Team Cobra Motorsports driver and Polytechnic University freshman Mechanical Engineering student, Wes Henderson, returns from the Formula SAE 2008 West competition at Fontana, California after the team experienced the lows and highs of FSAE competition.
The team, the smallest of the 84 teams taking part in the western swing, had to overcome everything from blown tires on the rental truck on the trip out west, to near 100 degree temperatures, to mechanical gremlins...but the 1st year, 6 member, PolyRacing Team fought off penalties and tough scores to finish ahead of half of the better funded, better staffed competing teams. And they also scored high enough to receive the William C. Mitchell Rookie Award for Best finish for a first year entry AND the SAE Perseverance Award that recognizes the top three (3) rookie teams. If not for a catastrophic cooling system failure 1/2 way into the enduro component final that awarded the team 0 points who knows how well they would have done overall.
Congratulations to the entire PolyRacing Silver Bullitt effort: Team Captain - Horace Lai, Team Engineer - John Crotty, Jeff Laut, Malav Yogin Oza, Yuri Shnirman, Engineer/Drivers - Wes Henderson and Jake Karwowski.