Baja building and battling aren’t for the weak-willed. It takes serious dedication – and a willingness to give up multiple Saturday nights – to do what Union’s Baja Team did this year.
In a field of 98 teams, the College placed 15th in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Western Regional Baja Competition last month. This improves on a 17th place finish last year and a 21st place finish two years ago.
“Time-wise, Baja is a huge part of any team member’s college career,” said the team’s captain, Matt Beenen ’09. “In the weeks leading up to competition, particularly my sophomore year, we spent 40 to 60 hours a week in the machine shop.”
Baja isn’t part of a class, Beenen explained. “It’s built on free time. On a Friday or Saturday night when most other students are socializing, playing video games or sleeping, we’ll be in the shop.”
The yearly SAE competition asks schools from across the country to design and build a small single seat off-road vehicle and compete for awards in a variety of categories. The Union team consists of some 15 mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biology and other students.
Joining Beenen at Oregon State University for the recent contest were seniors Jon Wilson and Ned Lincoln; juniors Joe Polcari, Forrest Clifton, Ryan Skeuse, Aaron Levine and Collin Doyle; sophomores Nick Oren, Emmet O’Connell and Elias Samia; and freshman Michael Holm.
“Our performance improved this year because we were working on our third iteration of a vehicle that had already raced in two previous contests,” Beenen said. “We were able to strengthen its weaknesses and make sure it wouldn’t break down.”
“Having Professor Brad Bruno as our adviser also helped tremendously over the past two years,” said Wilson. “This year, he and John Skumurski (director of budgeting) made it possible for us to get the right insurance and actually test the car before competition.”
Wilson and Beenen also credit their sponsors with making their success possible.
Robert Wilson, Jon’s father, of Pheasant Hill Society, and Jim Taylor '66 of Taylor Made “have enabled the team to overcome many of the financial struggles we’ve faced,” Beenen said. “We can now compete confidently, knowing it’s our engineering ability and not our funding that sets us apart from the competition.”
“The 15th place finish is really quite strong, especially given the small size of our program in comparison with other schools,” said Bruno, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
“Our students compete through brains, hard work and dedication. Union really fights above its weight class.”
For more information on Union’s Baja Team, visit http://www.vu.union.edu/~baja/