SCCA Solo II Nationals 2005

Dr. Bob Woods

On September 13 and 14, six schools gathered together for the annual SCCA Solo II Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. They brought 8 cars and 15 drivers. This was the third year for FSAE to have its own class at Nationals after being taken out of A-mod. This year A-mod only had 5 entries.

Teams attending were Auburn University, AU, the University of Texas at Arlington, UTA, the University of Missouri – Rolla, UMR, the University of Kansas, KU, the University of Maryland, UM, and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, SDSMT,

The crowd always loves to look at these unique and fast cars. The FSAE cars featured a 400 cc turbocharged engine, electronic shifters, cars with wings, and other interesting designs. Speaking of fast, the UTA FSAE car was the third fastest car at the whole event with 1135 drivers. We do get some attention!

The camaraderie with other schools is a big part of SCCA Nationals. It was great to see four faculty advisors and technical advisors attend the competition.

Group photo of cars (L to R) UTA 1995 (John Burford & Ken Hassler), UMR 2005 (Mike Murray & Mike Schaefer), SDSMT 2005 (Clayton Pojorlie & Wayne Baker), UM 2005 (Michael Cook & Brian Hise), KU 2004 (driven by Neil Schreiber from UMR), UTA 2005 (Erick Kohler & Dr. Bob Woods), AU 2005 (Clay Coleman & Robert Wilmot).

The first day on the North Course was plagued all day with rain and thundershowers. The track started to break up and they had to take out some of the more interesting parts of the course by the time we ran. We were just about as lucky as one could get in that we drove when the track was almost dry, but it was still damp and cold. At the end of the day, Erick Kohler in the F05 UTA car had a commanding lead with UTA’s Dr. Bob in second place 2 seconds back and UMR’s Mike Murray and KU’s Nick Roberts within 0.4 seconds of Dr. Bob. A cone kept Mike Murray from being in second place.

The second day we ran the South Course on a clear and sunny day! We got to show what the cars could really do. Erick Kohler again set the pace with a lead that nobody could catch. His aero car recorded a sequence of 1.7, 1.8, 1.8, and then 2.0 g’s in the “super slalom” or offset gates on the north side of the course. Dr. Bob recorded 1.8 continuous g’s on the U-turn in the middle of the track. At the end of the day, Erick Kohler was ahead by 1.4 seconds over Mike Murray. Mike made up enough time to take second place from Dr. Bob, but Nick Roberts stumbled giving the fourth place to Auburn’s Clay Coleman. Five trophies were awarded: 1. Erick Kohler (UTA), 2. Mike Murray (UMR), 3. Dr. Bob Woods (UTA), 4. Clay Coleman (AU), and 5. Mike Schaefer (UMR).

This was the second year for the “Dr. Bob Woods Cup” awarded to the fastest student in FSAE. Erick Kohler won the cup for the second year in a row. SCCA made this award very special by placing it first on the awards program and giving a long speech about the background of it. It was the only recognition awarded other than placements in each class at the event and it was the largest trophy.

Other than the rain, this was a great experience. Some of the usual participants were absent this year and we hope that they and several others will join us next year. See our website for track maps, g data, and in-car videos of the event. http://fsae.uta.edu.