RIT Baja Racing finishes the 2026 season ranked No. 2 in North America after winning the Baja SAE Ohio competition

Rochester, New York – RIT Baja Racing closed out its 2026 season with a major result, taking first place at the Baja SAE Ohio competition and finishing the season ranked No. 2 in North America.

The Rochester Institute of Technology team faced a field of 83 collegiate teams from around the world in Ohio. Its victory came against strong competition that included Purdue, Johns Hopkins and Cornell, along with teams representing Canada, Mexico, Türkiye and China.

For the students behind the car, the result was the payoff for months of work, testing and late nights in the shop.

“Everybody on the team put in their hours and paid their dues to make this car do what it does,” said Nick Lee, a fifth-year electrical engineering major from Vermont. “It’s great to have all the hard work you put in pay off and get such an exciting result.”

Baja SAE competitions are not simply about driving a vehicle around a track. Teams spend several days being tested in a wide range of areas before and during the racing itself. Cars must pass technical and safety inspections, while students also present their work in design, cost and business events.

The teams then take their vehicles into dynamic events that measure different parts of the cars’ performance. Acceleration, pulling power, maneuverability and suspension are all put to the test. The competition also includes four-hour endurance races, where every vehicle is on the course at the same time. When something breaks, team members must diagnose the problem and make repairs in their pit area before returning to the race.

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RIT’s performance in Ohio was the result of preparation that continued throughout the summer. The team made several changes to its vehicle, including modifying the reduction ratio in the rear gearbox. That adjustment gave the car more pulling power while also improving its top speed.

Keeping the project moving was not always easy. Many RIT Baja team members spend portions of the year away from campus on co-op assignments. Even so, work on the vehicle continued, and students returning from those positions brought new knowledge and practical experience with them.

“People are coming back from their co-ops and they just come back with valuable information,” said Miles Tallia, a fifth-year software engineering major from Brooklyn and the team manager. “It was incredible to see the team come together over the summer, when many people aren’t even here, and keep improving a car that had already raced twice.”

That industry experience can make a difference in the shop. Students bring back new design methods, engineering software skills and ways of tracking projects. Those tools can help the team identify potential problems before a competition, as well as respond more effectively when something goes wrong during a race.

The work also benefits from the facilities available at RIT. The Baja team has its own shop with extended hours, giving students the opportunity to work on the vehicle well beyond the normal school day. The team also has access to two CNC machines, allowing members to manufacture about 90 percent of the car themselves.

That includes the vehicle’s shocks. Instead of relying entirely on outside manufacturing, the students can design and build many of the components in-house, giving them more control over the development process.

RIT Baja Racing also has a test track on campus. Students use it to recreate the types of obstacles and conditions they encounter at competitions. Testing close to home allows the team to make changes, find weaknesses and put new ideas through repeated trials before taking the car to an event.

Sponsors and benefactors provide another important part of the program’s support. Among those supporters is Andrew Jacobson ’90, who studied hotel management, and ’96 MS, who studied service management. That backing helps RIT’s racing teams continue their work and gives students access to resources needed for a demanding engineering project.

“It speaks to our dedication as students who are here, but it also speaks to RIT being able to give us that ability to perform,” Tallia said.

Faculty members also point to the way students from different areas of RIT work together. Martin Gordon, faculty advisor, professor and director of external academic relations in RIT’s College of Engineering Technology, said the Baja program brings engineering and engineering technology students together and encourages them to approach challenges from different perspectives.

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“The RIT Baja Team is very well known in the Baja SAE community not only for its competitive successes but also because of the assistance it provides to other Baja teams at every competition,” said Martin Gordon, faculty advisor, professor, and director of external academic relations in RIT’s College of Engineering Technology. “The combination of engineering and engineering technology students working side-by-side constantly challenges the team to think differently. The result is a super high-performing, competitive, caring organization.”

That combination of technical work, teamwork and competition has become a defining part of the RIT Baja program. Students are responsible for much more than building a race car. They have to plan projects, manage costs, test designs, solve mechanical problems and make quick decisions when the vehicle is under pressure.

For Grant Bierce, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, the commitment is visible almost every night on campus.

“There isn’t a day when people aren’t in the shop until 10 or 11 p.m., if not later, doing what’s needed for the team to succeed,” Bierce said.

The first-place finish in Ohio gave RIT Baja Racing a strong ending to its 2026 competition season. With the result, the team secured the No. 2 position in North America, capping a season shaped by engineering work, hands-on testing and a sustained effort from students, faculty, sponsors and supporters.