We are planning to have our third annual "Texas Autocross Weekend" this summer during the weekend of 23 – 25 July 2004. The original intent was to get the local teams from Texas and Oklahoma together, but it seems to have grown to much wider boundaries to include Kansas, Ohio, New Mexico, and Canada. The intent is to get teams and cars together for a practice session on Saturday and then attend a local SCCA autocross on Sunday.

Here is the schedule:

Friday afternoon: - Open house and open shop at UTA. Tour of our facility and see twenty years of FSAE car evolution, car repair, tire changing, shop talk, etc.

Friday evening: - Social at my house (space permitting). Magazines, photos, FSAE videos, games and puzzles.

Saturday: - We will setup some racetracks on our large asphalt parking lot. We will setup the 1998 FSAE endurance course, and a more open longer course. We will have SCCA timing and can record every run for your records.

Saturday evening: - Eat together at a cafeteria. Early to bed.

Sunday: - Attend the Texas Region's SCCA regional autocross. It is located about 30 minutes from campus and has a relatively small concrete parking lot. They will allow 3 or possibly 4 drivers per car instead of the normal limit of 2.

Accommodations: - There is a motel directly across the street from our UTA track. They have reasonable rates. We can park trailers on our parking lot (track) overnight.

Our shop will be available Saturday for repairs or do-it-yourself tire changes.

We will need to know if you plan to attend. Please contact me directly for further communications.

Dr. Bob Woods
Faculty Advisor, UTA
woods@mae.uta.edu

I imagine a few of our guys from A&M will be there, most likely Jeff and Vincent. Our car was designed with traction control, but didn't test it out enough for competition, so we might be using it there.

Looks like Cincinnati will be there. Looking forward to it!

B.J. Stoney

Wouldn't miss it.

If free plane tickets from Wisconsin are provided, or the funds to ship our car out there count me in

Just thought I would add my own two cents here.

This event finally gives us the opportunity to do what these cars were intended to do. And frankly, I am disappointed that nobody really got to see our car driven to its limits in Detroit. Driving the autocross in the wet was exactly a testament to the car, but that's how things worked out for us. Our first enduro driver did what he was instructed to do, he was just below the limits of the car.

If shipping the car is a problem, maybe we can help out a bit by offering some free rooms in team member's apartments. Anything we can do to help out and get more people here is possible. Anyone who has come to the past events should post something about your experience here. Its great meeting new people, and having those people show up in Detroit touting their new cars. It really gives you something to look forward to.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I know everyone on our team here gets a lot out of the experience as well.

Hope to see you all (y'all) here!

Erick,
I don't remember the guy's name..but Cinti, OSU, and Akron guys all went back to his place last summer and had a good 'ole time one of the nights during the weekend. I think it must have been Saturday night. Let me know if it was you, or who it might have been. I think he drove a Mustang if I remember correctly....

Sorry for the vagueness, but you just struck my memory. We'll have to get together again in July when we are there. Lata~!
B.J.

B.J.

I think that was another guy, Dustin, that had a mustang. I too drive one, but I don't think it was me. I know we had a good time at Gilligan's one night before U of NM left. Well, we can always hang out again this year. I want to see that trailer packed with six cars or however many it was. That was a modern engineering marvel in itself!

Erick,
You haven't seen anything yet....

Hopefully 9 (yes 9) Ohio cars....3 from each of us....so long as we can get Akron and OSU on the ball...but it looks like we'll have 3 from Cinti.

Looking forward to making it back down...
B.J.

B.J.

9 cars from Ohio alone..... wow. We might want to start looking at a cap. Just kidding. The more the merrier I say! You guys should consider trying to make it to Nationals in Topeka. That is another great experience in itself! And if you want to go, you should check your local region SCCA for Divisionals. Enter now, or pay the late fee!

Erick...
Yea we are going to try to make it out to Topeka this year. Only having a couple of guys around makes it hard to keep the cars in competition shape plus making sure it all gets ready. On top of this, our curriculum has us taking classes during the summer time as well...(5 yr school w/ mandatory co-op).

And yes, 9 cars from the Buckeye state. Gonna be a great time getting down there I'm sure. Still haven't confirmed with OSU, but Akron definitely has 3 in. So there is 6 right now...

We'll see what kind of pack job we can do this summer.... (and keep in mind, we managed to pack 6 into OSU's triple axle last year at ~2:00 AM!)

B.J.

Erick,
I can confirm Akron's interest in coming to UTA this summer.....we're looking forward to the trip! We should be able to bring 3 cars without any problem. Our fastest drivers graduated this year, so we'll be looking to get a lot of seat time this summer. Topeka is also a good possibility. See you in July!

B.J.,

Yeah, I definitely want to see the cars in the trailer before any unpacking starts!

Jason,

Seat time is what it's all about!

Okay, Dr. Woods and myself were joking just last night that we may have to rename this thing to Ohio's Texas Autocross Weekend.

See you guys there!

I'd like to see Ohio added to the shirt (maybe all the schools that come each year...)

Just my .02....
It's just a hella a good opportunity to drive in some good weather. And can't compare the tire temperatures to Ohio whatsoever...gotta love it!
B.J.

The kids from University of Oklahoma will bring one maybe even two cars this year.. I think this year we might add wheel tethers just for everyone’s safety...

I am trying to remember back from last year...which schools lost wheels? I can't remember except for one that missed OSU's trailer by only a yard or so and then shot like 12 feet in the air when it hit the curb and shot over the little creek area behind our trailer...

All I can say is it was quite a sight.

Good luck to everyone coming down to Arlington and I am sure it will be one heck of a good time, as always.

B.J.

yeah that was us. Texas also lost a wheel.

Ok..I thought it was Texas...but didn't want to make any false accusations

Man..I couldn't imagine the size of the hole in the back end of the trailer if that wheel and tire (and partial hub) would have hit the side...man.

Those wheels were moving. Did you ever figure out why that happened?

yeah the hub just ripped in two. it was one of those parts designed to be pretty and light weight. like someone told us this year " Our car is more like jewlery than a race car." I just can't wait for this event. I'm pretty sure that the team enjoys it more than detroit. I think it will give us a chance to prove ourselves, something we didn't get to do in may.

Fair enough...yea you can't beat the weather and also just the relaxed environment of having fun just driving and testing.

See ya in TX...