Unstoppable: Speedy Success

Start Your Engines 

Victoria Indaco applied her classroom knowledge to help build a racecar for entry into two SAE club competitions.

When Victoria Indaco (’15, B.S. Mechanical Engineering) attended Gonzaga, she got the opportunity to put her love for math and physics to the test. The off road test, that is. By the time she entered her junior year, she found herself behind the wheel of a Baja racecar. And then shortly after graduation, this experience unfolded into a position as an engineer with Tesla Motors.

Victoria joined the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) club, which works closely with Gonzaga’s machine shop to encourage students to apply their classroom knowledge toward club projects in the mechanical and automotive fields. For Victoria and fellow club members, that meant designing and building a Baja racecar for entry into two SAE international collegiate competitions.

The Baja Bulldogs team experimented with different components, adding a hydraulic drive, a shortened wheelbase, trailing-arm suspension and a new steering design. Victoria then put her designs to the ultimate test as a driver at SAE competitions in Texas, and Washington. For her, however, the truly amazing ride was at Gonzaga, where she says that she started with no mechanical engineering experience but left with hand-on skills and incredible career possibilities.