Oakland University’s Formula SAE team, also known as Grizzlies Racing, is a team that designs, builds and competes with a formula style, open-wheel race car, competing internationally in a collegiate design competition. While racing is the main end-goal, there are several aspects that take place before someone touches the wheel. Morgan North, the business director and vice president for Formula SAE, explains how big the main competition is each year.
“The main competition we build for is at Michigan International Speedway,” North said. “It’s hosted, usually at the start of May. Last year we had 115 teams come from all around the world. It’s mainly U.S. based teams, but we had Mexican teams, Brazilian teams and we usually host a Venezuelan team.”
With formula racing, the racing aspect is only one component of the competition, as it is broken down into two main segments: dynamic competition and static competition.
“Dynamic is going to be what you expect, like the car running and doing things a race car would do to see how fast it does certain things,” North said. “There’s a few different events that target specific elements of the car to test its ability to drive fast, as well as the endurance of the car with a 21-kilometer race around part of the MIS track.”
While the racing aspect is more notable, the dynamic competition only accounts for 60% of the competition, with the remaining coming from static competition.
“The remaining events come from static competition,” North said. “This includes mainly design presentations, in which we get our engineering designs scrutineered by industry professionals, and they award us points by how well we do it.”
Colin Trevino, a junior in the mechanical engineering major, has been a part of the team since 2022. Trevino explains that Formula SAE is active all throughout the year, even during the fall and winter seasons.
“During the fall, we basically come up with our constraints for engineering, because every single year we build a car and race it in May,” Trevino said. “So, during the summer, we’ll test and get our data to make good designs for the next year. During the fall, we’re in our design phase. That’ll go on until between December and February, depending on the group.”
While the team may look like it is for engineering students only, Formula SAE is proud to be open to all majors.
“Because we’re so wide ranging, pretty much any major has a place at the Formula SAE team to do something to help themselves while helping the team,” North said. “It doesn’t really matter who you are. If you have an interest and a skill that you want to develop, the purpose of this club is to prepare you to step into your industry that you’re interested in going to and develop the skills that you’re interested in developing.”
To see if you and your skills are a good fit for the team, and to learn more about Formula SAE, visit their website at grizzlies-racing.org or visit their GrizzOrgs page.
