Virginia Tech Motorsports, with their car affectionately known as Buck, had one more chance to prove they were a winning team at Michelin competition.

“Finishing 31st hurt because of how much effort we put into building both cars last year,” said Sparks.

But that wasn't the end of Buck's story and much work got done over the summer.

“Since competition, we got the multimatic shocks on the car, tuned them on their four post rigs in Toronto, and finally got some aero on the car,” said Sparks.

The team, now only building one car, finally had the time to properly test and tune Buck. This work was apparent at the Michelin competition.

The Michelin competition, originally scheduled for September, was moved to Nov. 16. At the competition, VTM had one goal: to prove that Buck was a winning car and give all the effort that was put into designing and building meaning.

“Since UNCC [University of North Carolina at Charlotte] was second overall at Michigan in the spring, they were our target at Michelin,” said Sparks.

The day started early, near 5 a.m. and by 1 p.m. Buck had finished two events with strong performances in each. All that remained was the endurance race, the race that was Buck’s undoing at last year's competition.

“My tenth lap in endurance was my fastest and helped close the gap to UNCC, finally at lap 12 our front wing was on their rear,” said Garret Hippert 2025 team lead.

Then, Buck passed the UNCC car and the team erupted into cheers.

“We knew Buck was a faster car than 31st place, and Michelin was the last chance we had to prove it,” said Michael Sparks, 2025 suspension sub-lead.

In May 2024, Virginia Tech Motorsports placed 31st in the Formula SAE internal combustion competition. This was a very disappointing result for the team which had worked hard for over a year to design, manufacture, and test the car.

The Formula SAE program is a college design competition where students design, fabricate, develop and compete with small-formula style cars. The competition started in 1981 and has branched out from only gasoline cars to electric and hybrid. The program is designed to give students hands-on experience in engineering and help them get jobs in their chosen fields.

Preliminary designs for VTM’s car began in fall 2022 through a class called independent study. Led by the next year's seniors, team members began the process of looking at data and determining improvements they could make for the new car.

Alumni reviewed the team's designs at an event called Preliminary Design Review, known as PDR. This represents the culmination of several months of design and validation. For Buck, this happened in early 2023. Every design for the car, from wheel hubs to the chassis, was thoroughly critiqued.

“Alumni didn’t hold back while critiquing, which can make PDR very stressful, but you walk away knowing how to improve your design and that you can make something great,” said Sam Lang, 2025 business sub-team lead.

By the end of March 2024, VTM had Buck rolling and ready to test. As 2024 suspension lead Danny Novak preached, testing is one of, if not the, most important step in building a successful car. It allows you to fine-tune small details and create a winning package.

While building Buck, the team was simultaneously building a twin electric car. This meant split resources, development, manufacturing and testing time. Neither car got the attention that it deserved and this came back to bite the team at competition.

The Formula SAE internal combustion competition was set for May 8, 2024. Right up to that date, the team was scrambling to put the finishing touches on the car.

First, though, was Formula South, hosted by Kennesaw State University. Formula South is an early competition that gives teams the opportunity to test their cars in an environment similar to what they would experience later at the official Formula SAE competition in Michigan.

VTM placed third at Formula South and seemed poised for a great result later at the official competition.

By May, the team was exhausted and needed one final push to get through competition. Michigan International Speedway (MIS) hosted the competition, which took place from May 8 to May 11.

“I remember a lot of late nights, past midnight, trying to get the cars done. They were fun but extremely exhausting,” said Krishigan Yuvaraj, senior suspension sub-team member.

The team had a goal to finish technical inspection on the first day, as this would give them more time to properly set up the car before active events. The team had to overcome several challenges and did multiple on the spot changes to pass.

By day two it was cold and rainy. Soon, the team's mood would be as well.

The endurance race was on the final day of competition, marking the end of VTM’s efforts to finish top 10 overall.

The day before, VTM had competed in design finals. Teams make design finals by scoring in the top 10 in design review. This was a huge success for the team and showed they not only built a solid car, but deeply understood the engineering behind it. It also gave VTM much needed points in the overall standings, and kept their hopes alive to finish top 10 overall.

But, Buck ran into several issues before and during the endurance race.

“We broke a starter and didn’t have a new one. The backup one we had broke as well and cost us greatly,” said Ethan Crouch, 2024 business sub-team lead.

Buck started but was unable to finish the endurance race and VTM finished 31st overall. That night, the team trudged out of MIS, more tired than usual, leaving Buck unfixed in the trailer.