Thunderous cheers and roaring engines greeted competitors at the 3.7-km Madras Motor Race Track in Irungattukottai on Sunday morning, when budding engineers battled it out for the title of the best custom-built car in the country.
The finale of SUPRA SAEINDIA Student Formula witnessed participation of 87 teams from various engineering colleges in the country. Their Formula 1 model cars were built over a one-year period.
A three-day event, Student Formula was kickstarted on Friday. Prototypes built by student teams were judged on various aspects, including car-building technique, speed, engine performance, braking, overall riding safety and fuel efficiency.
The Sunday finale was the real test for student drivers and their pit crew with the prototype models hitting the 12 curves and three straight stretches on MMRT. Their speed and endurance was observed and judged by industry experts.
The standout driver on the circuit was Athmiha Lakshmi from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, who rode her Team Pegasus car built with a Tata Nano engine.
“Even though I wasn’t able to complete all the laps on the track, I’m proud of the car we built in a short span of time, with no sponsors at all,” said the sole woman driver on Sunday.
Pegasus, also comprising driver K. Gopalakrishnan and captain K. Harish, was one of only two teams that used a car engine, while the other finalists had motorcycle engines powering their custom-built machines.
Team Galaxy Racing from Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Maharashtra, came close to driving in the finals, but had to opt out in the last minute.
“We were running a 500 cc motorcycle engine under the hood but minutes before the final race, a fuse glitch cropped up, killing all our dreams,” said Chandan Kumar of AIT.
The triumphant team at the third edition of the Student Formula event was from closer home.
Camber Racing of SRM University in Kancheepuram was declared the overall winner, while the second and third spots were clinched by Team Octane Racing from College of Engineering, Maharashtra, and Ojaswat Racing from Chandubhai S. Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat, respectively.
