CMU Baja team takes second place in Louisiana race


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Courtesy Photo | University of Communications Team Chippewa Performance Baja teams took second, ninth and 23rd at the Midnight Mayhem invitational in Kentucky. Students in CMU's Society of Automotive Engineers ranked higher than every other Michigan university at the event.

Students in the Society of Automotive Engineers Baja team the brought the mayhem to the University of Louisville.

All three Central Michigan University cars ranked in Top 25 at Louisville Midnight Mayhem Race. CMU ranked higher than every other Michigan university and placed second in the country.

In the spring, CMU’s Baja team will participate in races in Baltimore, Maryland, Auburn, Alabama, and Portland, Oregon. While, the Baja races are incredibly rewarding and fun, they can also be very challenging, as they require a great deal of work.

Team Chippewa Performance will compete against more than 100 schools at the 2015 Baja SAE Collegiate Design Series competitions in Alabama Maryland and Oregon in May.

Benjamin Ritter, advisor for the Baja team, said a minimum of 20 hours a week is required to build the vehicles. The student-created cars withstand four hours of endurance on the track.

“A lot of (the challenge) is the time constraint of trying to build a car and go to school full time,” said Farmington Hills junior Derek Donovan.

Vehicles are all powered by a 10-horsepower Intek Model 20 engine donated by Briggs & Stratton Corp. Use of the same engine creates a challenging engineering design test for the participants.

Ritter said getting is involved is as simple as showing up but it takes persistence to stay involved. Only those who are dedicated can stick it through to the end, and the experience students gain is invaluable.

“Our group is fairly tight knit,” said Virginia Beach senior Walter Robertson. “We function very well as a team both in the building process and the events themselves”.

Participating in Baja allows students a chance to put their engineering skills into practice.

“We get to apply knowledge to a real world problem,” Donovan said. “It’s valuable work experience in the engineering field.”

The competitions simulate real-world engineering design projects and related challenges, giving student members the chance to experience planning and manufacturing tasks they would see in the consumer industrial market.

“It forces you to be a well rounded person,” Robertson said. “You have to problem solve and critically think and above else you have to persevere because above all else at the end of the day you’re representing yourself and the school.”

The Baja team is preparing a new off-road vehicle for the 2015 SAE Baja Collegiate Design Series competitions.

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