Race Report

Mini Baja East, 11-13 May 2000, Ste. Adele, Quebec, Canada

The Auburn University Mini Baja Team (AUMB) and Auburn Lady Tigers Mini Baja Team (ALTMB) slooshed through three muddy days in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal to bring home the best Auburn Mini Baja performance in recent memory at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja East Competition. East is the toughest of the three Mini Baja Competitions (West, East, and Midwest), the only one in which the cars have to float, and attracts only the hardest-core Baja teams.

 

AUMB finished third overall. This is Auburn's highest Mini Baja finish since 1981, when the field was small and the Competition still evolving. The winner was the Competition host, the University of Quebec. West Virginia University was second. The only other SEC school was Florida in 12th. Auburn was one of three schools specifically cited for good sportsmanship, for being cooperative in the pits, and for helping push other cars out of the mud.

 

ALTMB, the only 100% female team in SAE competition this year (and only the fifth ever) finished 18th out of a field of 38 serious Baja teams. An excellent result for (excuse me, ladies) the rawest bunch of motorsports rookies I've ever seen or heard of. They came a long, long way.

 

Mini Baja is an engineering student design competition. Each Team starts in September with an engine (305 cc Briggs & Stratton), a thick set of safety rules, and a blank sheet of paper, and proceeds to design and build the best off-road racing car that they can dream up. The right answer on design is still by no means clear, and the design diversity of the cars from the different colleges is striking. In general, Mini Baja cars do about what an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) would do, but are wider, longer, and lower than an ATV, steer like a car, are perfectly safe in rollover (which happens a lot), and tend to have more sophisticated steering and suspension systems. Mini Baja began in 1976. Auburn competed from 1977 to 1981, and continuously from 1991 to the present. Mini Baja Teamers are more likely to be mechanical engineering students, but over the past six years, Auburn's teams have included industrial, electrical, aerospace, biosystems, chemical, and textile engineers as well. Team alumni are widely sought after, though graduate school and the automotive industry tend to be the most popular post-graduate destinations.

 

You never really know until you get to the Competition, but you could have predicted a good outcome for AUMB by just looking at their car. The logic of the frame design, the fit of the components, and the overall quality of construction have opened a new chapter for Auburn. AUMB went through the first day's safety inquisition with only one check mark (one of those "I know it's not in the rules, but I'm a judge, and so you're going to fix it my way" type marks). That didn't hurt too much though, as AUMB was given the first place trophy for Safety (48 points out of 50). This is a real honor for the Team. It means that they have been careful, diligent, and experienced enough to bring a thoroughly engineered product to competition, having solved all the mechanical, organizational, and personal issues that get in the way of getting it done right. AUMB received the third place trophy for engineering design (173 points out of 200); a few details just weren't written up in time for the report deadline, five weeks before competition. Credit is due to the principal designers: Matt Middleton (MECH, Captain and Rear Suspension Group); Tim O'Dell (MECH, Frame Group); Jacque Cole (MECH, Gruppe Drivetrain); and Jeff Dinges (MECH, Front Suspension and Steering Group). AUMB finished 8th in Cost (129 points out of 150).

 

ALTMB was on the other end of the spectrum, picking up their experience the hard way. While AUMB stayed up the night before fussing with the finer points, ALTMB was still building body panels and strapping flotation together (safe from the cold and the rain, inside that beautiful new motorsports support trailer). ALTMB worked hard up to the last moment, finally satisfying the safety inquisitors early on the morning of the second day, but placing a respectable 16th in Safety (39 points), 23rd in Design (126), and a solid 7th in Cost (130). Principal designers Stephanie Potts (INSY, Captain), Susan McCallister (INSY, Vice Captain), Susan Wooden (MECH, Drivetrain Group), and Catriya Tiemkongkarn (INSY, Front Suspension and Steering Group) surprised a lot of people by passing safety and getting out to the driving events.

 

The first driving event (second day) was the combined Acceleration/Top-Speed/Braking test. With Catriya Tiemkongkarn at the wheel, ALTMB got out to a great start by winning the Acceleration event (50 points out of 50). This is the first time since 1995 that an Auburn team has won a Mini Baja driving event. ALTMB was 9th in Top Speed (45 points out of 50) and 16th in Braking (26 points out of 50). Daniel Orille (ELEC) drove for AUMB, pulling in 8th in Acceleration (39 points), 5th in top speed (46 points) and 17th in Braking (26 points). (Daniel is also the genius behind the LED array brake warning system and dashboard instrumentation).

 

A typical Baja Weight Pull is progressive; i.e., the pull gets harder the further you go. But just to make things interesting, since Nova Bus was a Competition sponsor, what did the Weight Pull pull? Of course. A Nova intracity transit bus. The Bus Pull featured a main struggle as the poor little Baja cars shimmied and slithered, straining to get that big bus going, with gravel, rubber smoke, and little chunks of tire flying everywhere. So here the weight pull was reversed - the further you went, the easier it got. Once the bus was started, the event scored on time for 40 yards. Garon Griffiths (MECH, throttle system design and general duties) used all his tricks to keep AUMB's tires on the ground, finally managing 17^th place with 71 points out of 100. ALTMB's Georjan Warren (pre-AERO, general duties (that's right, a freshman Baja driver)) didn't have Garon's weight, but managed 24th place with 56 points.

