RTBR completed their inaugural US event placed 5th overall amongst a field of 61 teams. The team finished with an overall points tally of 716 out of 1000 despite blowing an engine during a dynamic event.

The four-day event saw RTBR rise from strength-to-strength and tackle problems thrown their way. Static events covered the first two days, with the team being evaluated in Cost, Design and Presentation aspects. The car, RTBR11, underwent Technical Inspection, Tilt and Noise & Brake tests. Cost and Presentation results were positive, placing 8th and 5th respectively. RTBR narrowly missed a place in the Presentation finals. Technical Inspection and Tilt tests went without many major hitches; however the team required several attempts and fixes to pass the Noise test. The biggest highlight for RTBR was a first ever appearance in the Design Semi-finals, and then into the Design Finals against Formula ETS and Global Formula Racing – eventually finishing 3rd.

Day 3 and 4 saw the team enter into Dynamic Events with a largely untested car. Due to the time constraints placed on the team to ship the car out to the US, RTBR lost 10 days of testing time and ran the RTBR11 without much setup work done. That said, the RTBR11 performed very well out of the box and the drivers required more time to familiarise themselves with the car.

Acceleration and Skidpad events ended with average results – 17th and 23rd respectively. The lack of setup was evidence by the Skidpad timings showing the RTBR11 was consistently slower in one direction.

The Autocross event kicked off in the afternoon and saw RTBR11 dip its feet into yet unchartered territory – this time with a new set of tyres. Jason Linden-Tahinci blazed through the track with a lap time of 69.4 seconds (fastest at that time) despite having to yield to a red flag caused by another car spinning off. This lap was chalked off and RTBR was allowed 2 new laps to set a good time – the first of which ended with a spin and 81 second lap time. The 2nd lap turned out to be RTBR11’s last involvement of the day. An engine blow-up halfway through the lap wrecked RTBR’s chances of achieving a decent result in Autocross. RTBR scored 7.5 out of 150 in the Autocross – tied 38th.

That wasn’t the only result in jeopardy. With the Endurance event to go on Day 4, the team had a mountain to climb. RTBR had to attempt an engine swap in less than 4 hours. Having shipped a brand new Aprilia RX55 engine together with the car, work on the car began at 1600 on Day 3. The track closed at 2000 and reopened at 0800 Day 4, meaning the team had to continue work on the car the next day. By 0900 Day 4, RTBR11 was up and running again. And the team participated in the Endurance event.

Both drivers of the Endurance event posted consistent times – lapping in the 66-67 second range. The fastest lap of the day was 64.2 seconds. RTBR11 made it to the finish line and with the quick lap times, came 4th in Endurance. Fuel Economy was also good, ranking 6th and the top non-single cylinder engine team.

In short, the team had achieved their intended aims of competing in the US – to be competitive and to learn how to operate as a racing team. Design judges here at FSAE California were particularly impressed by the ‘new year – new team – new car’ approach that Bath has brought to the table, rather than the concept of evolution and teams that span several years. The spirit of new team new car is one that RTBR believes runs true to the nature of Formula SAE and Formula Student and that is to bring new and aspiring engineers to the fore and allowing them to be fully creative.

The team is now better prepped than ever for Formula Student UK. Placing 5th at FSAE California has certainly boosted the team’s morale and drive to achieve greater success. And as Team Principal Thomas Yates said; “We’re so ecstatic with how everything went for the team, coming fifth in California. We are now out for the win at the UK event in July and our rivals should watch out!”