2025 Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup Award Recipient: Professor John Fabijanic

By Jim Weidenbaum | SCCA Foundation Board of Directors

Carroll Smith Mentor Cup winner Prof. John Fabijanic, at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (left) and SCCA Foundation BOD member and FSAE liaison Raleigh Boreen (right).

Professor John Fabijanic, university Lecturer at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, was recently presented SCCA's Carroll Smith Mentors Cup award at the FSAE EV competition at Michigan International Speedway. 

SCCA's Carroll Smith Mentors Cup recognizes "FSAE faculty advisors who, consistently and over many years, have made outstanding contributions to their programs and instill qualities of leadership, teamwork, technical skill, self-reliance, inquisitiveness, and project responsibility in their students."

The Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup is an SCCA award created with input from SAE. This prestigious prize, first awarded in 1999, is dedicated to the late Carroll Smith. Carroll was the pre-eminent racecar engineer of his generation, serving as the engineering manager for Ford's GT40 Le Mans victories in 1966 and 1967. Carroll served as the Chief Design Judge for Formula SAE from 1993 until his passing in 2003, creating a durable tradition for the excellence of that event. The Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup was inspired by the example set by Dr. Bob Woods at the University of Texas at Arlington, who was its first recipient.