The Race Is On!
NASC 2008

Hello Solar Friends!

This will be our final update for NASC 2008. The race is finished and the standings have been finalized. As I said yesterday, Principia is confirmed as the second place team after Michigan, followed by FH Bochum, Waterloo, and Minnesota. See the official NASC website for further results: www.americansolarchallenge.org.

At today’s awards banquet (held at the Calgary Zoo), we received two additional honors: the Safety Award and a Technical Excellence Award for our photovoltaic solar array. Our other adventures for the day included cleaning out the vans and repacking the trailer, trading team t-shirts with our comrades on other teams, and going to the Wednesday evening testimony meeting at First Church of Christ, Scientist in Calgary. After the service, church members held an ice cream social in our honor. We loved their gracious reception, and it’s always fun to meet our invaluable supporters.

Thanks to all of you for keeping up with our progress throughout scrutineering and the race and for supporting us every step of the way with your love and prayers. Keep an eye on our website in the coming weeks for the rest of our photos and for updates on our potential future plans (www.prin.edu/solar).

Over and out,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

I’m going to have to make it a short email tonight because all of us here are too elated to spend much time typing instead of smiling and hugging each other. We finished the race in Calgary this afternoon, and our position has been confirmed–we got second place! This is the biggest victory Principia has ever had in a cross-country race, and we’re excited to have accomplished so much. It’s amazing what we can do when we keep our team goals in mind: glorifying God and doing our best.

A few quick details. We left Medicine Hat in second place, as usual, at 9:01am. The leg to Calgary was only 185 miles, so the cars stayed relatively close together. We skipped around in line, passing and being passed by Waterloo, Bochum, Calgary, Queens, and Minnesota. We ran through a few clouds, but the sunshine was strong enough that we could maintain the speed we needed to hold second place. Tom Brownell was our driver for the day. We don’t yet have official results for most of the other teams, but I’ll email again tomorrow with the official standings and a report of tomorrow’s awards banquet. For now, just join in our celebration–we made it to Calgary!

Now that the car is packed away for the night, we’re heading out to a celebratory dinner with our friends from Minnesota. Tune in for further details on the day at 10pm CST on Principia Internet Radio (www.prin.edu/radio).

Cheers,
Karen

P.S. If you’ve only just been added to our email list, you can check out what happened earlier in the race on our website: www.prin.edu/solar. Click “NASC” in the top right-hand corner, then choose to click through the emails on the left-hand menu. Enjoy!


Hello Solar Friends!

Today was one of the most exciting race days in Principia solar car history. We began the day with a difficult goal—to make it to Medicine Hat, Alberta from Broadview, Saskatchewan with a checkpoint in Regina in the middle.

The mileage alone was intimidating—almost 400 miles in one race day. Add to that the electrical issues we encountered on yesterday’s run, and the picture was looking worrisome. But we had to make it to Medicine Hat tonight, for it was the last stage stop before our finish line in Calgary tomorrow.

Many of our competitors expected to trailer their cars part of the way to Medicine Hat, accepting a large penalty but making it on time so they could continue on to Calgary. We were determined not to need to trailer the car, so we set out to drive the minimum speed necessary to get us to Medicine Hat on time.

Luckily, the weather was on our side. We didn’t see a single cloud all day. The route was a bit hillier than we expected, but for the first half of the day, our prospects looked bright. Tom Brownell started off in the car, and he drove us into the checkpoint in Regina without a hitch.

After our allotted half-hour stop in Regina, Peter Chaney switched into the driver’s seat, and we took off again. Still we drove smoothly without any major issues. The sun was keeping our batteries fairly well charged, and we were able to maintain reasonable speeds. We knew we would need a second driver change for the day (since we had arrived in Regina in the morning hours and Peter’s six-hour time limit would expire before the race day was over), so Peter turned command back over to Tom in the late afternoon.

During Tom’s second shift, the car began to have some electrical problems that cut power to the motor and forced the car to turn off. We spent about an hour and fifteen minutes fixing these problems on the side of the road. The bugs were eventually worked out, and the car was able to continue driving, but I’d like to take a moment to recognize two portions of this team who were essential in our roadside success today: our tireless safety crew and the loving folks who drive our truck and trailer.

Makenna Reeves, head safety officer, has her crew (Mark Evans, Jasmine Linck, and Katie Farquhar) well-trained, and they are all ready for action at all times as we race down the road. They did a great job today of making sure that oncoming traffic was alert to our situation so that the car and everyone around it stayed safe.

Bob and Debbie Brownell (Tom’s parents) are the gracious volunteers who are driving and navigating our truck and trailer throughout the race. The trailer carries many critical parts, spares, and equipment, and serves a crucial and difficult function as the first to arrive at every stopping location and the last to leave every starting line. At all times along the race, the trailer is expected to know where the convoy is and how to get to it while staying as far off route as possible so as to be out of the way of traffic. Bob and Debbie have mastered this tricky balance between support and space, and they proved their weight (truck and trailer included) in gold today when they came to our rescue with just the right electrical tool box when we needed it. It’s not a glamorous role, and they hardly ever even get to see the car in action, so I want to make sure to mention just how grateful we are to have them with us on the trip and how great of a job they’ve been doing, even if behind the scenes.

