UTC students putting the pedal to the metal to perform at fall Baja competition

While many students are enjoying summer break, a group of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga mechanical engineering students are blasting Creed in the basement of the College of Engineering and Computer Science as they prepare for their biggest test yet.

The Racing Mocs have registered to travel to Gray Court, South Carolina, during the first weekend in October to compete in the 2025 Baja SAE® Carolina competition. The event showcases student-built all-terrain vehicles by subjecting them to multiple dynamic and endurance tests.

SAE® International hosts numerous collegiate competitions to help prepare students by applying real-world skills.

“The objective of the competition is to provide SAE® student members with a challenging project that involves the design, planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market,” according to the organization’s website.

The Baja competition is a rigorous collegiate design series where university students design, build and race a single-seat, all-terrain, off-road vehicle. Photo by Angela Foster.

Building an ATV requires thousands of hours of labor and comprehensive planning to abide by competition guidelines, according to UC Foundation Associate Professor Trevor Elliott, who serves as the faculty advisor to the Baja team.

His relationship with the program dates back to his time as a graduate student at UTC, when he was part of the initial teams sent to competition. Over the last 20 years, UTC has sent teams across the country to compete against hundreds of schools, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University.

“I was interested in cars and stuff like that and I was still an active student,” Elliott recalled. “The undergraduate students did all the designing, building, testing, everything.

“I came in when they had travel logistics issues and things like that because they were a small team. They needed more people to go with them to make sure they could be successful at competition.”

After being hired as a faculty member to teach senior design—the course in which students work on the ATV—Elliott was once again involved with the Baja group.

He estimated it takes 10,000 hours of labor to finish an ATV for the competition.

“They’re passionate about things they can do with their hands and see something that comes out as tangible,” Elliott explained. “The fact that they’re building something they can then go race makes a really big difference for them and that’s what keeps them going. You throw in the fact that it’s a competition we can say we bested other teams. We did this. We bested, say, Georgia Tech with all their assets and their team had 50 people on it. They had thousands of dollars more than we had to build their car and we still outplaced them. That’s a source of pride that they carry.

“You carry that with you the whole time, what you did there when it’s successful and then when it’s not successful. You tend to learn more when you have to struggle to make it through it. The struggles that are inevitable with something as big and as complicated as Baja mean they are learning massive amounts even when they don’t succeed. It’s really not a failure—they learned.”

Eric Perez (second from right in solid blue shirt) is a UTC senior mechanical engineering major and a 3D design modeler for Astec Industries.

Logan McCollough and Eric Perez are two of the 12 students building the ATV to compete.

McCollough, a senior mechanical engineering major, is the shop team lead. He is responsible for building the ATV from the models.

His duties include welding the frame, ensuring the vehicle complies with competition rules and test-driving the ATV.

“It’s a little surreal when you think of the big picture,” McCollough. “The first day we got the wheels on the car and the car was sitting on the ground. No shocks were on it, no steering wheel, no seat, no engine in it, just the frame. Sitting on wheels, on suspension arms, felt like a big moment.

“I would say the next big moment was the car running for the first time in rear wheel drive. That felt like a huge moment. This car actually drives and steers. We actually built something that moves.”

Perez, a senior mechanical engineering major with a minor in computer science, works for Astec Industries as a 3D design modeler. His experience as a certified expert in the field aided him with the schematics for the ATV.

“I was always scared that it wasn’t going to fit,” Perez said. “There were times where things didn’t fit and they had to do some dressing to the parts … It sort of helps build confidence when you design something. Not everything is going to go smoothly. When it does go smoothly, it feels great.”

The scale of the ATV is significantly different compared to his work at Astec. Perez said this helped improve his overall modeling skills.

UC Foundation Associate Professor Trevor Elliott (solid blue shirt), who serves as the faculty advisor, discusses the ATV with members of the Baja team.

The Baja team had been making progress toward a June competition but encountered several issues that required modifications. In one instance, a test drive turned into an accident, which cracked the engine mount welds and caused other damage.

The team fixed the ATV in a day.

“It gave me the confidence to say that we can continue on and have a stronger car ready for competition,” McCollough said.

Perez echoed McCollough’s thoughts.

“We could have fallen flat on our face. We just stumbled instead,” he said. “So that was good. We played it off.”

Elliott said this work ethic is consistent even when things go smoothly.

“They literally live in the shop day and night,” he said.

The students aren’t the only ones sacrificing a good night’s sleep for the greater food of the project. Elliott said he has slept in the truck carrying the ATV overnight to ensure the optimal position on race and inspection days.

“SAE is pretty strict about the level at which I can be involved, especially in the design,” he said. “However, if they’re stuck and they need help, I’ll be the first one in the mud helping to push a car.”

When the Baja team heads to South Carolina, it will be the conclusion of a year-long marathon to be competition-ready. For the students, it will be an emotional experience.

“I imagine what the track looks like,” Perez said. “I imagine what the car looks like on the track. Actually, seeing the car in the environment it was designed for, doing what we designed it for … seeing that come to fruition, I think my eyes might get watery.”

McCollough said this project has helped him build a sense of community with his teammates. Those long hours in the shop are memories he’ll always cherish.

“I’d be willing to come back and help later on in life and be that mentor for early engineers,” he said. “It’s something that I find enough worth in that I may want to invest more financially or time-wise in coming back here and helping because I see how much I’ve learned from this project.”