Iowa State’s Formula SAE Team raced all 14 laps around the twisty endurance course at the Lincoln (Nebraska) Airpark last week, piling up enough racing and fuel economy points for a solid return to the competition’s overall top 20.
Over the nearly 14-mile endurance race, the team’s car burned 3.616 liters of E-85 fuel, good enough for fourth place in fuel economy and 88.1 extra points. That helped move the team up to 16th of 67 scored teams.
“Last year our goal was to be in the top 20, but we didn’t make it,” said Derek Peters, the technical director of this year’s team and senior in mechanical engineering. “We made it a goal again this year and we were able to pull it off.”
The final ranking was Iowa State’s third-best in the competition for mini open-wheel racers, behind a seventh in 2006 and an eighth in 2007. With another year of tweaking, testing and tuning, Peters thinks the Iowa State Formula Team can return to the top 10.
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