The Story of Road Runner
- In Clubs
- Last Updated on 18 September 2012
- By Ipsit
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October 2011, that was when 25 students from various branches of the institute were selected after a tough procedure to form the second SUPRA(Formula) SAE team of the institute. This was named Team ROAD RUNNER and the car to be made was named R3-25. R3 stands for Road Runner Racing and 25 for the 25 team members. The team was captained by Pradeepta Kumar Sahoo and Dibyendu Mohanta was the Vice-Captain who later took the charge as the Captain.
The first round was the Virtual Round, where teams had to present their design in front of the judges. This event was held in Pune and 117 teams participated. From these 117 teams only 63 teams were selected for the next round. The next round was to be held at the mecca of Motorsport in India, Buddh International Circuit, Noida. With insufficient funds, gruelling work hours, long nights and a burning hot summer, there were difficult moments but by the end of July the car was up and running; needing just minor modifications. On 1st September, 2012 R3-25 was loaded on a truck and sent to the Racing Circuit.
The team was greatly supported by the alumni of our institute, who helped in arranging the accommodation in Noida. The events started on 6th of September, the first of the many inspections was the technical inspection where the judges checked whether the car complied with all the rules of the SUPRA-2012. They pointed out minor errors which had to be rectified the next day before the car got a green light to move on to the other inspections. The next inspection was the tilt-test where the car was tilted to 45 degrees first and then 60 degrees to check for any leakage. After that the noise level test was done, where R3-25 registered as having one of the lowest noise levels in the competition. It was then time for the final test, the brake test. It was in the brake test last year where the team was disqualified so all fingers were crossed, but this time R3-25 passed it with ease. The whole team was ecstatic with joy and an emotional moment was shared by the super-final years. This was the very moment they had been waiting since the last 2 years. Team road runner was finally allowed to compete in the dynamic events, which included skidpad , autocross, acceleration and finally a race on the tracks on 9th September.
The D-day arrived on 9th of September; many alumni of NITR were present to encourage the team. Out of the 63 teams there, only 25 had qualified for the final race. During the race, the car was to be driven by two drivers, two laps each. R3-25 was lined up with 15 other cars; the first two laps were driven by super final year, Abhishek Swain and the last two by pre-final year Anand Amrit. This is the first time a car by SAE@NITR completed a race. The completion in itself was victory for every team member. Though this was a happy moment there was a downside to this competition where none of our innovations were given any recognition. The car was installed with lateral and longitudinal acceleration sensors, rpm sensors, gyro, GPS, alternate GPS, in short a whole vehicle data acquisition system which is unavailable in markets and this was completely made by the team. These innovations were completely ignored by the judges.
Camber racing, from SRM University emerged as overall winners of the competition. Team Road Runner has been ranked Second Runners Up in skidpad test, 6th in overall design competition, 7th in marketing presentation, 12th in acceleration test, 9th in autocross test and 12th in the final race. Road Runner secured an overall rank of 18 which is very encouraging seeing that 117 colleges had participated in the competition. NITRAA is very happy with this achievement and has promised all support in the future. Propelled by this success the runners are determined to return bigger and better next year to burn some rubber and set the tracks on fire.
