By Nathan Inman
Earlier this year, Clemson Baja SAE partnered with the Clemson construction science and
management department to construct a brand-new test track with support from Blanchard CAT.
Within months, the track was fully designed and constructed, giving Baja a new way to test its
vehicle ahead of competition.
In prior years, Clemson Baja would travel to competitions with the durability of its builds not
completely tested. The new test track now gives the team the chance to diagnose and fix any
issues before making the trip to compete, an opportunity, the team says, that will prove
immensely helpful.
“We’re super excited to have it for this upcoming year, get the car done a couple weeks earlier
and be able to actually get out there, test stuff, break stuff and then resolve it,” chief engineer
Kevin Blakeney said. “You can only simulate so much — getting out there and putting the car
actually in a situation and getting that testing done. If something breaks, we can go in, figure out
what in our simulation was wrong and how to resolve that problem before competition.”
While the test track was completed ahead of Baja’s summer competition, their vehicle was not
race-ready, leaving the team unable to test it on the track before traveling to New York.
Blakeney said testing the build would have allowed them to catch certain issues that they did
not find until the competition began.
“Unfortunately, the car was not done in time to actually test on (the track) beforehand, but we
have gotten out there and tested a few times afterwards,” Blakeney explained. “It’s definitely
safe to say that, had we been able to get it out there earlier on the test track, we would have
found a couple of the issues that we had to resolve at competition when we found them.”
As Clemson Baja enjoys the test track and the advantages that come with it, Blakeney said that
other schools have shown interest in traveling to Clemson to run the track ahead of competition.
Earlier this month, ahead of Clemson football’s home opener against Georgia Southern, the
Georgia Southern Baja SAE team traveled to Clemson to run the course.
“Really, it was very helpful for both of our teams,” Blakeney said. “We got to see what each
other does, and how each of our different cars and our setups run on the track. It was also nice
because they got into the competition coming up in a couple weeks, and it was good for them to
be able to get out and rip on the car.”
Blakeney added that the Georgia Southern team found an issue with their vehicle after running
it on the track — an issue that likely would have gone undiagnosed if not for the test session.
Since that track day, Blakeney says that other schools have also reached out with interest in
testing on the track. As interest continues to rise, the possibility of an unofficial competition
weekend rises with it.
“We’ve definitely gotten some interest in some schools coming down moving forward,” Blakeney
said. “I think it’s a great thing to have them out there. With the construction science department
being willing to continue adding onto our track, we would love to get it a little bigger, a couple
more obstacles, and maybe even host a local, non-official competition where we bring in
schools from the Carolinas and Georgia, and maybe up in Virginia.”
With the school year now fully underway, Clemson Baja is hard at work on its new build for next
year’s competition. Time will only tell as to just how beneficial the team’s new test track will
prove to be.
