The Owls Racing Team presented its first entry in the Formula SAE competition in 2006. Competing against 139 universities from all over the world, the team blew by the competition and crossed the checkered flag 41st in endurance race and placed 53rd in overall stats.

Florida Atlantic University's Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2008 race team was made up of student team members including Elio Saenz (team captain), Oscar Williams, Vincent Grilli-Meunier, Matthew Shanosky, Grant Browning, Jameel Rose, Paurvik Ramani, Ryan Payton and Veronica Puga. They designed and built a formula race car to enter into the 2008 Formula SAE race held at the Michigan International Speedwayin Brooklyn, Michigan, May 14 through May 18.

The Formula SAE race competition is for SAE student members to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with small formula-style race cars. The restrictions on the car frame and engine are limited so that the knowledge, creativity and imagination of the students are challenged. The cars are built over a period of about one year and are taken to the annual competition for judging and comparison with other vehicles from colleges and universities throughout the world.

In 2008, FAU came in 31st place for the overall competition, in which 120 other schools participated. The team was even more successful in the endurance event that required the car to be driven twice around an 11 km track. Only 105 teams made it to this event and the FAU team placed 22nd out of only 44 teams that were able to complete it. The team did extremely well given their limited resources and experience in the competition.