NY and Northeast Area AutoX

[Dominic Venieri]

I am wondering how many NY area schools would be interested in a regional SAE car autocross. I had proposed this idea to some schools last year with some positive feedback, but never got around to organizing anything.

The event could be run with help from a local SCCA region, especially with timing/scoring equipment, and finding a good site. The other would be to do it all ourselves at one of our schools.

How many of you guys out there would be interested in something like this? We're in Troy, NY (15 min north of Albany). The closest schools to us are:
NY: Columbia, City College of NY, Cornell, RIT, Clarkson, Syracuse, SUNY Buffalo, and us at RPI
NJ: Rutgers
Mass: WPI, MIT
CT: U of Hartford
RI: Brown
and our neighbors to the North

That's 12-15 schools potentially, within a 4 or 5 hour drive. With the geographic spread, Albany seems to be a pretty centralized location.

If I could get some feedback as to who would be interested in coming and when, maybe we can start working on organizing something.

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

[Dominic Venieri]

I am wondering how many NY area schools would be interested in a regional SAE car autocross. I had proposed this idea to some schools last year with some positive feedback, but never got around to organizing anything.

The event could be run with help from a local SCCA region, especially with timing/scoring equipment, and finding a good site. The other would be to do it all ourselves at one of our schools.

How many of you guys out there would be interested in something like this? We're in Troy, NY (15 min north of Albany). The closest schools to us are:
NY: Columbia, City College of NY, Cornell, RIT, Clarkson, Syracuse, SUNY Buffalo, and us at RPI
NJ: Rutgers
Mass: WPI, MIT
CT: U of Hartford
RI: Brown
and our neighbors to the North

That's 12-15 schools potentially, within a 4 or 5 hour drive. With the geographic spread, Albany seems to be a pretty centralized location.

If I could get some feedback as to who would be interested in coming and when, maybe we can start working on organizing something.

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

[Dominic Venieri]

bump

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

[Michael Jones]

Would be a good idea esp. if it can be arranged at a space with competition-quality and size training grounds. That would be worth the drive. Toronto ran a good event back in October, worth check with them to see how they did it. We've gone down to Penn State in the past as well, and that's been helpful.

Takes some planning and coordination to get everyone on board, and plenty of advance notice to get people to prepare for it properly, but sounds like a great endeavor.

[vinHonda]

You can check out the event we organized at Toronto back in October. It was really a lot of fun. We'd definitely come down!
http://fsae.utoronto.ca/2002/100802.html is a link to the news article on what we called the "UofT 1st Annual FSAE Shootout"

Keep in touch. We'd definitely participate!

University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing Team
www.fsae.utoronto.ca (http://www.fsae.utoronto.ca)

[Wizard]

What kind of time frame are you looking at?

It might not be a bad idea to get your local SCCA to help. They got the equipment and the insurance.

[Dominic Venieri]

Thanks for the feedback guys. As for an event date, that is something I'm still open to. Before the competition is out. Right afterwards might not be a bad idea, since most of our teams will probably still be around. Or sometime later in the summer perhaps.

As for an event site, we've got several in mind. One that comes to mind immediately is the Griffiss AFB, which is out in Rome, NY. Its a concrete venue, which offers amazing grip, and is pretty big and open. We'd need the SCCA's help with getting that site.

So if you guys could bounce the idea off your teammates and see who's interested, let me know. The more interest I get, the more effort I'll put into setting it up.

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

[Wizard]

Will any team be hosting or co-hosting an event on the east coast before comp?

"It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain..."

[Dominic Venieri]

In addition to the site at Griffiss AFB, I've also thought about RIT. The SCCA region out there (Central NY?) has events on the RIT campus. Not only would it be a good place to run, but it would also bring another school in.

Any guys from RIT on the boards here, please reply?

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

[Pat]

I think it is a really good idea because we never get the chance to race against fsae except in Detroit.
We would be really interested to participate and I am sure other school from Quebec(+-9 teams) would like to be there.

Patrick
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
www.fsae.polymtl.ca (http://www.fsae.polymtl.ca)

[Dominic Venieri]

OK guys, so far I've gotten strong interest from the following teams:

RPI (thats me)
Cornell
Toronto
Dartmouth
Clarkson
Columbia
Montreal Poly

Any other Canadian teams who would be interested, please email me, venied@rpi.edu.

Our local SCCA region is willing to help us organize it. I am going to be working on getting the GE Power Systems facility in Schenectady as a site. I've also been in touch with the RIT team, but have not heard back. I will be in touch with the Finger Lakes Region SCCA, who has events on the RIT campus, to see what they think as well.

If any of you guys have alumni who work at GE here in Schenectady, maybe you could pass along some contact info and see where we can get this.

I'll keep you all posted as things develop.

Dominic

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

[vinHonda]

The following are contacts for the teams that particpated in Toronto's Shootout back on October. They consist of Waterloo, Ryerson, Western, McMaster, Queens, Cornell, and Michigan Dearborn I believe:

beardaryl@hotmail.com, fsae@engmail.uwaterloo.ca, gdgraves@uwo.ca, jrichter@liburdi.com, richtejd@mcmaster.ca, formula@me.queensu.ca, jpgranger@videotron.ca, jhumphre@umd.umich.edu, uks310@hotmail.com, OORYANZ@aol.com, DPearen@hatch.ca

Vinh

University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing Team
www.fsae.utoronto.ca (http://www.fsae.utoronto.ca)

[Dominic Venieri]

Thanks Vinh. I've emailed those teams as well. Our SCCA region has been very helpful - I heard from them again today and we're working on finding a site in the Albany area. Still waiting to hear from RIT though. That would be a more convenient site for you guys coming from west of here, don't you think? If you have a contact at RIT, perhaps you could give it a try?

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

[Schumi_Jr]

Waterloo is definately interested. Most of the team is in school for the summer so we'll be there barring any conflicts with midterms (mid June) or finals (August)

Aaron Johnston
University of Waterloo FSAE

www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~fsae (http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~fsae)

[Dominic Venieri]

I've still had no luck finding a site. As I've mentioned, nothing on our own campus is suitable for such an event. I'm working on it, but its on the back burner at the moment. If any other teams interested out there would be interested in hosting such an event, or securing a site, please post a reply. Odds are we won't be able to do anything before Detroit. Looking more like after Formula Student, say August, when we all get back to school.

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