LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa. — Students are putting the finishing touches on their all-terrain cars at Penn College's construction equipment operations site in Clinton Township.
"This is an international engineering competition where students from across the world have come together to build a one-seat off-road buggy. So, we have folks from Brazil, Canada, and the United States here," said Brad Webb, dean of engineering technologies at the Pennsylvania College of Technology.
This is the first time Penn College is hosting the Baja SAE. There are 116 teams pre-registered for the competition, and Penn College expects close to 1,800 students will take part.
"Most of these teams started building right after that September race in Ohio. So they've been working basically almost full-time since then. I know our team at Penn College works every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, eight hours each day," Webb said.
"We're pretty proud of this year's car," said Marshall Fowler, Baja SAE club president. "We did a lot of modifications to the four-wheel drive system, a lot of improvements to the steering or front suspension as well, so we're hoping that those two really help our car from last year."
On Saturday, students will put their creations to the test in a hill climb, straightaway race, as well as a maneuverability, suspension, and traction course.
"On Sunday, we're going to have this four-hour endurance race, so they're going to our 1.1-mile track, as many laps as they can. We have tabletops, and whoops, and jumps, and water hazards, and just pretty much anything you can imagine to slow these cars down," Webb said.
Saturday's events start at 8:30 a.m., and Sunday's racing event will kick off at 9:30 a.m. Spectators are welcome at both events.