As the University of Michigan-Flint’s Baja Racing Club is preparing for Baja SAE in Ohio, members say the club’s biggest challenge is not only building a competitive off-road car, but also rebuilding a student organization that nearly ceased to exist after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rutchanon Hatasen, former captain of the Baja Racing Club, said that building a strong vehicle can require about $15,000 to $20,000. He said the team still faces a gap of about $15,000, even after receiving limited support for competition costs and registration. Before receiving student government funding, the club had almost no financial support and often relied on personal purchases for smaller materials and prototypes.
Hatasen said Baja Racing at UM-Flint was founded in 2017 and made its first competition appearance in New York. During the COVID-19 pandemic, membership dropped to two or three members. By 2021, the team had effectively shut down. Hatasen said that when rebuilding efforts began in spring 2022, the group was down to a small core of about five people.
Zechariah McLaughin, the club’s current captain, said it is an effort to rebuild continuity, pass down technical knowledge and create a place where students can learn the full process behind vehicle development, including design, testing, paperwork, fundraising and competition.
In 2026, the team grew to about 14 or 15 members, McLaughin said. This improved both day-to-day work in the shop and the club’s ability to survive leadership changes. Hatasen said earlier transitions often left people “in the dark,” while current members are working to create a smoother knowledge transfer. McLaughin said the group is trying to make the club sustainable.
Hatasen said Baja SAE involves much more than building a fast vehicle. It has “two sides”, the engineering side and the behind the scenes side, including funding, outreach, paperwork, and economics, he said. “It’s basically trying to run a business.”
Andrew Will, a member of the club, said the endurance portion tests both the vehicle’s reliability and its speed over time, while reports such as the roll cage document and cost reduction report measure whether the design is safe and practical.
Hatasen said those demands became especially clear during the winter competition at Michigan Tech. The team struggled with limited funding, lack of experience and insufficient testing before the event. “The competition date was our testing date,” he said.
The team’s next competition is Baja SAE Ohio, scheduled for Sept. 24–27, 2026, in Nashport, Ohio.
Egor Ermakov is a writer for the Michigan Times. He can be reached at eermakov@umich.edu.
