FAU’s SAE Racing Team Wins Second Place at the 2nd Annual Formula SAE Match Race

The Florida Atlantic University Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) racing team won second place in the 2nd Annual Formula SAE Match Race at the Lamar County Speedway in Barnesville, Georgia. The event was sponsored by the Georgia Sprint Karting Association.

The FAU team entered the 2014 racecar, OR-14. The OR-14 reached a best time of 24.2 seconds, making them the second fastest car at the competition and the fastest four-cylinder car.

"We can proudly say that hard work pays off," said Luis Ruiz, FAU SAE marketing lead and business student.

From the 24-person team, seven members attended the competition while the remaining team members worked on the 2015 racecar. The Barnesville team was made up of all mechanical engineering students with the exception of Josh Garcia, a civil engineering major and included team president, Christian Caracci, Elisha Chapman, Robbie Healy, Carlos Sigala, Steven Stanfield and John Strudel. The team was also aided by team advisor, Oren Masory, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering at FAU, and FAU machinist, Fred Knapp. The team members that did not attend the race include ocean engineering student, AJ Webster; electrical engineering student, Stephen Lyons; mechanical engineering students, Juan Amengual, Chris Branfield, Alex Conrad, Randall Hage, Trent Ksionek, Richie Leyton, Chase Nalls, Pedro Ortiz, Thomas Strickland, James Valenti; business students, Ruiz, Tom Cox, Luca Gervasoni, Arif Lakhani; and mathematics secondary education student Ryan Kenney.

The goal of the event is to help promote and advance an interest in engineering programs and to create a new venue for teams to compete at. Although the event was open to eight teams only four participated. The teams raced on a ¼ mile long course that averaged 20 feet in width and utilizes AMB timing equipment. The race consisted of a timed event of five laps per car from a standing start, with the best of the five laps qualifying for scoring.