MSU took 34th place out of 129 teams at the International Formula SAE Racing Competition this weekend at the Pontiac Silverdome, due in part to a disqualification during one of the contest's events.
The team was disqualified during the endurance event on Saturday, costing the team a crucial 400 out of 1000 points. At last year's event, the team finished third.
"We could have certainly won the same title (as) last year," said Jon Denton, MSU Formula SAE Project Manager and mechanical engineering senior. "If not for the disqualification, we would have won second place."
The Spartans were disqualified after completing 20 of the 22 required driving laps during the endurance contest. Because the two inside tires continued to lift off the ground when the car made sharp turns, the judges concluded the car was unsafe, which cost the team 400 points.
Cars rolled into the Silverdome on Wednesday, which mostly consisted of registration and preliminary sessions. The actual events began on Thursday, when MSU participated in the design event, which featured professionals inspecting and questioning the team about its car.
The presentation and cost event followed, where the team submitted a 100-page report describing every piece of material in the car, including the estimated assembly time, cost amount and manufacturing details.
Mechanical engineering students sophomore Joe Tideswell and junior Jason Peabody represented the team in the cost event, where judges asked them to describe two random parts of the car. The team earned 84 out of 100 points.
Beginning strong, MSU finished Thursday earning 259 points out of 325.
Friday, MSU also finished strong in 19th place, despite the unwelcome weather during the events held outside of the Silverdome.
"The weather really messed things up," said Scott Kleman, an engineering graduate student and the suspension and driving team leader who drove the car in two of the events.
"About 13 cars were able to drive in the acceleration and skip pad events before the rain started, which gave them about a four or five second advantage."
Despite MSU having to drive on wet pavement, it earned a time of 4.555 seconds - a achievement comparable to the top time of 4.215 seconds, performed by Cornell University.
"Most cars finished higher in the event because they simply were able to drive on dry pavement," Kleman said.
After Friday, the team was optimistic about its standing.
"Everybody had high spirits at that point, despite the storm," Denton said. "We were really excited about the endurance event for the next day. The team was very competitive and stoked to win the competition.
But the disqualification still leaves a bitter taste in Denton's mouth.
"Everyone was real upset about that. We only had two laps left in the course and we were disqualified," he said.
Kleman said the disqualification was unfounded.
"Some judges felt that it wasn't merited to disqualify the car, because we still had control of the car the entire time."
Steven Yaeger, Public Relations and Brand Manager at SAE International, said of MSU's situation, "The bar keeps raising on the event. Nonetheless of what happens, it is a good exercise for engineering students."
Despite the disappointing outcome for the team, the hopes are still high for next year's event.
While the car is currently on display at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, the team soon will begin work on next year's car.
"Overall, I think that the competition went well in the respect that we completely redesigned the whole vehicle," Kleman said. "Most schools just rebuilt on the car that they had previously used the year before and simply used the same design."
