Sunday, April 24, 2011
It took them the entire school year, countless hours and many sleepless nights, but any member of the Jayhawk Motorsports team will say that working on this year’s Formula SAE and hybrid cars was absolutely worth it.
Members of the Jayhawk Motorsports team unveil their Formula SAE and hybrid cars, Saturday, at the Barrel House. Every year, students on the team get to build the cars from scratch and race then against other schools all over the nation.
Every year, the team designs, builds, tests and races a vehicle. The group members unveiled the cars Saturday at the Barrel House, 729 New Hampshire St., showing their friends and families what they created this year. Abby Rimel, a senior from Aurora, Colo., said that for the first time this year, two cars were made, one of which being a hybrid car. Cameron Bryant, a sophomore from Baldwin City, said the team was unique because of the opportunity it offered students on campus.
“There’s no other project on campus where you get to design every part of it, build it, and then race it and compete against other schools,” Bryant said.
Rimel, the group’s team leader, said the cars would be raced in May and June at collegiate design competitions, where the University of Kansas will compete against more than 140 teams from around the world. She said the cars each cost around $40,000 in order to be well-suited for competition.
In the past, Rimel said, the Jayhawk Motorsports team has had a strong reputation for doing well in racing competitions. In 2009, the formula car placed third in a national competition in California.
And this year is no different. The group’s good reputation means that it has a lot to live up to, and a lot to work toward. Bryant said he started volunteering for the Jayhawk Motorsports team in high school student. Bryant said he hoped the group would be able to participate in competitions abroad in the near future including prestigous competitions in Germany.
“I won’t be happy until we go to Germany,” Bryant said. “It’s just something we’ve never done.”
Steven Heger, a senior from Maize, said he estimated that he spent about 60 hours each week working on the car during the school year. Heger, who was the team’s manufacturing leader, said that in the last week, group members spent more than 12 hours each day working on finishing up the cars.
“It is worth it,” Heger said. “We get to build race cars.”
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