Their classes for the spring semester ended last month, but 14 Pennsylvania College of Technology students face a big test June 12-15. They will be competing against 101 other schools at Baja SAE Maryland.
Baja SAE requires teams to design, manufacture and build a single-seat all-terrain vehicle to withstand various static and dynamic tests that challenge students’ engineering ingenuity and car performance. The main event is a four-hour endurance race over rugged terrain.
Since 2011, Penn College has recorded 15 top-10 finishes in the endurance race, including a fourth-place showing last May at Baja SAE Williamsport, held at the school’s Heavy Construction Equipment Training Operations Site. In September, at Baja SAE Michigan, the team ended up 14th due to two rollovers and damaged shocks.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s car navigates an obstacle during last year’s Baja SAE Williamsport competition. The Penn College team will be back in action June 12-15 at Baja SAE Maryland. The event requires schools to manufacture and build a single-seat all-terrain vehicle to withstand various performance challenges.
John G. Upcraft, instructor of automated manufacturing and machining and longtime faculty adviser for the Penn College Baja SAE club, is confident the team can top that performance at the Maryland event, set for Budds Creek Motorcross in Mechanicsville.
“There’s plenty of room to improve. I’m a big believer that we should be in the top six pretty much every time as long as we’ve done our job,” he said. “When we were done with the September competition, we got back and started tearing the car apart to make improvements for this year.”
The team focused on upgrading the vehicle’s shocks after Upcraft reviewed video footage of the front rollovers in Michigan and determined that the suspension system, not driver error, caused the mishaps.
“For this year, we wanted longer travel shocks so we could push out the shocks’ mounting points closer to the wheel,” he said. “We ended up getting some custom shocks and then we fabricated a bunch of parts for the internals. We now have 10-inch travel shocks, which increases our suspension travel up to 14 inches front and rear.”
Upcraft expects that the new shocks will do a better job of absorbing bumpy terrain and maintaining tire contact with the road.
The team also tweaked the car’s continuously variable transmission and committed to producing extra parts for the 345-pound vehicle.
“We’ve always gone to races hoping that something doesn’t break because we might not have spares. But this year, we have more spares than before. We are better prepared than we’ve been in the past,” Upcraft said.
Working outside of class throughout the academic year, the students made 90% of the car’s parts, using the industry-standard technology available on campus in the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing and the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center.
“I’m really proud of the team’s dedication,” Upcraft said. “This year, we have a good mix of veterans and new team members. I’m really happy with the new people. I have guys who have good attitudes and are eager to learn.”
Maryland last hosted Baja SAE in 2018, when Penn College finished seventh in the endurance race.
“It’s hilly with big jumps. It’s a nice wide course,” Upcraft said. “I like wide because there’s room to pass. You just never know when it might be our time to win again.”
In 2022, Penn College won the endurance race at both Baja SAE Rochester and Baja SAE Tennessee Tech.
The Penn College Baja SAE club is generously supported each year by industry, alumni and friends of the college. The team’s performance in Maryland can be followed via the Baja SAE app, available for free on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Penn College is a national leader in applied technology education. Email the Admissions Office or call toll-free 800-367-9222 for more information.