Fontana, California

Welcome to Fontana, California. Home of the FSAE West

Below is the paddock where the team spent the week wrenching on the car every spare second

Here are some pictures of the finished productBYU's unique mono-shock system. It was a crowd-pleaser! Notice how clean this car is!

Hard to see, but there is a turbo tucked in there. One of only 3 cars that had turbo's. Cockpit The grand stands of the raceway This picture below is where the car is on display at the Engineering design review. BYU placed 6th! Tech inspection. This is where they check to see that every rule has been followed

Ryan's team arrived on Monday. He and I had cheated however because I was not going to be able to be without him for 8 days. Ry flew in on Wednesday morning instead which is when the registration began. When he got there he went immediately to work fixing broken parts that had been broken the two previous days. They made it through tech inspection with a few minor adjustments.

Thursday was all of the static events which includes cost presentations, business presentations and design presentations. Then for those who made it to semi finals like they did, design presentation semi finals!

Friday was the beginning of the dynamic events. This includes the skid-pad, acceleration run and auto cross race. Your results in the auto cross places where you will race in the final "endurance" race.

This was a hectic day! They discovered problems that day and had to race to fix them and get the car to the events on time. In the end they completed all of the events with competitive times.

Saturday included much more wrenching and prep for the endurance race. They pretty much lived in the paddock I showed above. This is the day for the endurance race and the awards ceremony followed.

BYU didn't finish the endurance race. This wasn't what they wanted as this race was 40% of the score. They got in, raced through half of the race passing other cars and doing awesome. Half way through the race you are forced to pitt-which means they stop your car for a tech inspection. They want to make sure you aren't missing any parts or leaking any fluids.

When they went back to complete the race after the tech inspection the car was out of juice...she wouldn't fire. This was the ultimate heart breaker! This was the end and they all knew it.

This meant they placed in the mid 20s when with their scores in the other events, if they would have just finished they would have been in the top 10 for FSAE West.

These movies below are of the Dyno run, which is where they are able to determine actual horsepower to the rear wheels. The second movie is part of the endurance race. You get to see Matt, the driver pass another car. The track is so small that to do this they have to wave the slower car over so that the faster car can go by.

I know that it hurt Ryan to finish the way that they did after all of the hard work and dedication that was put into this car. They didn't really get a chance to shine. He came home with a really positive attitude though and told me that it was about the whole experience and although it hurt to finish the way that they did he said it was about the journey, which he has loved. Leave it to Ryan and to his BYU team to see the positive in all of this. In the end for me, I am really proud of him.

Good Job Ryan, we are all proud of you!!