WAR EAGLE MOTORSPORTS
AUBURN LADY TIGERS MINI BAJA TEAM
Race Report
Mini Baja East, 5-7 May 2005, Palmyra, New York
The Auburn Lady Tigers Mini Baja Team (ALTMB) triumphed over adversity with a newbie team (92% graduation loss). These ladies not only had to build a car, but rebuild their program. The new team struggled past inspection at the very last moment, and managed to complete every event (including a very creditable 7th in Acceleration), winding up 42nd overall. The team’s members may have proved to be one the hardest working and most determined group of girls in ALTMB history during this Endurance Race.
A very pleasant feature of this Competition was the number of Auburn Mini Baja alumni who traveled to New York to visit or participate in the judging. Michael Conn (AUMB 00-01), Brittany Consuegra (ALTMB 03-04), Emily Johnson (ALTMB 02-04), Randy Siers (AUMB 93), and Michael Zieman (AUMB 01-04) took responsible positions on the Judging Staff. Jacque Cole (ALTMB 98, AUMB 99-00) joined ALTMB for two days, sprinting up and down hills to retrieve much needed tools and supplies. We hope to see these guys again and many more next year when Mini Baja East is hosted by – you guessed it – AUBURN UNIVERSITY!
ALTMB redesigned and refined their 2004 concept, dropping weight, adding efficiency, and ergonomicing a very drivable car. The key ingredient this year was build quality, which is right up among the best. The car has an independent front and swing arm rear, nice hardware for shocks, and a rack and pinion (student built). The driveline is CVT to student-built gearbox to a chain final. A key design goodie is the adjustable axle position to tension the chain on the swingarm. Split carriers and an aluminum axle contribute to the refinement of that critical system and Kevlar fenders for propulsion (an ALTMB tradition). Sarah Gallops was a timid newbie last year, but she rocketed up the learning curve to run the 05’ show as Captain, tripling up as Front and Rear Suspension Leader and pinch-hitting Drivetrain Leader. Carmen Heintzelman headed up the float design and gets credit for the very pretty TIG welding noticed by many of the judges. The remaining design issues were handled by teammates Christie (Chipper) Mardis (Master of Everything), Asha (the Eveready) Sharma, Christine Taylor, and Lissa Fulmer-Miller. ALTMB was honored by winning SAE’s WEC Challenge to Woman Leaders grant, for the second time in a row (and our third time ever), a proposal competition open to any woman-led team (as opposed to strictly all-female teams).
Mini Baja East is the toughest of the three Mini Baja Competitions and the only one involving water operations; East tends to draw only the most capable Baja Teams. 2005 was hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology, a school with deep Baja roots and a tradition of good teams. Static events were held on the floor of RIT’s new field house (now THAT’S a cooperative Athletic Department), and dynamic events were at the Hogback Hill MX park in Palmyra. The field was comprised of 71 cars, a new record for the East Competition. After enduring twenty hours locked in the fleet of minivans, the team arrived in Rochester in mid-afternoon, just in time to spend the rest of the night putting finishing touches on the car in the hotel parking lot. Bright and early the next morning the team registered and prepped their car before pushing off for engine check (and governor setting), safety inspection, design judging, and dynamic brake check. The team did great in safety only having to come back for minor issues; however, ALTMB struggled with their brakes, and had to put off passage until the next day.
Design is scored on both a written report (100 points; submitted a month in advance) and on-site assessment in nine different categories (150 points; structure, drivetrain, suspension, ergonomics, flotation, manufacturability, serviceability, originality, and craftsmanship). We don’t know how the components broke down since we only have summary scores, but ALTMB was 33rd with 157.
Cost is based entirely on a written report and a self-reported figure for prototype production cost, turned in a month in advance. Cost has been controversial of late, with a switch in 04 from predicted mass production unit cost (compared to a declared target) to open-ended prototype cost. The self-reported feature caused some issues. Now, a few cars are selected and rigorously inspected on-site. The inexperienced team placed 50th with only 22 points due to a formatting error.
