2019 uqr recap

As we begin a new decade of racing, we look back on one of the most successful years in the teams history, producing two ultra-competitive cars. The 2019 UQ Racing season’s success can be traced back to the creation of our electric car Bee in 2017. The innovative accumulator and segment design has stayed with us in its basic yet ingenious form ever since. This car won the FSAE acceleration event in its first year and laid the foundation for all future EV’s built by our team, including this year with our newest EV ‘Chicken’. In 2018 we produced a single-cylinder, ultra-lightweight internal combustion car, ‘Meerkat’, which, after hundreds of kilometres of testing and the development of a brand new advanced aerodynamic package, was unveiled as Bobkat in 2019.

Both 2019 UQ Racing cars shared the same design elements which helped our team design and manufacture with enough time for extensive testing. 2019 was the penultimate year for many of our team members now graduating in 2020, so our team’s wealth of knowledge from years of training and experience ensured UQ Racing in 2019 would be the most competitive yet. Impossible aerodynamic goals were set and we outperformed on all of them.

However, it was our sunny Queensland disposition that can be credited in bringing home so many awards from 2019’s FSAE-A competition in Winton, and FS-Sydney.

UQ Racing brought home ten awards from FSAE-A 2019 with both cars running in the competition, and five awards from FS:Sydney 2020 with our IC, Bobkat. In FSAE-A both cars placed second overall in the IC and EV divisions, with both winning in their respective efficiency and cost events.

With the announcement that 2019 would be our last year competing in the IC division, it felt fitting to pay tribute to our 20 years of history building IC cars by competing in FS:Sydney with Bobkat alone. Our team placed third overall and enjoyed every minute of it, even taking home two of the special awards for ‘Best During Comp Video’ and ‘Best Social Media Coverage’, which can be viewed on our UQ Racing Facebook page.

After one of our best years, we are left with even higher expectations and more impossible targets to knock out, and we can’t wait to share our experiences this year with our readers!