6/17/2025 - 7/11/2025: NFR25 Competition Recap and NFR26 Introduction

[Anton Walvoord]

Northwestern Formula Racing

@nufsae | northwesternformularacing.com

Spring Newsletter - 7.11.2025

NFR25 Competition Recap - Stella Heo

      

The team was at Michigan International Speedway from June 17 to June 21 as part of the FSAE Electric competition. For the first time in the team's history, the team drove an electric car in the competition.

   

The team passed the Accumulator Technical Inspection on the first day of the competition, only having to make a few minor changes after the first run through the inspection. On the second day of the competition, the team made it partially through Mechanical Technical Inspection before thunderstorms halted the competition for around two hours before causing the site to close early.

The third day of the competition had the Cost and Design events. For the Cost Event, Suspension member Lance Locker, DAQ Lead Evan Bertis-Sample, and Project Manager Stella Heo represented the team, reviewing the team's Cost Report with the judges as well as presenting a response to a predetermined scenario. The judges complimented the team for their innovative answers, especially liking that the team discussed how data acquisition could be used to enhance driver performance. For the Design Event, Chief Engineer Charlie Seifert briefly discussed the main goal of NFR25: to get a driving car. Afterward, selected members met with the design judges to discuss their design process and considerations. The judges scored Low Voltage/DAQ, Driver Interface, Vehicle Dynamics, and Chassis sections particularly well. Following these events, the team rushed back to Mechanical Technical Inspection, and after a few modifications, the car passed, allowing the team to move on to EV Active. 

On the fourth day of the competition, the team passed EV Active but had to battle false faults in the process. After discussing with experts at FSAE, the team and inspectors concluded that these issues could be ignored. Wanting to get to Acceleration, Skid Pad, and Autocross before the day ended, the team rushed to the Tilt Test. During the first attempt, however, brake fluid leaked, so the team wiped it up, cleaned the floors, and tightened the hose clamps before trying the test again. Luckily, on the second try, the team passed and moved on to the Rain Test, where inspectors poured water on the car for two minutes and let it soak for two minutes before checking the status of the car. Luckily - and with everyone holding their breaths - the team passed on the first try and went to the Brakes Test, which the car also passed on the first try. After getting all six technical inspection stickers, the team raced to Autocross, Skid Pad, and Acceleration in an attempt to complete them before they closed. During the events, the team continued to battle the faults that were seen in EV Active. As a result, the team narrowly completed all three events with little time to spare.

On the final day of the competition, the team was queued eighth to try Endurance, but the team only completed one lap before facing another fault. As a result, the team had to leave the track and spent the rest of the day taking team photos.

A Final Farewell from Stella:
Hi all,

Thank you for taking the time to read these newsletters. I posted my first newsletter on 7/1/2024, and I now say farewell with my final one today. It's been a joy keeping you all up to date on what the team has been up to, and I'm proud of what we achieved with NFR25. I hope you enjoyed reading these updates as much as I enjoyed making them. It has been amazing connecting with several alumni throughout these newsletters. As I step down from being PM, I'm excited to see where the team goes.

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An Introduction to NFR26 - Anton Walvoord

Hello Northwestern Formula Racing Fans! NFR25 is officially in the books. As you read above, we had an incredible run at this year's Formula SAE EV competition. Our team truly has continued to grow over the past several years of EV's. For the first time in the team's history, we were able to have a driving EV before competition. It was also the first time our EV team has passed all 6 technical inspections, and the first time we were able to compete in every single dynamic event. While we did run into some technical issues, we were still able to place 23rd overall out of 86 teams at the competition.

But, as you know, the journey does not stop there. This past week we have officially begun work on NFR26. We have huge hopes for the coming year, aiming to improve both our reliability and our performance. There are big plans in the works, and I look forward to sharing them with you all. With that being said, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Anton Walvoord, NFR26's Project Manager. I will be leading the team alongside our Chief Engineer, Benji Sobeloff-Gittes. We have a wonderful crew of exec members who will help us make this car a reality.

NFR26 Exec

We will be providing more details about each of our new exec members in future newsletters and on our [Instagram], but for now here are some brief introductions. On the mechanical side, we have Ben Smith as Suspension lead, Lance Locker as Accumulator lead, Rahwa Tesfay as Chassis lead, and Reese Wu as Aerodynamics lead. For electrical, we have Drake Vogelpohl as High Voltage Electronics lead, Nil Ozcevik as Low Voltage Electronics lead, and Ryan Boyle as Data Acquisition lead. We also have a new position, Operations Lead, which will be handling many of the financial duties and outreach, filled by John Raftus. Finally, in charge of Vehicle Integration, we have Matthew Hosemann.

NFR25 has set the ball rolling, and we have every intention to build the momentum with NFR26. I look forward to providing updates throughout the year on our progress as a team, and I hope you will continue to tune in to see it come together. Please feel free to reach out to me by email (antonwal...@u.northwestern.edu) or phone (847-644-6537).