After a 2 year hiatus due to COIVD-19, WashU Racing was finally back in Michigan! The WUFR-22 branding #120 broke through several WashU Racing milestones for both design and performance. This year's team scored a total of 425.7 points to place 37th overall competing against 100 other teams around the country and the world. The overall placement was greatly impacted by a heartbreaking early retirement in the Endurance event. Nevertheless, this is the best placement that this program has seen to date with a promising outlook for years to come.

A letter from our president,

The WUFR-20, the team's most ambitious car yet, was nearing the end of its assembly when COVID-19 shuttered classrooms and put the world on hold. It quickly became obvious the car would never be completed. The team was gutted. Without any promise of access to our design space and the impossibility of in-person meetings, the team pushed forward with even more ambitious design goals than the previous generation vehicle. The WUFR-22 would have two years for design, an unprecedented windfall compared to the normal one- year crunch, and so the team's ambition encompassed multiple platform-level changes to the vehicle. Setbacks were numerous: namely, by the semester of the competition in Michigan, the team had only two members who had ever participated in the event before. But the long days (and many long nights) were worth it, as, at the competition, the WUFR-22 placed 37th overall out of over 100 other competitors, the best in the team's history.

Ultimately, no matter the quality and effort poured into our design and workmanship, this car could not exist without our supporters. For their consistent and generous backing, even through tough times of their own, we extend gratitude to all of our sponsors, mentors, advisors, friends, and family. Designed by those who would never see it race, and built by those who had never raced before, the WUFR-22 exceeded the status quo. However, the WUFR-22 had its greatest impact off of the track, cultivating an exceptional group of engineers and fostering strong connections with supporters within WashU, the Saint Louis community, and beyond. I am thrilled at the opportunity to bolster our relationships with our supporters, struggle through the construction of another racecar and, most importantly, to realize the talent of incoming McKelvey engineers.

Thank you,

Jonah Spencer
WashU Racing President '22-23
BS Mechanical Engineering-2023