The following day was spent checking in, setting up our pit area, and sizing up the competition.  Students were surprised by the wide range of levels demonstrated by the competing teams.  Some schools look the part of professional race teams, sporting full team uniforms, driver to pit radio communications, wireless telemetry, and more, while other teams arrive scrambling just to finish assembling their car.  Despite this being the first competition for many of the students, the WWU team appeared well-prepared and composed.

The competition consists of 7 events, including 3 judged static events and 4 timed dynamic events. In addition, the car must pass a rigorous series of safety inspections before being allowed to drive. The first event of the competition was the Cost Event, where judges score the car on manufacturability, materials, production plans, and a 150-page report where teams have analyzed the costs associated with every component on the car.  After a quick look-over, the judges asked a few questions about how the car and a few specific components would be manufactured.  Members John Tate and Marshall Hagen surprised the judges with in-depth discussions of the processes and achieved a perfect score on the discussion portion of the event.  We left the first event with 80 points and a 34th place overall.

Next, we rolled the car to the Technical Inspection paddock, where a group of volunteers look over the car and measure key items to ensure the car is safe and compliant with the rules. This can be the most frightening portion of the event for the students who design the car because teams can be prevented from running dynamic events, which make up sixty percent of the score, if a single rule is overlooked. A few of this year’s team members were very worried about a new rule instated after the car had been built that governs the minimum clearance between a manikin representing a 95th percentile male and the top of our roll hoop.  We realized early on that our hoop would not pass as it was, so a special seat was designed to position the driver lower in the car.  The minimum clearance was 2 inches and we passed with a clearance of just 2.25 inches. Unusually strict scrutineering kept our car in “tech” for quite a while, and required us to make a number of changes to the car, but we eventually passed.

After passing the technical inspection, we squeezed into the design event, where the team gets an opportunity to explain the features of the car and outline the design and testing that went into it. This is a very important event for the students who design the car, an opportunity to explain their decisions to judges that often come from the top tiers of automotive production and motorsports. 2007 team captain Billy Rahr gave a short introduction to the team and our approach to designing the car, then each of the 4 design leaders talked one-on-one with one of the judges.

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