SCCA
Solo II Nationals 2004
This year there were 12 entrants in FSAE with seven cars
from 6 universities. We ran three laps on two courses over
two days. The courses were challenging but were on the famous
Topeka concrete that has about 1.6 g’s adhesion without
aero and over 2 g’s with aero.
The competition was exciting each lap with one driver setting
a good pace and another driver beating it. Texas A&M broke
a chain the first day and only got one run for one driver.
The second driver got a seat in the UTA car so he could have
a time for the day. UMR blew an engine on the third run of
the first day and drove home to replace the engine and were
back for the second day. UTA placed 1, 2, and 3 in this year’s
event.
After two days of racing, here are the driver’s total
time for both courses.
UTA F04 Erick Kohler 84.949 |
KU Scott Schmidt 93.728 |
UTA F04 Jon Huddleson 87.116 |
SDSMT Cody Petersen 93.792 |
UTA F03 Dr. Bob Woods 87.221 |
UIUC Daniel Cummings 97.976 |
UMR Mike Murray 88.415 |
SDSMT Steven Bickett 98.530 |
TAMU Jeff Stroh 89.467 |
KU Chris Zellers 98.794 |
TAMU Vincent Shepherd 91.361 |
UIUC Justin Hoch 101.300 |
There were two entrants in the ladies class of FSAE. Jane
Willis drove the UTA F04 car with Alexandra Fetterman in the
KU car. Jane’s time of 88.256 would have placed her
in fourth in the open class. Jane again was observed with
two wheels off the ground but not as much as last year.
Last year the FSAE car was the fourth fastest car at the
event. This year, the FSAE car was the sixth fastest car at
the event. This is the second year that FSAE has had its own
class at nationals and was not forced to run with A-Mod. In
recognition of FSAE becoming its own class, the SCCA Foundation
started a perpetual award for the winner of FSAE and named
it the “Dr. Bob Woods Cup”. They placed a high
importance on this award and presented it the first thing
on the banquet agenda. Erick Kohler from UTA won the cup this
year.
This is a great event for FSAE. We continuously had several
people looking at our cars, asking questions, and being impressed
by the technology of the cars, but more importantly, by the
ambition and professionalism of these young engineers. This
is an opportunity for teams to socialize, talk about the technical
details of the cars, exchange ideas, and to enjoy pure racing
without the pressures of FSAE at Detroit. If you didn’t
go this year, you missed out. We hope more people show up
next year. |
