In the midst of Case Western Reserve University’s final exams, our team drove out to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the first Baja SAE competition of the 2023 season. We had a fantastic start to the competition by smoothly passing tech inspection with only a few delays. CWRU Motorsports had excellent performance on the static events by scoring 5th place on the design event, and also made the sales event finals where we tied for 5th place.
On the dynamic day, rainstorms earlier in the week and some light rain in the morning of the competition caused the courses to be unbelievably muddy. Despite this, our team still put up a fantastic performance. On the gravel acceleration track, the car effortlessly shot forward 100 ft in just 3.953 seconds scoring 2nd place. Afterwards, driver Cole Reinholt was able to bring the team back on track as he flew through the muddy maneuverability course earning the team 4th place.
For the last day of competition and the grueling 4-hour endurance course, we were off to a great start getting on the track. Wet and muddy obstacles caused many cars to get stuck on the course, creating even more hazards for the drivers to avoid. Finally, after making it to the end of the race and driving 38 laps, we’re happy to announce our team earned 9th place. As the points from all the events were tallied together, we are incredibly proud to finish the Oshkosh competition in 5th place overall.
Needless to say, we are incredibly proud of their accomplishments, especially given that this was our first car utilizing the Kohler CH440 engine. We would like to thank all of our sponsors for supporting our work. Going forward, we are hard at work discovering new ways to improve our car’s design. We are extraordinarily excited to fix up the car and to continue to compete in the competitions that lie ahead.
View the full results of this competition