Formula North 2017

Formula North 2017 represented many firsts for Carnegie Mellon Racing. This year's competition was our first time passing electrical and mechanical technical inspections in an electric car, our first complete aerodynamics package, and our first running, reliable, practiced electric race car.
The team traveled to Barrie, Ontario from all over the US on Wednesday. The next day, the team worked through small adjustments and changes to pass inspections over the next couple days, passing electrical technical inspection by the end of the day. On Friday, the game gave its presentations for each of the Static Events and completed most of mechanical inspection. On Saturday, we finished the mechanical inspection, and the team was into completely new territory as we competed in our first Electric Dynamic events.
With the car ready to drive, we got in line for the Autocross event with Aidan Honnold (MechE, 2020) driving first. Unfortunately, a spin out and a motor controller bug resulted in a DNF for his first two heats. Our second driver, Griffin Della Grotte, (ECE, 2020) finished with a solid 1:06 time. The next morning, Sunday, we prepared for the Endurance event. In that event, Griffin completed 5 full laps of the course before the rear wing experienced a structural failure around a tight corner, resulting in an immediate black-flag and DNF for the event.
In our historic competition, we received 3rd place overall in the Formula Electric division. In Static Events, we scored 3rd in Design Presentation and Overall Cost and 4th in Business Presentation. As one of two EV teams to pass technical inspections, we came in 2nd place for all dynamic events, behind Penn Electric Racing.
Thank you to everyone who made our presence at this year's competition possible. We followed through with our goal to make CMR's greatest and most tested car this year. Everyone put in so much hard work to get where we are, and we've become a much more effective and enthusiastic team in the process.
A special thank you to our sponsors who make everything we do possible. Your donations and advice have allowed us to pull everything together into a working, racing electric vehicle.
We're on to 18e.