Over this past weekend, Clarkson University’s Baja SAE team had the opportunity to travel to Laval University, located in Quebec City – Canada, to compete in the Épreuve du Nord. The ‘Épreuve du Nord’, which, in French, means the ‘Northern Trial’ or as CU Baja members call it ‘Winter Competition’, is a two-day competition in which teams who participate put their custom off-road cars, or bajas’ as they call them, to the test.
This year, a total of 35 bajas (two of which were Clarkson’s) took part in two days of hard competition. The cars competed in four different events throughout the weekend, including an icy maneuverability course, an acceleration event, a very challenging suspension course, and a cold two-hour endurance race. This is all to prove which college can build the best Baja car.
On the first day of completion, Clarkson Baja did great in both the maneuverability course and acceleration event, taking 2nd and 3rd place out of all teams in maneuverability and placing very well in acceleration. Additionally, the number 8 car continued in the success finishing the suspension course in a great time. However, due to tough conditions and technical issues, the older number 34 car could not finish the suspension course, which would result in a bad starting position for the endurance race.
The following day, the endurance course was set and Clarkson only had one hope to finish in a top place due to the number 34 car performance, the number 8 car. When the race began the number 8 car, driven by senior Zachary Dusky, started the endurance race in 4th and quickly rose to 1st place and even set the fastest lap time of the day early on. Zachary, incredibly, continued to hold 1st up until the time the team had to come into the pits for their first and only fuel up and driver change. By this point, Zachary was ahead of the pack by over a full lap. During the pit stop, Zachary was replaced in the number 8 car by senior Christian Kackley. After leaving the pits, Christian held the lead until about 20 minutes were remaining in the race. With 20 minutes remaining, another team crashed in the number 8 car causing it to brake a bolt in the suspension, stopping the car from continuing to race. At this point, Clarkson began to believe they were out the race until Senior Ryan Eustace and Sophomore Nick Dorrance arrived with exactly what the number 8 car needed. The team quickly replaced the bolt that had broken and got the car back on the track, however at this point Christian had already fallen several positions in the race. After getting back onto the track and driving for another grueling 15 minutes, Christian was able to finish the endurance race in third, helping his team finish 2nd overall in the competition.
Sound Interesting to you? Clarkson University Baja is always looking for more members! Stop down to CAMP 101 any Friday night or Saturday afternoon (when we’re not away at a race) to see what they’re up to and give a helping hand.
