Jonathan Nuñez couldn’t be happier to peel the large, white “10” off of his team’s race car and replace it with a “9.”
For the second year in a row, the UF Society of Automotive Engineers Formula Team has placed in the top 10 of the international competition, out of 125 entrants.
This year, Gator Motorsports placed ninth in the Formula SAE Michigan Competition, up one spot from last year. The rules allow previous top 10 winners to display the place they finished on their car.
“It means everything to us,” said Nuñez, the team captain of Gator Motorsports. “It means that we’ve succeeded.”
The team travels to one competition and builds a new formula vehicle, which is a fast, open vehicle, each year, the 21-year-old UF chemical engineering senior said.
“All the schools build them with a wide range of designs,” he said. “But every school adds different details to make theirs unique.”
UF’s formula vehicle has SAE brakes, which is an anti-lock braking system that allows the driver to hit the brakes as hard as he or she can to make the vehicle move faster.
David Kanner, president of Gator Motorsports, said that at the beginning of the year, the team sits down to decide on the next year’s car design.
The team is going to add a front wing to the vehicle next year to make it more aerodynamic.
Next year’s goal is to replace the “9” with an “8.”
“It’s such an adrenaline rush,” he said,” but when it’s over, it’s so rewarding seeing everyone finish. It’s a great experience.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 7/8/2014 under the headline "Gator Motorsports places 9th in international race"]
