| NEWS
| July 14, 2005
Formula SAE
UTA hosts weekend races
Formula SAE designers will meet
and compete here for the 3-day Texas Autocross Weekend.
By Richard-Michael
Manuel
The Shorthorn Staff
Revved up and ready to go, the Formula
SAE team is ready to host nine universities for a laid-back weekend
of friendly races, shop talk and fun.
More than 100 students and 20 race cars will take part in UTA’s
fourth annual Texas Autocross Weekend, team adviser Bob Woods said.
Everyone is invited to watch the races, which will be held from
9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 6 p.m., Saturday in Lot 40 at Cooper and
Mitchell streets, and from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Pennington
Field, at 1501 Central Drive and Interstate 121 in Bedford.
Some of the universities expected to attend include UT-Austin, Texas
A&M University, the University of New Mexico and Kansas State
University, he said.
Woods said he and the team put the three-day event together to give
students more opportunities to improve their skills in racing and
design.
Tim Patek, mechanical engineering alumnus and now a business graduate
student, works as parts manager for the team. He normally talks
with team sponsors and orders the steel tubing and sheet metal used
on the vehicle but said he likes the change of pace.
“We share stories and design ideas,” he said. “You
get to talk to people more than you would in a regular competition.”
Patek, who has attended each of the annual races, said it gives
him the chance to see the many approaches students can take to design
and field mechanics.
He said the teams will bring their newest cars. UTA’s team
plans to race its ’05 car and six others, including their
’88, ’92 and ’99 cars, which run on methanol.
He said the team still has most of its previous Formula SAE race
cars and together, the vehicles show the team’s evolving design
knowledge.
“Most of the changes are hard to see from the outside,”
he said.
The team’s ’05 car has a stiffer frame and better-integrated
suspension, which diverts the downward force of the wing away from
the frame, making the vehicle more maneuverable, he said. It also
has aircraft fabric covering and carbon fiber wheels.
It placed 38th out of 122 cars in the Formula SAE national competition
at Detroit’s Pontiac Silverdome in May. This was mostly due
to an oil leak in its gear speed sensor, which disqualified it from
the endurance part of the competition.
Many former members of the SAE team will be on hand this weekend,
including Eric Kohler, former team captain and mechanical engineering
graduate student. Kohler said he is working on the design of the
race track with Woods.
Patek and other members said this weekend’s experiences would
help them put together the ’06 car, which the 14-member team
will begin designing this summer.
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