Colorado State University’s Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team, Ram Racing, has worked tirelessly to design and manufacture a car to take to the FSAE International competition in Michigan. The Formula SAE competition challenges teams of university undergraduate and graduate students to conceive, design, fabricate and develop a formula-style race car for competition.

The competition requires performance demonstration of vehicles in a series of events against the clock, both off track and on track. The competition consists of seven main events. The presentation event evaluates the team’s ability to develop and deliver a comprehensive business, logistical, production or technical case that will convince outside interests to invest in the team’s concept. The cost and manufacturing event evaluates the ability of the team to consider budget and incorporate production considerations for production and efficiency.

The design event evaluates the engineering effort that went into the vehicle and how the engineering meets the intent of the market both in terms of vehicle performance and overall value. The acceleration event evaluates the vehicle’s acceleration in a straight line on flat pavement.

The skidpad event measures the vehicle’s cornering ability on a flat surface while making a constant radius turn. The autocross event evaluates the vehicle’s maneuverability and handling qualities on a tight course.

The endurance event evaluates the overall performance of the vehicle and tests the durability and reliability. In addition to the seven events, each vehicle goes through a technical inspection. The purpose of the inspection is to determine if the vehicle follows the Formula SAE rules, requirements and restrictions. The 2023 FSAE competition will take place May 17-20 at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Other than a few notable years of previous Ram Racing teams, CSU’s Ram Racing was in a dry spell for the last few years. This dry spell was ended by the 2023 Ram Racing team through the leadership of President Oscar Wenham.

Wenham was supported by other key student leaders on the leadership team, including Technical Director and Suspension Lead Brennan Burris, Project Manager Hunter Flowers, Chassis Lead Corbin Baird, Powertrain Lead Evan Roberts and Electrical Lead Aidan Farley.

Though CSU faculty has not had much involvement this season, associate mechanical engineering professor Chris Weinberger was a critical factor as the faculty adviser for Ram Racing this season.

“It’s exciting being a part of this team and working on the race car late at night with all your friends.” –Oscar Wenham, Ram Racing president

One of the changes that allowed for the high success was the freedom given to students. Previous years’ students’ imaginations were limited by faculty ideas and specifications for the car.

In the 2022 season, a graduate student advised the team to follow a niche competitive direction that would result in a really fast car, but the team lacked the structure to execute the plan.

“The reason the team failed last year was because a lot of times, they were halted by their funding,” Wenham said. “But also, they did not have the leadership structure that we implemented or the team. Another thing that has changed is just the involvement of CSU faculty. Exclusively making the team student run has given us a lot more freedom to explore and do things our own way that before we didn’t have as much freedom in. Less faculty involvement allowed for more student freedom.”

Minimal knowledge transfer and structure implementation carried over from last year. Many engineers had to start from scratch.

“The biggest thing we’ve pulled from previous teams is the alumni network — reaching out to previous leaders and members of the team to help inspire our current team and provide advice on how we should better run,” Wenham said.

Throughout the year, Ram Racing has hosted a speaker series consisting of employees from sponsors, alumni in the racing industry and other industry professionals to inspire current students. Notable alumni such as Arrow McLaren IndyCar engineer Chris Lawrence, race engineer Cody Ragone and Ford Performance advanced vehicle architecture engineer Erik Christensen spoke throughout the year.

Ram Racing has proven to have the leadership and infrastructure to create a car ready by the time of competition and is hopeful to consistently produce a car every year. The team also wants to develop an electric vehicle and bring in more electrical engineers to support that vision.

Although FSAE has historically attracted more mechanical engineers than any other sector of engineers, FSAE is open to all students.

“We’re inclusive,” Wenham said. “We are not exclusively a mechanical- or even engineering-exclusive club. We’re looking for students from everywhere, as long as they’re passionate and excited about what we do. You know, they will have a place on this team.”

Wenham will continue to lead Ram Racing next year and has learned from this last year serving as president.

“I was elected president again in February, and I’m very excited about it,” Wenham said. “I think the opportunity to inspire people has been really fulfilling. It’s awesome to see how passionate students are on this team and how they’re growing and finding opportunities because of this team.

“I can think of several students that have jobs working for either racing sponsorships that I was able to lock down, or students that were able to secure jobs because of the experience that they’ve encountered at Ram Racing. Yeah, so I think that has been my favorite part is seeing the opportunities that it’s created and being able to see how it changes students’ opportunities.”

However, these success stories do not come without their hardships. Wenham along with the rest of the leadership team has experienced a high amount of challenges in leadership.

“The biggest challenge I’ve faced is the logistics of leadership,” Wenham said. “There’s difficulty as far as navigating the sort of curriculum of senior design, as well as figuring out how to fund this team and how to communicate with the senior design students in order for them to do what we want them to do which is much more than instead of what senior design expects them to do. The biggest thing is understanding how people operate at their core, so I can try to put them in places that they are passionate about in order for them to invest the most of their effort and energy into specific projects.”

The leadership team managed 19 seniors and approximately 12 underclassmen this year. With 31 students to overlook, the leadership ran into challenges with project management, student retention, accounting and communication.

“Project management was managing all of the tasks and communicating with the companies that are supporting our efforts,” Wenham said. “For example, Woodward is helping us with some machining, so working with them to give them the proper tolerances, drawings and information they need in order to complete on time and how we want, so that’s going to be a bit challenging.”

In terms of student retention, Ram Racing has found many students are excited about the project but can’t find ways to make a difference to the project. The team had to start their accounting from scratch. They had to seek out various sponsorship opportunities and had to learn how to manage the money they had for an expensive long term project.

“Communicating was also important to create a strong positive culture that allows us to succeed because if we’re just trying to rip each other’s throats out all the time, nobody will want to be a part of this program,” Wenham said.

Members of Ram Racing are required to manage their time wisely to allow them to have enough time to pursue their degree as well as work on the car. As most students are mechanical engineers, the classes they are required to take fit well with FSAE.

“When I’m sitting in dynamics, statics or physics, I think about what I’m learning about how a car behaves on a track,” Wenham said. “You can see it in the equations that we’re working with, or the principles that are introduced in these different classes. It makes classes much easier, and it makes it feel worthwhile. Not only does it satisfy your soul, but it’s exciting being a part of this team and working on the race car late at night with all your friends.

“Balancing FSAE with pursuing an engineering degree doesn’t make any sense because FSAE is engineering. But taking a thousand classes is just time management. And I think being busy is a mindset. I think there (are) a lot of ways that people can change their lives and their habits that would allow them to do more with their days. And just really taking that seriously. It’s critical in order to be as committed to this as I need to be, as I feel like I need to be perfect.”

Ram Racing’s 2023 competition car will be unveiled 6-9 p.m. May 6 in the Lory Student Center Theatre. All are welcome and encouraged to view the unveiling of the car and wish the team good luck before Ram Racing heads to Michigan for the 2023 FSAE competition. The RSVP form for the unveiling is on the Ram Racing’s website.

Reach Reuel Indurkar at photo@collegian.com or on Twitter @csucollegian.