Justin Morante has spent the last three years checking car engines and working in the shop — sometimes up to 40 hours a week.
But it’s not his full-time job. Instead, Morante is a senior at the University of Florida and president of Gator Motorsports, a student organization that designs and builds a Formula 1-style car from scratch each school year. The group manufactures, assembles and tests the vehicle to get it as fast as possible, to have it face off against 120 teams in the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition in May.
“What’s super cool about the industry is the constant push for improvement,” Morante said. “The day a motorsports team or automotive company gets complacent is the day they die. So I think having that push for excellence and that push to always be better is kind of what inspired me to get involved.”
Morante joined Gator Motorsports during his freshman year because he knew he wanted to work in the automotive industry. Since then, the organization has become a major part of his college experience.
As president, his responsibilities go beyond the car in the shop. He also helps lead the organization's various teams while continuing to balance his responsibilities as a student.
The Formula Society of Automotive Engineers design competition is held in Brooklyn, Michigan, every year. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, the student organization recruits students to work on the vehicle and apply their classroom learning into real machinery.
That hands-on experience makes the organization valuable, said Emily Rose Baratta, the recruitment coordinator for the club.
“It's a big learning environment, so everyone’s learning, everyone’s trying to just apply what they learned in the classroom, to real life, and to make a car move, and make it go fast and then win that competition,” Baratta said.
For students studying mechanical engineering, that opportunity can help connect concepts learned in class with the physical machinery they are working on in the shop.
Instead of simply seeing the concepts drawn out on a board, students can see how those ideas work when they are applied to a working vehicle. The teamwork and constructive feedback from team leaders also gives students an experience that mirrors the collaborative environment in a professional motorsports shop.
Baratta spends about 20 hours weekly at the garage helping new members and answering questions about the organization. The fourth-year mechanical engineering student said she has made Gator Motorsports a central part of her schedule.
“Gator Motorsports is now one of the more cornerstone things that I do here,” Baratta said.
For new members, balancing building a car with classwork can be a big adjustment. But Akansha Mehta, a new member of the recruitment team, said having a routine and managing her time makes it possible.
“As long as you're making sure you're not wasting hours of your day, it becomes pretty manageable,” Mehta said. “You kind of have the forethought, oh, like, my evenings are gonna be like over here, so I'm not gonna have too much time to do homework, so I should probably prioritize getting it done during the day.’”
As the new school year begins, members have been divided into teams responsible for specific parts of the car, from the cockpit to the tires. They work together to test new methods, solve possible problems and turn their ideas into a working race car.
During the competition, the car will be evaluated in both static and dynamic events for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize. Static events focus on the team’s presentation, engineering design, and cost and manufacturing of the vehicle. Dynamic events carry more weight in the overall score, taking into account the car’s performance through acceleration, skidpad, autocross, endurance and efficiency events.
Previously, the team placed third in the 2022 competition and reached the top 25 in the electric vehicle competition last year. This year, they’re hoping to improve the car’s turning radius after running into issues last year, Baratta said.
The change is one example of how the team uses lessons from previous competitions to make adjustments to the next car. Rather than simply repeating the same design or using the same car, members look at what did not work and try to find ways to improve it.
The first test of the brand new car is set for February 2027.
For the students involved, the competition represents more than a chance to win or see their hard work pay off. It is the result of hours spent balancing classes, homework and their passion for motorsports.