2008 Woodie Awards
Mini-baja team wins Korean competition
Doug Graham
Issue date: 7/26/07 Section: Front Page
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The PSU team blew past the competition to win first place overall at the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) Mini-Baja competition, held June 29-30 in Daeug, South Korea.
Pete Allen, Cody Emmert and Matthew Merz represented a larger PSU team waiting at home as they built and raced a mini-baja vehicle in Korea.
Mini-Baja vehicles are small four-wheeled vehicles that resemble oversized go-karts. The PSU car was capable of reaching a speed of around 50 miles per hour.
"A lot of other schools there were happy that we won because the team that always won didn't win," said Allen, sophomore in automotive engineering, referring to the host school, Yeungnam National University.
Allen says that this year marks the first time in four years that Yeungnam has been bested at its own competition. Last year the PSU team came in second overall.
The team traveled to Korea on May 29 and spent four weeks at PSU's sister school, Gyeongsang National University, in Jinju. They used the time to make major modifications to last year's vehicle, as SAE Mini-Baja rules state that the same car may be used only if changed significantly.
Allen says that the car almost didn't get put together in time.
"A lot of stuff is from the U.S. that we had shipped over," Allen said. "The day before the race, we didn't have a lot of the stuff we needed. We got it the day we got in (to the competition)."
The PSU mini-baja vehicle took first in the 31/2 hour endurance race and the maneuverability test held the day before. With all of the other scores from events like the rock crawl, acceleration test and chain pull, the team pulled ahead overall.
Allen says one thing sticks out in his mind from his time in the endurance race: mud.
"I had to come in once because I couldn't see," Allen said. "I had to get a new pair of goggles and a bottle of water to wash mud off."
Aside from their racing performance, Allen says the mini-baja vehicle itself attracted attention from the locals.
Pete Allen, Cody Emmert and Matthew Merz represented a larger PSU team waiting at home as they built and raced a mini-baja vehicle in Korea.
Mini-Baja vehicles are small four-wheeled vehicles that resemble oversized go-karts. The PSU car was capable of reaching a speed of around 50 miles per hour.
"A lot of other schools there were happy that we won because the team that always won didn't win," said Allen, sophomore in automotive engineering, referring to the host school, Yeungnam National University.
Allen says that this year marks the first time in four years that Yeungnam has been bested at its own competition. Last year the PSU team came in second overall.
The team traveled to Korea on May 29 and spent four weeks at PSU's sister school, Gyeongsang National University, in Jinju. They used the time to make major modifications to last year's vehicle, as SAE Mini-Baja rules state that the same car may be used only if changed significantly.
Allen says that the car almost didn't get put together in time.
"A lot of stuff is from the U.S. that we had shipped over," Allen said. "The day before the race, we didn't have a lot of the stuff we needed. We got it the day we got in (to the competition)."
The PSU mini-baja vehicle took first in the 31/2 hour endurance race and the maneuverability test held the day before. With all of the other scores from events like the rock crawl, acceleration test and chain pull, the team pulled ahead overall.
Allen says one thing sticks out in his mind from his time in the endurance race: mud.
"I had to come in once because I couldn't see," Allen said. "I had to get a new pair of goggles and a bottle of water to wash mud off."
Aside from their racing performance, Allen says the mini-baja vehicle itself attracted attention from the locals.
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