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July 12, 2007

Weekend Racers

Autocross competition pits the university team against national competitors

Story by: Ray Edward Buffington IV

The Shorthorn staff

The Shorthorn: Robert Rodriguez

Mechanical engineering junior Eric Leichtle will drive as the UTA team captain at Texas Autocross Weekend. The team won first place at the 2007 Formula SAE competition in May.

Students from across the country with a need for speed will compete Saturday at the university and Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway in the seventh annual Texas Autocross Weekend.

College racing teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Ohio, South Dakota and other states will pit student-built, open-wheel race cars against one another in a battle of speed, efficiency and control.

“I think this will probably be the most cars we’ve ever had ... and maybe the largest turnout we’ve ever had,” said UTA team adviser Bob Woods, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor.

On Saturday, competitors will gather in Lot 49 at Cooper and Mitchell streets for a timed autocross. Drivers will have to cruise through a cone track, finishing as fast and smooth as they can to obtain a low time.

The team with the best time wins and is awarded “bragging rights,” Woods said.

In Sunday’s event, sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America, drivers will compete autocross-style again but with a few more official restrictions, Woods said. The winner will receive a trophy.

Teams will bring the vehicles they raced in the 2007 Formula SAE competition in May.

At that competition, the university team placed first in the autocross event, seventh in the acceleration event and 30th overall.

Woods said he began the weekend as a small fix for “racing anxiety” in between the university team’s annual competitions.

“It all started from a conversation we had at [a Formula SAE] competition,” he said. “I invited the Texas and Oklahoma schools in a forum to come down for a weekend to just race, and the next thing I knew, I had people from all over calling me. I even had someone from Canada.”

Seven years later, he said he is shocked but thrilled by how popular the weekend has become.

Team captain Eric Leichtle, a mechanical engineering junior, competed in the 2005 Texas Autocross Weekend.

“It’s a lot more laid-back,” he said. “Everyone [who’s] there are friends, and we just race and have fun.”