May 31, 2008
Day Three of Competition

It was the final and most important day of competition, we were confident that our car would do exceedingly well in the endurance race. We knew without a doubt that we would have few problems staying in the race for the four hours, and we were ready to show the rest of the competition what we're made of.
The race began, and though we were slow, we easily cleared many of the obstacles that proved to be difficult for the rest of the vehicles. An hour passed, and it seemed as though half the competition had diminished, and only a few were left, our car being one of them.
During a routine pit-stop we determined that one of our front suspension members received a blow from an obstacle and decided to swap the damaged component even though the vehicle was still operable. Twenty minutes later, we were back in the race. Along with thirty other cars, we finished the race. In the four hours, we completed a total of 23 laps, placing us 28th for the whole race. We went to the competition knowing that we would not achieve top ten, and we were thoroughly excited when we learned that we came in 33rd out of all 120 vehicles that registered for the competition. We may have not been the best at this year's competition, but we improved immensely from the year before us. We now plan to use what we've learned this year to improve on next year's car.

May 30, 2008
Second Day of Competition

The second day of competition, upon arriving at the Caterpillar Proving Ground we were warned that there would be storms throughout the day including a tornado warning. We decided that certain dynamic tests, i.e. hill climb and rock crawl, would be better completed before the rain began.

We started by lining up to complete the hill climb portion of the test. Our car was slow, and there was doubt by others that it would not make the full distance, but we proved them wrong, and climbed it in 22.16 seconds. Again, after the rain, we redid the course, curious as to how the rain would effect our times; surprisingly, we completed the muddy course in 28.65 seconds. Our best time of 22.16 seconds placed our vehicle 66 out of 81.

After we complete our first run on the hill climb event, we proceeded to the rock crawl. This was one of our most favored events, after so much testing, we knew our vehicle would have no problem completing the course. As we waited for our turn to compete, we watched as cars failed to make it through the course. We did not let this discourage us. Our car drove up to the starting line. When signaled to go, we watched as the car swiftly executed the course and finish with a time of 46.81 seconds.
Unfortunately, we received two penalties. Our car, because of its size, also has a large turning radius; this caused us to hit two of the flags off one of the sharp turns. Although we had two penalties increasing our time, we decided that we would not do the rock crawl again, and accept our time. With the penalties, our time became 50.81 seconds, which put us 28th out of 77.

We chose to do acceleration second to last, knowing that our car is slow compared to the rest, and we believed that it would not make much of a difference if we had to drive through dirt or mud.
Our top acceleration ended up being 8.798 seconds, placing us 80 out of 84. Later after the rain started, we tried again, hoping we might improve our time. Instead, we proved our earlier assumption that the mud would increase our acceleration time; we finished our second try in 11.730 seconds giving us one of the worst completion times.

We noticed that the rain was starting to come down more, and thought it would be best to get our final test, maneuverability done before the inevitable thunder and lightning forced us to return to our trailer. We waited almost half an hour until we saw our car approach the start of the course. But of course, then the rain came down.
We were forced to leave our vehicle on the course until it was deemed safe to proceed, we retreated to our trailer. We waited for almost an hour until we were permitted to return to our vehicle.
Within minutes our car was racing through the course. Unfortunately the size of our vehicle combined with the speed we were going, caused us to hit many penalties, or get stuck in some of the obstacles. Then, right as we reached the final obstacle, our steering wheel came off, causing us to fail to complete the course, and forcing us to have our vehicle towed back to our tent.

After fixing our car and then having it reapproved by tech, we again made our way to the maneuverability track. This time, instead of racing through the course, the driver took time to avoid all penalties. Though this made us a lot slower, we knew that if we tried to complete the course any faster, we would achieve a larger time due to the penalties we would inevitably acquire. At our slow pace, we passed finished the course in 113.56 seconds, putting us in 59th place.
Finally, having finished all of the courses for the day, and receiving scores, we were done. We knew our vehicle would not place high, so we were excited to learn that at the end of day two of the competition we had received 309.90 points out of 600, and were 53rd out of the 120 vehicles.

May 29, 2008
First Day of Competition

We arrived at the Caterpillar Proving grounds at 6:15am, excited about our first day. We waited 45 minutes until we were allowed to enter the site of the competition. Once we secured a spot for our trailer, we began to prepare our vehicle for the most important part of the Baja Competition; Tech Inspection.

Our team entered tech confident that our vehicle was safe and secure. We went through tech only three times, and completed this before half of the first day had passed. Our car was as we expected, and only a few small details had to be fixed before we could continue to the dynamic portion of the event.

To Pass Tech

1. Safety wire our steering wheel fasteners
2. Make a better tighter-fitting grommet for our
   differential lock

We even completed the egress portion of the inspection with time to spare. The driver chosen was able to complete the challenge in less then 3 seconds!

After we passed tech, we made our way to the first Dynamic Test of the entire competition, the brake test. We watched as our car approached maximum speed. Then, right as the front tires passed the finish line; dust flew as all four tires locked into place and the judge immediately signaled that our vehicle was fit to perform in the rest of the dynamic courses.

After we completed our first and only dynamics test for the day, our team prepared to present our vehicle to the judges. Our sales team, first to present, wowed the judges with our in depth and informative presentation. We even received an audience from the president of SAE International.
Later, we discovered that we scored 40.75 out of a maximum of 50 points, putting us in 15th place out of a total of 85.

A few hours later, we headed to our Design Review. Four of our members proceeded to defend our design to the judges. We achieved a score of 99 out 150 placing us 30 overall in the design portion. Though we were confident in our design, and were disappointed in our score. However, we did learn how to improve for next year.

We ended our first day of competition with a total score of 200.36 points out of 300, putting us in 33rd place.

May 27 & May 28, 2008
First Day of Competition

5:30am, we, the University of Arizona Baja Racing Team assembled, and prepared to embark on our journey to the 2008 Baja SAE Competition in Peoria, Illinois. We gathered tools and materials, while preparing the vehicle for transport. By 7:00am, we were ready to leave.

We drove for twenty-seven hours, more then an entire day without sleep, fueled by Mountain Dew and Skittles. Determined and drowsy, we drove onward, steadfast in reaching our destination. By 3:00pm (5:00pm Illinois time) we arrived at our hotel, delighted by the sight of beds and showers. Yet, we were not allowed to rest, we still had to suffer through the monstrous line that awaited us at Competition Registration.
Finally, our team registered and utterly exhausted, headed back to the hotel. Once there we decided to forgo the extra hours of sleep and prepare our car and team for the first day's events.
By 12:00am, satisfied with our work the fatigue from the trip finally caught up. We all set our alarms, and finally allowed ourselves to sleep.