Folks involved with PNW’s Baja Racing Club have a love-hate relationship with the activity.

“Baja is the most fun you’re going to have, having the worst time of your life,” said Rick Rickerson, the College of Technology lab administrator who formerly advised the organization. 

The club gives students a competitive edge to attract future employers. Through long, difficult work the club teaches strong manufacturing skills, and builds even stronger friendships. 

 “I like the [Baja] experience,” said Landen Sinnot, a junior in Mechanical Engineering Technology. “I can learn from Baja and then apply it to classes. On top of that, I get to work with people of the same major.” 

Baja Racing annually allows students to design, build, promote and race an off-road vehicle to compete in three Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE, competitions across the Unites States. PNW competes in the Midwest Region in November. 

Last year, the university’s team beat out larger schools to win the Midwest Baja SAE business presentation, which requires students to present their off-road vehicle’s design and hypothetical ability to be commercially reproduced. In all, more than 200 teams competed.

The team also placed 31st out of 85 teams in last year’s competition endurance race, which challenged teams to run their vehicles on a rugged course for as long as possible, up to four hours. PNW’s collective scores across the competition earned it 38th overall.

PNW’s team typically takes inspiration from previous years’ work but build a new vehicle for each competition.

“Some teams run a car that was built originally four years ago, and they’ve only made a couple modifications to it,” said Brian Scott, a senior Mechanical Engineering Technology major and Baja Club president. “We do want to keep building a new one each year.”

Scott said the team is ahead of schedule with work on this year’s vehicle.