this year and put up even better numbers next year.”
The overall winner of the competition was the Beaver Racing Team from Oregon State University, with 943 points. UA Baja Racing scored 694 points.
Top 10 Overall Teams
1. Oregon State University
2. Centro Universitario Da FEI (Brazil)
3. University of South Florida
4. Universite de Sherbrooke (Canada)
5. SUNY at Stony Brook
6. Michigan Technical University
7. Ecole Polytechnique De Montreal (Canada)
8. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil)
9. Tennessee Technical University
10. Ecole De Technologie Superieure (Canada)