S&T's baja-style racers weren't brought down by a nail (broken flywheel key) or a shoe (shattered A-arm), but on a sad Derby Day in neighboring Kentucky their horse couldn't overcome a metaphorically broken ankle and had to be put down. The bearing basket on a CV joint broke in half and even then the Miners were set to attempt emergency repairs until they realized that all the ball bearings were probably ground deep into the mud on the Tennessee Tech campus.
At that point there was little to do but pack it in, watch the remaining race, and rest up. They'll return to campus, regroup, and get back to working on their other baja-style buggy for the SAE event near Peoria IL in just two weeks. That one is primarily a rock-crawler so the winner will probably be the most rugged rather than then most nimble. Stay tuned!
BTW, going into the static and dynamic events S&T's mud-bugs made a good showing in the engineering report and design evaluation, right behind West Point and Johns Hopkins (this writer's ROTC alma mater) and ahead of Cornell and Embry Riddle. When you consider what the tab is for a Hopkins or Cornell education I'd say that is pretty good standings.
