Whenever someone connects the University of Oklahoma with the No. 1 ranking, they typically associate it with the football team. But another OU team, housed in Felgar Hall room 147, is hoping to clench the No. 1 ranking this season.
The OU racing team, which consists of engineering students that build, maintain and race a team car in Formula Society of Automotive Engineers, is expected to be named the top racing team in the nation after the previous No. 1 team, the Rochester Institute of Technology, placed poorly late last season.
Dave Collins, OU racing team captain and engineering senior, said he knew the team was good when he joined, but did not think it would be the best in the nation during his tenure.
“I didn’t know that we would wind up getting considered to be the best team in the U.S.,” Collins said. “That seems pretty daunting with a lot of the teams we are running around.”
Collins said the RIT racing team did not finish in its last competition at Formula Student Germany UK, and that should put OU into the top spot. According to the competition’s Web site, RIT finished No. 28 out of 78 teams, and was 446.5 points behind the winner.
“The endurance race is a 22 kilometer event, and if you don’t finish you don’t get any points for it,” Collins said. “So, you lose out on 400 points in the event. If you miss 40 points on an exam or a competition, it’s going to hurt you pretty bad. So if you don’t finish the endurance run, it’s going to kill your score for the event.”
Engineering junior Nic Evans said RIT’s results should propel OU into either fifth or sixth in the international poll. The team is currently ranked eighth in the world with 715.447 points.
Evans said the latest poll has not been released yet, but he should expect it to come out when the European season ends, which Evans said will be this week.
Collins said the team uses the poll as a motivational tool to improve.
“[We are] trying to use it as motivation and drive to kind of pick up and do everything right,” Collins said. “Trying to use it as motivation to stay a little late on Friday nights or make sure we get something done.”
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cheveldi 2 years, 8 months ago
I didn't know we had a racing team let alone Formula One. How do you get more info on it?