Bimasakti Pertamax Turbo Racing Team UGM has earned several awards in Student Formula Japan 2019, organised by Society of Automotive Engineers in Ecopa Arena, Shizuoka, Japan.
Those awards are JAMA Chairman Award, No. 1 Student Formula Team in Indonesia, Top 6 Overseas team, Top 8 SkidPad, Top 5 Presentation, Top 3 Design Overseas, Outstanding Performance Award, and The Only Indonesian Team With Award.
“The Bimasakti Pertamax Turbo Racing Team UGM has shown us that Indonesia can indeed compete at international level. Several targets have been met while some others have not,” said team chairman, Muhammad Kamal Ardi Putra, on Monday (2/9).
The Student Formula SAE Japan ran from 27-31 August 2019. The Bimasakti team brought the Bimasakti car generation 8 to the event. Bimasakti was the first Indonesian team joining the event since 2011 and this year is the eighth participation from the team. The competition requires students to design, build, and develop small scale formula cars. Aspects to be assessed in the competition include static event and dynamic event. Static event consists of Cost Event, Design Event, and Presentation Event. Meanwhile, Dynamic Event consists of acceleration, skidpad, autocross, and endurance.
Kamal explained the competition began by Technical Inspection which determined whether the car could go for the Dynamic Event. Afterwards, in the Static Event such as Design Presentation and Business Presentation, Bimasakti could go through very well. The cloudy, windy, and rainy weather during the competition actually did not dampen the spirit of the UGM students to do their best.
“The competition this year is much harder, especially during the race when it was raining. The challenge was how to prepare a reliable car for all events in a changing weather which forced us to make the best strategies to achieve the maximum results,” said the Mechanical Engineering student.
He added compared to previous years, Bimasakti had improved its performance, such as acceleration for a distance of 75 meter which could be made in 4 seconds compared to 5 seconds last year. Bimasakti supervising lecturer, Fauzun, expressed satisfaction over the achievement that had retained the position of last year and become the team with the highest ranks among other Indonesian teams. He added the students had worked very hard for the competition.
“They have been very serious doing the preparation for a year until the competition. They worked systematically and effectively with clear targets, despite the fact that some of the members had to go on Student Community Service two months before the event,” he said.
He expected more support for the next competition so that the team could continue making innovation for a better result.