U of A race team set to hit the track

Students from the University of Alberta unveiled their formula-style race car Thursday and are set to compete on an international stage.

The university’s 25-member team will compete at the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition in Lincoln, Neb., from June 21 to 24. The competition will feature 80 university teams from around the world including South Korea and Japan.

This is the 19th consecutive year the U of A team has entered the competition. Team lead Nathan Lentz will be returning to the competition for a second straight year after being with the team in 2016 when it placed in the middle of the pack — 40th of 80 teams.

He said this year the goal is to finish in the top 20.

Lentz said they started working on the car right after last year’s event and they have completely redesigned the frame of the vehicle.

“We developed it a lot more ergonomically around the driver,” he said.

Lentz said they have also spent the last eight months tuning the engine so it is “ready to go.”

The car has a 48-horsepower engine and can reach a top speed of 115 km/h. Teams will be competing in a variety of events on and off the race track over the three days.

Industry professionals from companies such as Ford and Tesla will judge the design components of the vehicles.

They will also head to the race track and compete in a 22-kilometre endurance test that Lentz said is one of the hardest events. Typically only one-third of the teams actually complete it.

He said the team didn’t finish the endurance test last year and is working toward completing it this time around. “We’re looking forward to performing well in endurance most because we did not participate very well last year,” he said.