On the second day at race the ladies were still struggling with their brakes. The team finally managed to purge the last air bubble from the brake lines, but the brakes now worked so well that the rear caliper mount broke and tried to follow the spinning disk, mangling the mount and rupturing the hydraulic lines in the process. Due credit in this repair must be gratefully paid to Virginia Tech, who helped to quickly fit and weld a member in place of the broken mount. And special thanks to Kelly Dobson (ALTMB 04, V.Tech 05) who made the vital arrangements. Finally brake check was passed with less than an hour to go before the first four dynamic events closed, and the team went into high gear. There was only time for one run at each Event (usually two runs are allowed). ALTMB flew through
Acceleration with Carmen Heintzelman at the wheel, posting an excellent 7th place finish for 81.81 points. Also a light car, it seems, and just possibly a little smoother in the gearbox. Christine Taylor took over for Land Maneuverability. She took one run, but on a challenging course with no time to become familiar with the car’s handling, little could be done. With no time to change drivers, Christine chugged over to the Hill Climb, taking 29th place with 29.43 points. That brought the panting team back to the start of Water Maneuverability just before the line closed. Waiting in line brought a little breather, and Christine was able to eject herself, handing over piloting honors to Lissa Fulmer-Miller. Out of the start, Lissa was fast. The trim of the car and droop of the paddlewheels (a.k.a. rear wheels) must have been just right. But unfortunately, the propulsive thrust set up enough bow wave to bring green-water-on-deck, leading to a pretty scary-looking coupled pitch/roll instability. The Event Captain wisely stopped the run, and instructed ALTMB to install more flotation and try to pass the inclining test again on the next morning before being allowed to compete in the Endurance Race. The day was an outstanding builder of team and character.
There was one more Event, Suspension & Traction, scheduled all by itself in the afternoon. With just the right course and spectator view, the Suspension & Traction Event can be quite a crowd pleaser. In 04, Montreal had these, and added a sound system and slightly wacky announcer. Exploring the robustness of the tradition, RIT went for the same setup. The advantage is that it can be a lot of fun for the spectators and teams. The disadvantage is that it really pushes teams who had trouble in the more compressed morning schedule. Anyway, RIT had a great course put together. The cars got two runs, the second reversing the starting order of the first. The ladies found themselves near the end of the line with Chipper at the wheel. The mud bog near the beginning of the course had become a very sticky situation by the time the girls took their run. Chipper found herself caught in the morass on her first run and put forth a heroic effort struggling to get free of the bogg, but lost so much time in the process that ALTMB got only 6.49 points for 51st place. The course was widened for the second run giving the girls a chance to run a fresh path. Chipper once again hit the mud hard and was slowly making her way when a bad weld in the steering column snapped under the stress (though she did create a most excellent mud shower for those too-close spectators). On another day, we expect to see more good out of Chipper.
The four-hour, wheel-to-wheel Endurance Race on Day Three is what Mini Baja is all about. The course was based on a motocross track, but a wider one than usual, with more than the usual amount of steep terrain, both uphill and down. To this, the organizers added a couple of loops through the woods. True, these narrow tracks are nasty places if you get stuck behind a slow (or worse, down) car, but few things are closer to what means Mini Baja than asymmetric big roots, trees grabbing at your fenders, rack extensions pushed past their yield point, traction depending on just exactly where you put that tire, and the whiff in the air of the sapling you’ve just mowed down in pursuit of motorsports glory.
Fate was not going to let up on ALTMB. Asha Sharma gridded 7th to start Endurance, but the Judge checking her kill switch killed the engine and failed to restart it. She was left until the grid cleared before the Judges would restart the car and send Asha on her way (a most frustrating moment). With great position lost the Asha soon found herself stopped with yellow tape wrapped around the axle causing the chain to pop. This problem was quickly corrected but not for long, that long chain on that long swingarm was still stretching (or so we thought), and would not stay on the sprockets. Time and time again the team sprinted off to some far corner of the track to rip open the guards, walk the chain back on, stretch out the tensioners, and get Asha going. Too many times. ALTMB managed only four complete laps for 55.17 points, but at least when time was called we were still running, and Asha crossed the finish line under her own power.
The ladies brought a new team to this competition, hard and fast to build a fine car that performed with flashes of brilliance. Our ladies returned home with much work to do in preparation for the Baja 100.