Wet Weather Rules Announcement

[Dominic Venieri]

Copied from the official FSAE forums:

Wet Weather Competition
Fitting in all the events of a Formula SAE competition if the weather intervenes has been a topic of discussion by the Consortium and the Rules Committee for several years. We have had rain at the Silverdome over the last couple of years, and it has had a significant impact on the competition. That we were unable to have all the teams attempt the Endurance Event this past May, made some form of action critical.

Therefore, the FSAE Consortium and the Rules Committee have decided that provision must be made to allow us to run in the rain, or on a wet track, if required. This decision has not been an easy one. Defining how it might be accomplished in a safe manner is now the task.

To run in the rain or on a wet track, "rain tires" will be required. The exact definition of what will qualify as a "rain tire" is being finalized. This will be published within the next couple of weeks as "Supplementary Event Regulations", along with some of the procedures that will be required to implement this provision. The final details of some of these procedures, such as when and where teams will be allowed or required to change their tires, may take a little longer to finalize. However, all teams will be informed before the competition next May.

As this procedure does not effect the design of the cars, the Rules Committee believes that it is entirely appropriate that this measure be announced and introduced in this manner.

November 17th, 2002

Michael Royce,
Chairman,
FSAE Rules Committee

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[Dominic Venieri]

Copied from the official FSAE forums:

Wet Weather Competition
Fitting in all the events of a Formula SAE competition if the weather intervenes has been a topic of discussion by the Consortium and the Rules Committee for several years. We have had rain at the Silverdome over the last couple of years, and it has had a significant impact on the competition. That we were unable to have all the teams attempt the Endurance Event this past May, made some form of action critical.

Therefore, the FSAE Consortium and the Rules Committee have decided that provision must be made to allow us to run in the rain, or on a wet track, if required. This decision has not been an easy one. Defining how it might be accomplished in a safe manner is now the task.

To run in the rain or on a wet track, "rain tires" will be required. The exact definition of what will qualify as a "rain tire" is being finalized. This will be published within the next couple of weeks as "Supplementary Event Regulations", along with some of the procedures that will be required to implement this provision. The final details of some of these procedures, such as when and where teams will be allowed or required to change their tires, may take a little longer to finalize. However, all teams will be informed before the competition next May.

As this procedure does not effect the design of the cars, the Rules Committee believes that it is entirely appropriate that this measure be announced and introduced in this manner.

November 17th, 2002

Michael Royce,
Chairman,
FSAE Rules Committee

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[King Missile]

The biggest problem I see with running in the rain is the problem we had at Formula Student in 2000. RIT had the fastest Auto-X time and we had second, meaning we were the first 2 cars on the endurance track. It rained the morning of the endurace. Once the rain stopped attempts were made to dry the track but eventually we were sent out on a wet track, ON SLICKS. The track began drying and our times were beaten by slower cars that got to run on a dry track. Rain tires will no make up for the fact that the track is wet.

The way I see it there are 2 solutions:

1. Do a larger endurance course that can handle say a 20 car grid and everyone just races, no staggered start or anything. Complete that heat, then the next 20 race, an so on. This oviously is not the safest solution as many of the drivers haven't turned a race lap prior to Detroit.

2. SAE needs to conceed to the unpredictable weather in Michigan and do what each member of the consortium does and conduct your tests in a dry climate. The excuse that the competition is held in Michigan "because everyone is there" strikes me as a lame one at best. There are plenty of venues that can virtually guarantee dry weather for that time of year.

Just my $0.02

Brett

Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?!

[wingman]

Hi everyone,

I agree with Brett on the first count...

They should have a west coast competition one year hosted by the Japanese Auto makers. This would virtually guarantee dry weather for that time of the year, and there has been talk about coordinating the competition in So Cal among SAE members, alums, and SCCA competitors..... thoughts anyone??

Barring that, If rain is an issue again in Detroit, it would be fairly easy to define a normalized lap time, based on track conditions.

Take a reliable retired FSAE car that is still being run in auto-Xes or an FSAE "like" car and an unbiased (i.e. not a student) experienced driver. If bad weather is pending send this car/driver out on course for three laps every 24 laps or so (approximately every half hour). Take the second fastest run from the three laps each time and normalize these times against each other creating a track condition correction factor. This would be used to adjust each groups times, and thus points, based on track conditions.

The endurance event is about 4 hours so the "rain car" would run 24 laps over a 4 hour period.

Tires would be an issue, but if a rain tire standard was defined, it would be up to the "rain car" driver to pick tires for best performance for each set of laps.

There are a lot of worthy candidates out there for the "rain car" duty. Dr. Woods would be one off the top of my head.....but I'm' sure there are a number of local enthusiasts with the skills and a car for the job as well.

Cheers,

Wingman

[Michael Jones]

http://www.sae.org/students/fsae-rain.doc

Current status of the changes to rules. Looks like a free-for-all, with track status changes as weather dictates in dry, damp and wet conditions. Rain tires an absolute necessity, tire changing procedures yet to be determined, bunkers for the track marshalls, and a possible reduction of cars on the track in endurance.

[Michael Jones]

...the above link has been updated to the new rain rules. Check it out.

---
Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu