WILLIAMSPORT, LYCOMING COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU-TV) – Manufacturing students at a local college in Lycoming County are just a few weeks away from competing at Nationals.

More than 100 colleges and universities from throughout the world will be racing each other in all terrain vehicles they have created.

The ‘Baja SAE Team’ – part of the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a club on Penn College’s campus that designs, builds and races prototype vehicles.

The college has been a part of the national competition for the past 12 years, and this year the students say they’ve got the winner.

“Each member is putting in ten to twenty hours at least outside of their classes every week so most weekend we’re in here Fridays and Sundays almost all year round,” said Team Captain Logan Goodhart.

Logan Goodhart is a senior here and Baja team captain.

He has been competing since his freshman year.

“I actually came here in a different major and getting involved in Baja kind of helped me pick the career path that I wanted to go down,” said Goodhart.

It’s one thing to go to class..but this competition..

“It lets us apply exactly what we learn in every individual class here at school towards a project management style,” said Vice President of the Baja team, Shujaa Alqahtani.

“Everything they do in the process of building this baja car drives right from their educational experiences,” said Dean for the School of Industrial Computing and Engineering Technology, Dave Codner.

Each team member is responsible for making their own part to their prototype vehicle.

“What we’re doing is not unlike what you would do in the real world,” said Goodhart.

“The troubleshooting and trying to figure out the best way to make something or the best way to go about designing a part,” said Alqahatani.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I’d probably get in trouble for wanting to adopt all these guys, I’m as proud of them as I am my own kids,” said Codner.

The first round of the Baja SAE competition will be held in Maryland from April 18th through the 22nd.

The finals of the ‘Baja’ competition won’t be held in Mexico as the name implies, but rather in Kansas, at the end of May.