 

Water Maneuverability featured a slalom course around buoys. This should have been a showcase for Robby Daily's (MECH, Project Naval Architect) marine design skills. Robby arranged the flotation to give efficient propulsion, as little hydrodynamic resistance as can be hoped for from a floating car, and enough stability to meet safety criteria but not so much as to preclude the roll responsiveness necessary for good maneuverability. As it turned out, the body panel design allowed the drivetrain belt to get wet and slip, so Robby's boat had to run on only a fraction of the available horsepower. An easy point to correct in hindsight, like so many other things. Daniel Orille did the driving (or shall we say piloting) honors, and managed to nurse AUMB to 7^th place with 91 points (out of 100), despite the difficulties. ALTMB had never been in the water until flotation safety check. They sent Susan McCallister into the pond with crossed fingers and promises of swift rescue. As it was, she floated fine, but drowned the engine with tire spray, and flooded the drive belt. A guard was added to the engine to solve the first problem, the slipping belt was accepted as not fixable within the time allowed, and Susan managed 14th place with 64 points.

 

We knew that Land Maneuverability would be on a slalom run down a ski slope (with a little snow still scattered here and there), but we didn't know that it would be on the steepest slope on the site (a ski resort north of Montreal), the one that ends way down there at those little bitty houses next to that deep-looking lake. Yeesh. (And yes, several cars rolled; one lost its brakes and ended up down next to the lake). With steering a little problematic and zero previous seat time, ALTMB's Tamika Baugh (INSY, general duties) made every gate, but wisely elected to live rather than rack up more than 25 points (out of 100) for 24th. AUMB's Mike Conn (MECH, Jack of all trades, Master of most) pushed it a little harder on his first run, but with the car on two wheels and leaning downhill, had to choose between missing a gate (1 minute penalty) and living to fight another day. On his second run, Mike showed a little more of the true Baja driver's spirit (Death in a Baja Car is Honorable), and skied his way to an excellent 4th place with 93 points.

 

If the Land Maneuverability course was difficult, then the Suspension and Traction course was surreal. Sited up at the top of one of the ski runs, of the kind where you stick your tips out over the abyss and yell Banzai!, the course was a series of uphill and downhill loops and jumps, on boulder-studded ground with a mean slope of (I kid you not) 30 degrees from the horizontal. One car rolled just trying to get up to the start. Tim O'Dell drove for AUMB. Keeping at least two wheels on the ground most of the time and having a blast, Tim managed 10th place with 62 points (out of 100). Stephanie Potts put ALTMB into 18th place (46 points) with great acceleration off the (uphill) starting line and lots of hang time over the jumps.

 

On the final day of competition, for the four-hour endurance race, the hosts had cooked up an awesome course. Huge up and down hills, little winding tracks through the brush, wide open spots where each driver had to pick the best line, and of course a dip in the pond. And the whole course sank deeper in the ooze churned up by each car on each lap in a steady drizzle and intermittent rain. The thick liquid mud hid a lot of big rocks, of the sort that can snap a suspension right off a Baja car. Just about perfect, as Baja courses go. The start was in ranks of ten abreast, roaring downhill and then up to the top of the first long climb. ALTMB, by virtue of their first place in acceleration, got the honor of the pole (AUMB was in the first rank). Jeff Dinges lead off for AUMB, handing off to Jacque Cole and Matt Middleton. Jeff broke well, indicating that the drivetrain problem from the day before had been fixed. And the car just kept on ticking. No breakdowns for the whole four hours (not an Auburn first, but certainly rare enough - and a good thing, because the route to the pits was harder than much of the course). The car handled fine, ran fine, and benefited from the keen racing eyes of its drivers (picking the best line through the really bad muck spots). Being able to select low gear for the hill climbs was a real plus. Jeff made the first choice of track, getting the information to Robby Daily (Pit Boss) and his network of course watchers (everyone else). Jacque's driving looked calm and nimble, picking her way into bogs and then out and gone. Her skill became apparent when the next car would come wallowing along, take a slightly different line, and, with great fanfare and flying mud, get stuck. Advantage Auburn. Matt was just flat on a tear, dealing skillfully with the worsening course conditions. A memorable feature was Matt's wide-open grin. He was having a ball. AUMB finished the race in a close 6th place, for 335 points out of 400. Stephanie Potts lead off for ALTMB. Steering for an off-road racer is a tricky design problem, and ALTMB hadn't had much time for refinement. So with steering control more than just a bit fuzzy, those half-submerged rocks got to be really attractive. Stephanie lost a top shock mount, got it fixed beside the course, and then bent a suspension control arm, repairing that also without having to pit, but chewing up a lot of time. Stephanie also took the opportunity to check the structural integrity of the roll cage by turning the car on its head. No lack of aggressive driving spirit here. By the time Susan Wooden got in the seat, the course was looking pretty grim and the steering was getting worse. Susan kept on attacking the course, but had to have another rollover righted, and had to be plucked out of a culvert that the by now nearly uncontrollable car had decided to dive into. Just as time was called, Susan hit a big enough rock hard enough to make a pretzel out of one of the tie rods. So there she was, muddy head to toe, in a car likewise encrusted, at the low end of a long wash of liquid, rocky mud, wearing the biggest smile you ever saw. What a way to wrap it up. ALTMB was 25th in endurance, for 57 points.

 

AUMB put forth a fine, professional effort, amply fulfilling the supposed goal of the Competition - design of a fun-to-drive, safe, off-road single seater for the weekend enthusiast (in fact, they tied for first in the judge's evaluation of overall handling). ALTMB came a long, long way, going from absolute scratch to a running car with respectable performance. ALTMB has proved their point, and ended their season. AUMB will clean their car, fix the brakes, overhaul the drivetrain AGAIN, drop the float, and race in Midwest Mini Baja, 2-4 June in Milwaukee. AUMB's car looks good for what we know about the Milwaukee course, and with one Competition under their belts as a tune-up, hopes are riding very high. Watch this space.

-Peter Jones
MiniBaja Program Faculty Advisor
 

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