Once again this year, SCCA is playing a large part in the organization of the Formula SAE Lincoln event. Sports Car Club of America members have helped to design the test courses, oversee safety, judge designs, and generally host the event at the same site as the Tire Rack Solo Nationals.

Going on now, this week-long event is a competition of speed, reliability and engineering, forcing students to push limits of what they’ve created. The teams work year-round to design and build purpose-built racecars with the weekend autocrosser in mind.

According to the Formula SAE website, “The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules whose purpose is both to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving.”

The cars are put through stringent technical inspections before competing in acceleration, skid pad, autocross, and endurance events. Cars are also scored on cost, presentation, design, and economy. Through this weekend, 90 teams are competing (17 electric and 73 internal combustion) at Lincoln. Whether cheering for your alma mater or checking out the future of racing, this is a cool event to keep an eye on.

All of the participants in the weekend receive an SCCA membership, so the event also serves to introduce college-aged members to the Club!

Timing of the driving events can be viewed here.

Learn more about Formula SAE here.

Photo by: Jayhawk Motorsports Facebook