News Story

When the dust settled - actually, when the mud was washed off - the overall winner of the Baja SAE Kansas 2011 was Universite Laval from Quebec City, Canada. Second place went to Tennessee Tech University and third to the University of Maryland - Baltimore County. Pittsburg State finished 12th out of the 90 that participated.

Sam Barill, who represented the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) at the event, called PSU's first hosting of an SAE Baja competition "a total success." Barill singled out the "enormous support from the local community," the hundreds of volunteers and the tireless efforts of faculty organizers Trent Lindbloom and Bob Schroer.

Barill said PSU's endurance course will be remembered by the teams for the way it challenged the vehicles.

"The Pittsburg State organizers had created a very arduous endurance course that included placing parking blocks in deep water pits, railroad ties in other pits, logs around the course, tight turns and of course the mud!" Barill wrote. "Of the nearly 87 teams that started the endurance part of the competition on Sunday, less than 40 were still running after the four-hour event."

California State University-Pomona won the endurance event.

The awards, by category were:

Acceleration Award

1st Place 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI, Brazil

2nd Place 12 Escola Politecnica Univ Sao Paulo, Brazil

3rd Place 13 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil

Sled Pull Event Award

1st Place 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI, Brazil

2nd Place 20 Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas

3rd Place 82 Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Venezuela

Suspension & Traction Award

1st Place 1 Universite Laval, Quebec City, Canada

2nd Place 3 Ecole De Technologie Superieure, Montreal, Canada

3rd Place 78 University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Maneuverability Award

1st Place 87 University of Calif - Los Angeles

2nd Place 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI, Brazil

3rd Place 93 California State Poly University-Pomona

Polaris Overall Design Award

1st Place 40 Tennessee Tech University

2nd Place 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI

3rd Place 3 Ecole De Technologie Superieure, Montreal, Canada

Honda Manufacturing of Alabama Overall Cost Award 

1st Place 46 Universidad La Salle, Mexico

2nd Place 80 Universidad De La Salle Bajio, Mexico

3rd Place 6 Univ of Maryland - Baltimore County

Honda Dynamic Events Award

1st Place 1 Universite Laval, Quebec City, Canada

2nd Place 93 California State Poly University-Pomona

3rd Place 78 University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Honda R&D Americas Endurance Award

1st Place 93 California State Poly University-Pomona

2nd Place 1 Universite Laval, Quebec City, Canada

3rd Place 97 Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Mich.

Briggs & Stratton Overall Performance Award  (1-10)

1st Place 1 Universite Laval

2nd Place 40 Tennessee Tech University

3rd Place 6 University of Maryland - Baltimore County

4th Place 93 California State Poly University-Pomona

5th Place 3 Ecole De Technologie Superieure

6th Place 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI

7th Place 17 Ohio Northern University

8th Place 28 University of Wisconsin - Madison

9th Place 35 Rochester Institute of Technology

10th Place 5 Cornell University

Complete list of scores