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Warming up to Racing in Texas
Auburn Formula had
the refreshing and rewarding opportunity to attend the Texas
Autocross weekend hosted by The University of Texas at Arlington
on the 26th of July for 2008.
The event could not
have come at a more opportune time; as the team’s morale tanks had
been faltering towards empty ever since the 2008 car suffered from
issues primarily concerning drivetrain failure in the 2008 Detroit
competition. On top of this disconcerting truth, everyone was
determined to bring 3 cars in race trim to the Texas event. Auburn
had not had this many cars race-ready all at the same time since
the fall of 2006, and as we proceeded to wipe the dust off of the
2003 and 2006 cars, most everyone became further discouraged at
their ominous state of disrepair. Thankfully, a select group of
individuals tried their best to keep a positive outlook on the
work ahead.
As the drivetrain
issues were being hammered out (quite literally at times) of the
2008 car, persistent work was being conducted on both the 2003 and
2006 cars. Neither vehicle had been run in an extensive amount of
time. It had been so long, in fact, that no one on the team was
entirely certain what was wrong with them in the first place.
Several veteran members offered their reassuring resolutions (or
guesses): “yeah it just needs oil and spark plugs, we replaced the
head 5 months ago” -or- “it just needs the slipper clutch put in
there” -or- “lets fire it up as is…I mean it will probably
run…it’s 03…it never dies.” Well, these were all warm thoughts,
but unfortunately somewhat distant from the reality of the matter
at hand.
After several long
days (and nights) of engine swaps, sifting through boxes and boxes
of different generations of clutch parts to find the correct
combination (I’m still not quite over that one), 33 fasteners
missing, 14 spark plugs fouling, 8 injectors leaking, 6 oil
changes, 4 ECU maps, and a parts bin in a pear tree...the ’03 and
‘06 cars were finally ready to go. And everyone was gleeful like
it was Christmas morning! Okay, not really, but there was a sense
of excitement and relief throughout the shop when the cars finally
drove again…not to mention the hoards of boxes of parts strewn
throughout in a Christmas-morning fashion.
We had finally
arrived: the day before departure to Texas, and the ’08 car was
still on the assembly table under the “knife” with continuing
drivetrain problems. As the day came and went, team members began
to pack our new trailer while a diligent few remained at the beck
and call of the ailing car. Everything had been packed by about
3AM in the morning as the 2008 car crept out the door of the shop
and drove down Wilmore Avenue, and we recaptured hopes of bringing
3 cars after all!
The memory of the
trip down is a bit hazy for everyone, I think, but after several
hours, mid-morning fast food, a bit of good fortune, and hundreds
of dollars of Diesel fuel, we finally arrived in Arlington. We
were the first team to get to the course that evening, and we
parked our rig in the corner of the huge lot under some promising
shade-trees. The team then proceeded to the social event at Dr.
Bob Woods' home for some dinner and a handful of…unexpected
entertainment.
UTA’s Dr. Bob Woods
was a fine host, (some would argue an even better magician), and
we all really appreciate the fact that he opened his home for all
the teams to meet and greet before the events in the coming days.
After an evening of fine finger foods, UTA FSAE video
compilations, magic tricks, and general banter, everyone was ready
for sleep. Our team checked into the hotel across the street from
the course, and everyone slept hard, really hard, for we only had
6 hours to catch up on a weeks worth of deprivation.
The morning came
quickly as anticipated, and everyone seemed sufficiently
recharged. After stuffing our face with doughnuts off the
tailgate of our advisor’s (Dr. Jones) truck, we walked over to the
course and began setting up the paddock. After we had finished
getting cars, tools, and tents out of the trailer, we began to do
a final inspection on all the race machines. ’03 and ’06 were
ready to go after a bit of fluid fill and minor adjustments here
and there, but ’08 had a devastating differential oil leak around
the pinion gear that nobody was motivated enough to fix after the
laborious struggles in the preceding nights. After all, we took
this trip to have fun and to get seat time, not stress over
frustrating parts failure.
The morning course
was set out on the tarmac around 7:30 AM, and the temperature was
already in the 90’s. We knew it was going to be hot, but were
able to set aside the complaints of personal discomfort for the
prospect of hot and sticky Michelin tires and, consequently, good
performances.
I had the
opportunity to make the first three runs of the day in the 2003
car as the ’03 car captain, and this being my first time driving
in any sort of competition; I was very excited and a bit nervous.
I won’t go into the visceral nature of my experience here, but I
think I can speak for everyone when I say that it was fun, a lot
of fun. The course was fast, too, so I really had the chance to
open the beast up and hang it out through some of the long
sweepers. Auburn team members frantically fumbled in and out of
the two cars all day long, each trying to squeeze in their 3 runs
per course (of which there were two, one morning, and one
afternoon). Thankfully, both cars ran better than we could have
hoped, and everything seemed to go quite smoothly.
After a long day of
heavy water intake, intense sun, and tire shredding, most everyone
was ready to take a break. We headed over to UTA’s campus for
copious amounts of free pizza, and a Solid Works software
demonstration. After this, it was back to the hotel for some more
precious sleep in preparation for the next enduring day.
Sunday morning
brought the FSAE teams to a local autocross event with a wide
variety of entries from karts to Dodge Vipers to pickup trucks.
The weather was perfect for racing, still unbelievably hot, but
still…perfect. The ’08 car remained in the paddock again to look
pretty while the other two went to work. ’06 ran well all day
long while ’03 melted a voltage regulator pigtail and was down for
a few laps while its harness was hesitantly hardwired together.
Miraculously, the rigged up electrical system had no flaws for the
remainder of the day, and both cars turned out some great runs.
At the end of the day, everyone had enjoyed a few good runs, and
we were ready to head home.
The seven (or was
it nine…or nine hundred??!) hour drive back to Auburn was long, as
expected. But, beneath the callousness of boredom and tiredness,
each one of us were greatly satisfied with the experience. It
seemed as if the long hours of dedication and preparation had
finally manifested into something tangible and enjoyable. We
finally had the opportunity to come together as a race team, and
it felt good.
The positive energy
from this trip combined with the lessons learned from the 2008
project has sent Auburn Formula full throttle into design and
construction for 2009. We are really excited and confident that
we will build a great car, and hope to show the world that we can
compete among the elite ranks of FSAE teams in the spring.
I would like to
thank all our sponsors for their patronage with our program, and
to encourage them to check back with the website often as many new
media and sponsorship updates are on their way. I would also like
to thank UTA and Dr. Woods, again, for hosting such a fine event
and for being such a valuable asset to the FSAE series.
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