A total of 150 teams, including 200 women engineers, will vie for the top honours in the fifth edition of the SaeIndia Super Racing (Supra) championship from July 4 to 9 at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, the organisers announced here on Monday.
In what is touted as the biggest formula student competition the event, with the backing of automobile giant Maruti Suzuki Limited, offers engineering students a platform to explore and demonstrate their aptitude in automobile engineering.
To encourage more women participation, the organisers announced two special award categories -- for the best woman participant and for the team with the maximum number of female participants.
The organisers also claimed to have an all-women team from Delhi, which in all likelihood will bag the second category of the special award.
"As of now we have received only entry for an all-women team, so by the time of the race if there are no such teams, the Delhi team will take that award. These awards were also in place during the previous editions," a top official told IANS.
The competition is expected to be fierce with foreign experts -- three from Germany and a woman from Russia -- forming the panel of judges.
The participants will be tested on various parameters which include static evaluation for design of the cars and endurance, dynamic evaluation for brakes and safety concerns, noise and acceleration testing, after crossing which they proceed to the final.
Supra convener Prashant Banerjee said the "majority of the participants flunk in the brake testing and acceleration control stage and an average of 10 among 100 only reach the final race."
"For that reason we have decided to increase the number of participating teams this year, for which we expect somewhere around 20-25 teams in the final race."
"This year the teams are better prepared and the time for evaluation has also been extended by a day as the foreign experts will meet the team leaders before the actual race," he added.
Each expert will judge 30 teams in the course of four days before the actual race. Each team consists of 25 members out of which they can choose two drivers who will take part in the race.
--IANS
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