Several ISU students had the correct formula for a top-10 finish against some of the toughest collegiate auto-racing teams in the nation this past weekend.

Out of 140 teams, the ISU Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team finished in seventh place – a record-best at Iowa State – in the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition May 17 to 20 at Ford Proving Grounds in Romeo, Mich.

The team managed a school-record finish while overcoming one major setback.

“We were given the wrong fuel,” said Anthony Sartor, senior in management and team member. “The local fuel service brings in the fuel to keep teams from cheating. But the fuel they gave us was 100-percent ethanol rather than E-85 – which we are supposed to have – so we did have to swap out the fuel.”

Fellow team member Kurt Olsen, senior in mechanical engineering, said although the inconvenience didn’t occur during an actual race, it did hurt the team overall.

“Where it hurt us was in the acceleration and speed tests because we were attempting to run on the bad fuel,” he said. “We didn’t get one run in [in the autocross preliminary] because our vehicle just stopped running.”

Olsen said the 100-percent ethanol fuel used in the E-85 engine “throws off the fuel to air ratio” in the car, which causes the vehicle to run poorly.

Despite the problems with the fuel in the autocross, the team did perform well in the endurance event – an event that is a must for top-10 finishers.

“The big factor of endurance is whether or not you finish,” Sartor said. “Most cars end up breaking down on the endurance track.

“I think only about 30 percent of the cars can finish that event. That happens to be the majority [event] for total overall points.”

In order to get a car that is able to finish the endurance event and place in the top 10, the team had to increase funding.

Sartor said the team’s main sponsor was ethanol, but it did receive some help from nearby sources, as well.

“The Engineering Student Council, or ESC, did allocate approximately $1,600 for this semester,” Sartor said. “They also provide some of the facilities and staff to help us out.”

Sartor said scoring a seventh-place finish will help find some new sponsors for next year, which can be difficult. But placing near the top doesn’t just help the team get new sponsors. Olsen said he thought it would help the ethanol industry, as well.

“It verifies that ethanol is a good fuel to run,” he said. “It just shows that an ethanol-powered vehicle can do just as well as any other car that is run on regular gasoline.”

The team, comprised of around 15 members, put in a lot of time to get the car ready for such a competition. Olsen said many team members put hundreds of hours into the car, and they built everything by hand.

Now that the team has improved by 11 positions in just one year, it has set the bar even higher – and has goals set to take it to the next level.

“[We want to] improve the car, improve some of the other aspects of the competition,” Olsen said.

“Just try to move up another couple positions and shoot for first place next year.”

Sartor said it will, however, be difficult.

“Once you get into the top 10, it’s a real fight to move yourself up,” he said. “The top-10 teams are really well established, and it’s hard to take their positions, unless they have some type of failures on the endurance track.”

Sartor said in order to move up within the top 10, the team has to identify the systems that need improvement, but because this year’s car was such an improvement from last year’s car, the team will base the new car off the design that finished in the top 10 in 2006.

“We don’t try and reinvent the automobile here every year,” Sartor said. “We try to improve it over the older design. We’re going to base the design [for next year’s car] off this proven design.”