A general feeling of confusion surrounded 2004 FSAE in my mind. Skidpad starts at 8am Friday? 8:50. Endurance run order based on Autocross? Nope. Design semifinalists announced at 5:30pm Thursday? Nope. Brake workers seemed to think Lehigh with their solid axle locked the left rear but not the right rear. One of them complained a team's car was pitching under braking and almost held that team! Practice track so small teams hit bales and break suspensions. Watched a team in Design Prelim's have to explain what tire scrub meant to a judge. Running from imaginary tornados wasting half and hour of dry running time before rain came, then having workers tell teams that a decision to run will be made by 4pm, then restarting the AutoX event at 6:45pm. Explicitly describing in the AutoX drivers meeting that there is a line for first drivers and second drivers, the first driver line getting priority, and then the courseworkers letting multiple teams get second drivers run, pushing other schools back in the first driver line far enough they can't run before the rain.
I just removed a general sense that the right hand never knew what the left hand was doing at 2004 FSAE. I know our team is planning on sending letters of concern to the FSAE Consortium officials, and we are trying to get as many other teams as we can to do the same.
FSAE Competition isn't the reason we all bust our asses all year- the experience itself is worth the work, but it would be nice if the event were run as professionally as many of our teams.