Baja NOW - Baja @ BackWoods Baja: October 15-16 2021
What a weekend for Iowa Baja! We got the chance to bring a part of our team to BackWoods Baja, hosted by UW Stout.
The team met up at noon on Friday and got the trailer ready for the big race. After loading up, we began our trip up to Wisconsin. 5 long hours later, we found ourselves in a corn field ready to camp.
We set up our tents and got to know a few other teams we were going to be competing against. The next morning, we headed over to tech and passed right away! Then, we began our first event: Tug of War. Because every car was similar in power, there was unfortunately no winners. Our next event was the pole dash to determine where we stood for gridding. We were fortunate enough to begin in position one.
Endurance was off to a start! With 33 up front, we began in the lead. 50 and 51 weren’t too far behind. The team got to place all of our new members in the cars to get in some racing experience. Although we hit quite a few trees, it was a blast!
Unfortunately, our bearings went out on car 50, meaning we had to pull it from the race. 51 also had a broken hub and break line, but with a short pit stop we got it right back onto the track. While in the lead, car 33 snapped each motor mount one by one, calling for a few short pit stops to weld the minor damages.
With an hour left in the race, it was down to Iowa, Michigan Tech, and Iowa State. Iowa held pace and was able to finish 5 laps ahead of the competition, bringing home the first place trophy and capping off an amazing trip! We would like to give a shoutout to all of our track workers, sponsors, volunteers, and event organizers for setting up a great race. We would also like to thank all of the family members who were there to support us and provide some awesome lunch on Saturday. We even had a few furry friends show up to cheer on Iowa Baja.
“Let’s go Hawks!”
After the race, we packed up the trailer and headed back to Iowa City where we are now sharing our victory with additional members.