Driving the Penn College No. 44 car, manufacturing engineering technology major Alec D. Rees closes the gap with eventual endurance race winner Ecole de technologie superieure, a university from Montreal, Canada.(Photo by Penn College Baja SAE team member Leo W. Cooke)
The young Penn College Baja SAE team ended its successful 2024 season, finishing 14th in the endurance race at Baja SAE Michigan last weekend.
Two rollovers put the Penn College car in about 40th place an hour into the four-hour competition, but the resilient team fashioned an impressive second half of the race and become one of just 16 cars to complete 48 or more laps. Ecole de technologie superieure – a university from Montreal, Canada – recorded 57 laps in winning the 62-car race.
“The rollovers and the resulting adjustment we had to make to our shocks put us in a hole early on, but I’m pleased with how the team responded,” said John G. Upcraft, instructor of manufacturing and machining and faculty adviser to Penn College’s Baja SAE club. “We have an inexperienced team that will certainly benefit from this competition.”
Penn College lost to graduation the two drivers who spearheaded a fourth-place showing in the endurance race in May at Baja SAE Williamsport.
Baja SAE requires schools to design, manufacture and build a single-seat, all-terrain vehicle to survive various tests that challenge the students’ ingenuity and the car’s quality. The endurance race is the premier event.
Penn College’s 14th-place finish at Baja SAE Michigan bested the likes of Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Maryland, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Iowa State, Illinois and Syracuse.
“I think we had one of the fastest cars there,” Upcraft said. “With the driving experience the team gained, I fully expect to be in the top 10 again, come 2025.”
Penn College driver Nicholas J. Benninger prepares to pass Virginia Tech. Benninger is a manufacturing engineering technology student. (Photo by team member Leo W. Cooke)
Since 2011, Penn College has recorded 15 top-10 finishes in the endurance race.
During the next few months, the Penn College team will be accepting new members and begin working on car refinements. Upcraft said the students are considering a new design for the continuously variable transmission and plan to build custom shocks. The team’s next competition is scheduled for June at Baja SAE Maryland.
Members of the Penn College team who competed at Baja SAE Michigan were manufacturing engineering technology students Nicholas J. Benninger, Bloomsburg; Trevor J. Lindsay, Mechanicsburg; and Alec D. Rees, Centerport, New York; engineering design technology students Thomas J. Bodei Jr., Toms River, New Jersey; Camren J. Ferrara, Lock Haven; and Johnmichael S. Weaver, Greenville; automated manufacturing technology students Leo W. Cooke, Easton; and Brian P. Rogers, Kunkletown; heavy construction equipment technology: technician emphasis student Davis I. Rowell, Boalsburg; and applied management student Matthew J. Rotundo, Abingdon, Maryland.
Baja SAE Michigan was conducted at the Mt. Holly Ski and Snowboard Resort, located about 55 miles northwest of Detroit.
Members of the Penn College Baja SAE team (no, the skeleton did not drive the car) take a well-deserved break after the endurance race. (Photo by Dawn Murnyack-Rowell, a team mom)
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