MME News

Western SAE Baja Competition Results

by Doran Avivi | September 14, 2014

Kansas Baja SAE Competition May 22-25th 2014

This year's competition was held at Pittsburgh University in Kansas. A great venue with access to the University to power our all-nighters. Our first few days were a scramble ensuring the car was ready while prepping our Design and Sales Presentations. Especially after a late hotel check in and our room getting canceled. We were pretty frazzled, but managed to squeak in under the belt in time to get our Brigg's Engine check and Presentations out of the way. We were struggling with the brakes all year so that was our main focus as we prepped for Tech inspection.

Kansas BajaKansas 2014: Peter Blokker, Doran Avivi and Mira Kim (From left to right).

On the 4th day the competition was moved to a wider field where they could hold the main events: rock crawl, maneuverability, hill climb and endurance. Kansas had put together an intimidating rock crawl, where most if not all never made it up a giant hill of jagged rocks. These courses were about getting as far as you could through the course.

But we were all there for the endurance race. 4 hours of intense jumps, rocks, dips, and hills. Whichever team has the stamina to last and completes the most laps wins up to 300 points!
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to endurance or any of the subsequent events, due to getting caught up at technical inspection with a doozy of an offence. Some of our key roll cage members were wrong and needed some minor adjustments.

Results: N/A

Students who participated: Doran Avivi, Mira Kim, Peter Blokker

Illinois Baja SAE Competition June 5-9th 2014

This year's second competition was held at Caterpillar facilities in Peoria, Illinois. The CAT facilities made us really feel welcomed with great organization and helpful volunteers. Not to mention the intensity of the track! With the disposal of CAT equipment at the ready they created some of the most challenging and intricate obstacles.

Illinois BajaIllinois 2014: Mira Kim during hill climb.

Similar to Kansas, the first few days were about getting our car ready to pass inspection. But this time we flew through Brigg’s Stratton Engine check and Technical Inspection, even our Sales and Design Presentations went smoothly. By the 3rd day we were rolling backward down the hill climb, weaving through maneuverability and bouncing through the rock crawl. We were only able to fully complete maneuverability owing to some great driving by Doran Avivi.

But we wanted to save our energy for endurance the following day.

Day 4 and all the drivers walked the endurance track to get a feel for what they would be spending the next 4 hours pummeling through. Most of the drops were higher than 6 feet, the dips were filled with 2 feet of muddy water, and the hills were steeper than the hill climb.

We got a few good runs in, but had trouble with our drive shafts and the repair was not minor. But it was good to be on the course for our first ever endurance race.

Results: Rock Crawl: 75
Maneuverability: 43
Hill Climb: 47
Acceleration: 64
Sales Presentation: 32
Design: 82
Cost: 71
Endurance: 84
Overall: 83
Total of 119 cars registered to event, only 100 registered at comp.

Students who participated: Doran Avivi, Mira Kim, Peter Blokker