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Marjo Mallari, Ross Fraser, Vince Donatini

sae.sjsu@gmail.com Volume 4 | Issue 8

we felt the excitement as the 2012-2013 Formula SAE race season is about to begin, but we can’t forget about the results and

lessons learned from last season. For the 2011-2012 season, the Spartan Racing Formula team attended two competitions, one in Michigan and one in Nebraska.

Our first competition, Formula Michigan, took place in the beginning of May. Along the way we stopped off at University of Wisconsin Madison to visit some old friends. For two years now the Formula Team from UW Madison has hosted us for a test and tune session, and this year we were joined by the last year’s champions, Stuggart, from Germany.

We had a bumpy start to competition when we failed tech inspection due to an undersized cockpit and a noncompliant chain guard. These problems were remedied with the help of the lift gate on our rental truck and a bit of ingenuity that Spartan Racing is known for. Over the following days we completed our static events placing 25th in design, 82nd in business presentation and 31st in cost. As for dynamic events we placed 24th in acceleration, 35th in skidpad and 43rd in autocross.

Saturday came and along with it the endurance event which always causes much anxiety. Endurance is worth 40% of the total competition score and is designed to put the cars through the paces. Despite this, 30 minutes later SR-4 crossed the finish line without a hitch. We placed 30th overall and a feeling of accomplishment followed; that is until we got back to California and realized we needed to prepare for Nebraska.

The Nebraska competition started out well with no real problems over the first few days. On the first day, setup and tech inspection were completed, followed by the static events on day two. We placed 5th in cost, 29th in the business presentation and 37th in design. We are very proud of the improvements we made in both cost and business presentation.

We competed in the dynamic events the following day. After finishing both acceleration and skidpad we needed to focus on the autocross. There were concerns with the engine during the acceleration test that could not be addressed until after the autocross leading to 29th place in autocross, 7th in acceleration and 17th in skidpad. All are incredible improvements over our Michigan results.

The last day started off with a bang as thunderstorms doused everything. Mother Nature gave up by the start of our final event, endurance. SR-4 rolled out under the sun on to a dry track. The conditions were perfect and our first driver, Robby Sampson, set the track record for the morning.

Our second driver, Terrance Wong wasn’t so lucky. An engine failure forced him into limp mode and after two black flags we were pulled from the track at lap 20 of 21 because of a melted valve cover vent line. After the race, the failure was diagnosed as a blown radiator fan fuse that caused the engine to overheat. We placed 28th overall and are very proud of our accomplishments.

After both of the competitions we are convinced that SR-4 is our most successful car the Spartan Racing Formula team has ever built. Our success comes not only from a quality standard but also because of the opportunities, knowledge and lessons we’ve received and plan to transfer on to our 2012-2013 team.

All of the Spartan Racing vehicle teams would like to thank our sponsors for the contributions they have made over the 2011-2012 season. Without your dedication and support we could not have been as successful this year. Your support came in the form of knowledge, parts, monetary donations and support. Because of you, each individual team member has new memories and skills that they will carry for the rest of their lives. You helped us take our classroom knowledge and individual creativity and transforming it into a vehicle that we could all be proud of. No matter how big or small of a contribution that you made, you have touched every single one of us, and for that we say, thank you for being part of our team.

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