Weather: Sunny morning, cloudy afternoon
The team arrived at Michigan International Speedway at 7:00 am to start the most important day of the competition.
Today, 550 competition points will be decided: the endurance (300 points), fuel economy (100 points) and the design event scoring (150 points). Here's the situation as it was in the morning. We are 8th overall, 98 points down from 1st place. The team in 10th position is only 17 points behind us. To finish in the top 10 and ensure our trip to the German competition, we need to reinforce our position. Our 15th place in autocross meant we were 36th in line of the afternoon running group for the endurance event.
All morning long, the team finalized the car's preparation for the endurance event. If the F2012 completes the endurance run, it will be the first sub-300 pound car in Formula SAE history to complete the endurance event! At noon, the top 3 design finalists were announced: Universität Stuttgart, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Oregon State University. We finished 4th in the finals, a result that disappointed a few team members. Nevertheless, the 125 points we got helped us increase the gap between us and 10th place.
At 2:30 pm, the team went to the fuel station to get the car filled up before the endurance. At 4:00 pm, the ETS racecar launched from the starting line! From the 3rd lap, the car's potential truly showed for all to see: the F2012 was lapping 3 seconds faster than its autocross time and 2 seconds faster than everyone on the track! By lap 10, the car went in the pits for the mandatory driver change. In merely 2 minutes, the car was back on the track. After 10 other laps the car received the checkered flag. That's how ETS made FSAE history by being the lightest car to ever finish the endurance!
The team then brought the car to the fuel station to get its fuel consumption measured: 2.6 liters, which is good for 9th place. At 8:00 pm, the team attended the awards ceremony. The team was awarded the FEV Powertrain Award for innovation in powertrain design. The team also received a trophy for finishing 8th overall!
After a big party evening, the team is now on its way back to Montreal. There is a lot of work to do in preparation for Formula North (May 26-29) and to improve the F2012's speed. We will also be taking part in the first round of the CADL autocross championship at Sanair on May 19-20.