Zips Racing makes design finals and lands 3rd place overall at international competition

Although an oil spill on the track and rain impacted the top 10-15 finishing teams, a group of University of Akron engineering students placed third overall at the Formula SAE Michigan competition May 8-11, 2013 at Michigan International Speedway. Zips Racing, led by team captain Michan Limbacher, finished just behind Universitat Stuttgart and Tallinn University of Technology, making them the top-performing U.S. team at the competition.

The Zips finished in 1st place in the 24-lap endurance challenge and qualified for design finals for the first time in several years – coming in 7th out of 105 teams after presenting and explaining their design process to judges.

“This year’s competition took the team to a level we haven't reached in years,” says suspension leader and next year’s team captain Ryan Kruse. “We were selected as design finalists and had to defend our design to a panel of approximately 30 engineers who have built their careers on automotive engineering.”

The team will now prepare for the intense competition at Formula Student Germany held July 30-Aug. 4.

“The new design concept we have chosen has brought the top teams within reach,” says Kruse. “Further development prior to Formula Student Germany should help us improve our performance even more.”