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Blizzard Baja Enterprise Concludes a Historic Season

 

 

 

For the first time in school history Michigan Tech has won the Mike Schmidt Memorial Iron Team Award in the SAE International Collegiate Design Series Baja Competition. The Iron Team title is awarded to the team with the most combined points after all three North American Baja SAE events. The Michigan Tech Blizzard Baja Enterprise team had won the 8th place finish in Alabama and a 2nd place finish in Oregon, and on Saturday June 13, they one 6th overall at the Wisconsin contest.

Since 1981, Michigan Tech has been competing in the Baja SAE collegiate design competition.  For many years, Michigan Tech Baja has engineered innovative and ground breaking off-road vehicles that have yielded great results in national competition and the 2008-09 season was no exception.   Following an 8th place finish in Alabama and a 2nd place finish in Oregon, Blizzard Baja Enterprise traveled south to Wisconsin with a nine point lead over Rochester Institute of Technology for the 2009 Mike Schmidt Memorial Iron Team Award.  The Iron Team title is awarded to the team with the most combined points after all three North American Baja SAE events.  Blizzard Baja Enterprise welcomed the tremendous challenge of contending for the Iron Team Award by concluding the 2008-09 academic year with a stellar performance at the third and final Baja SAE competition of the year in Burlington, WI.

The Wisconsin event which took place this past weekend at the MGA Research Center, boasted the largest field of the year with 99 teams from around the world.  Like all Baja SAE competitions, the Wisconsin event was composed of both static and dynamic events that are used to evaluate the best vehicle designs.  Despite a rough start to the weekend with a 27th in design and 15th in cost, the team rallied to a top ten overall finish. 

Following the static events and technical inspection the team prepared for the start of the dynamic events on Saturday morning.  Saturday morning started with a light dreary rain and ended with a blizzard.  Michigan Tech Baja started the day with a solid 7th place finish in the mud bog, 8th in maneuverability, 16th in sled pull, 22nd in acceleration.  The pinnacle of the dynamic events, suspension & traction, took place on Saturday afternoon.  The first run was far from graceful after a near roll over and a time penalty for hitting a cone but the second run proved the quality of engineering and preparation that went into the vehicle.  Blizzard Baja executed a flawless second run which was the fastest of the afternoon at 57.66s just ahead of Cornell and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  

After the solid performance on Saturday, the team was presented with the 1st Place Honda Overall Dynamic Award as well as the pole position for the four hour endurance race.  Sunday morning brought the largest challenge of the weekend, the four hour endurance race that is designed to test and destroy even the best vehicles.  Unfortunately after starting in first place, the vehicle suffered a broken A-arm in the first hour of the race ended the opportunity of winning.  Once again the team rose to the challenge and repaired the vehicle in less than 15 minutes.  Despite the broken A-arm, the team finished the four hour race with a respectable 8th place.  The consistent finishes throughout the weekend resulted in 6th place overall and the team also claimed the Mike Schmidt Memorial Iron Team Award.  This year marks the first time in school history that Michigan Tech has claimed the Mike Schmidt Memorial Iron Team Award.

Blizzard Baja Enterprise is a student led organization that is responsible for designing and producing competitive single seat off-road vehicles.  Throughout the year, student members have worked diligently to design and manufacture a world class off-road vehicle.

This year Michigan Tech pioneered the technology used to manufacture carbon fiber suspension arms as well as a custom brake system.  Blizzard Baja Enterprise would like to thank all the sponsors, alumni, and Michigan Technological University for giving us the opportunity and resources to test our engineering knowledge against the brightest students in the world. 

For more information about Baja SAE and the Blizzard Baja Enterprise please visit www.baja.mtu.edu

SAE International Baja