I’m sure you’re still wondering how the end of the day went. Well, by the time we finished patching up the electrical system, we figured we would need to average about 55 mph for the rest of the race day in order to make it to Medicine Hat on time. Toward the beginning of the race, such speeds would have been no problem for the young and fresh Ra 7. After almost 2400 miles of bumpy pavement, however, she was a bit more resistant. We maintained speed for about half an hour, but soon the sun began to decline, and we had to take it easy. Our battery pack had been pushed to its limit, just about, and we had to finish the run on only the energy we were collecting from the array. Riding into Medicine Hat, we had our ups and downs—driving about 15mph on the shoulder on the uphill stretches, and then trying to pick up as much speed as possible on the downhills.

Just after 7:30pm, we pulled into Medicine Hat, met by cheers from every one of our competitors. We did collect a fair-sized penalty for driving past the end of the race day (6:30), but it was no match for the whopping penalty we would have earned by trailering the car in. The last few hours of driving were really down to the wire as we raced the clock. Would we be able to drive it in without trailering? Would we make it before the end of the race day? Would we make it before Tom had completed his six-hour limit in the car for the day? But we overcame all of those obstacles. We were all delighted to drive into Medicine Hat under our own power with just minutes to spare before we would have needed another driver change. We even set a team record for the most miles driven in a single day in a North American race—395.

As it turns out, not even the penalty we took for driving past the end of the race day was enough to bump us out of position—we’re still in second place behind Michigan! FH Bochum, the third-place team, is definitely gaining on us, but we’re in a good position for going into our last day of racing. Tomorrow we’ll jog over to Calgary—I’ll report again once we’ve crossed the finish line! (For the quickest updates, though, don’t wait for email—check out the website! www.prin.edu/solar)

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

Today was the type of racing day that turns a group of racers into a team. The day began with a thunderstorm in Winnipeg, and our team was tested throughout the run with three roadside stops: a tire change on wet pavement, an unexpected driver change due to electrical issues, and an extended pit stop for mechanical repairs and charging.

This morning in Winnipeg, we debated as to whether we should even bother trying to charge our array. The cloud cover was so thick, we estimated that the fans that cool our battery pack as it is charging would use up more energy than the array was able to collect. But eventually the clouds lifted enough to let a bit of diffused sunlight through, and we were able to charge for a while before the real storm rolled in. Every team dashed for cover with their cars when the rain started, and the Principia team gathered to read the Bible Lesson. By the time we had finished the fourth section, the rain was subsiding. At 9:01am, we pulled out of Red River College on schedule, one minute behind Michigan. Unfortunately, only seven of the fifteen teams traveling with us were able to start on time; many teams chose to trailer their cars right off the bat because of the intense cloud cover and spats of rain.

Driver Peter Chaney led us out, but the rain and wet roads made for difficult driving. Shortly after the start, Ra 7’s right front tire hit a pothole on a sharp left turn and bent the rim. Our pit crew executed a quick tire change—just 14 minutes on the side of the road from the time we pulled over to the time we launched back onto the highway.

We pulled into Brandon, Manitoba, our next checkpoint, around 12:15pm. Peter got out of the car, and Katie Farquhar hopped in for her first road-driving experience. (Katie drove in the qualifier, but she hadn’t yet gotten the chance to log time in the car during the road race.) However, just as Katie was pulling out of the checkpoint, the car’s electrical system started acting up and shutting the car off. The motor cut in and out for about 25 miles, and then we had to make our second roadside stop for the day to check the battery pack. It took us 22 minutes to convince the car to run despite the Battery Protection System’s concerns about low voltages. (The thick clouds certainly didn’t help us there.) Since the car was still acting finicky, we decided to have Tom Brownell, our first driver and Electrical Team Leader, take the driver’s seat.

Ra 7 continued slowly west across Manitoba and into Saskatchewan for a while, but Tom eventually recommended that we pull over to inspect the electrical system again. Not only did we re-check the battery pack, but we also realigned the brake calipers to prevent scrub, got in some good charging, and talked with dozens of curious locals who saw us stopped on the highway. The entire stop took about an hour (Joe would rather I give you the exact number—58 minutes! Less than an hour!), but we still had a couple hours of racing left to go, so well pulled out again with high hopes.

The end of the day was only slightly less cloudy than the beginning of the day, and we chugged along at 25-35 miles per hour until the race day ended. Tonight we’re stopped at a campground in Broadview, Saskatchewan. There are no sprinklers around our campsite tonight, and we look forward to a peaceful night before another big day tomorrow. We need to make it to Medicine Hat (roughly 400 miles) by the end of the race day tomorrow in order to complete this stage. We’re anticipating full sunshine the whole way, but you never know with solar racing. Keep us in your prayers as we dash for Alberta!

Cheers,
Karen

P.S. We do have an updated feature on the website—comments. After reading these emails as blog posts on www.prin.edu/solar, you can respond by writing your own comments (either general comments about the site or specific comments about a particular post). There have already been some comments from Principia supporters, so check them out! And don’t forget to enjoy our nightly email broadcasts at 10pm on Principia Internet Radio (www.prin.edu/radio).


Hello Solar Friends!

This is our first official email from Canada! We got into Winnipeg, Manitoba around 12:30pm this afternoon after a 179-mile jog across the border from Grand Forks, North Dakota with Tom Brownell at the wheel.

The caravan got off to a smooth start this morning, but only after an exciting night of camping outside the Visitors’ Center in Grand Forks. We learned (by experience) that the Visitors’ Center’s sprinklers are programmed to water the very grass we were camping on around 1:00am. A few of us sleeping under the stars instead of in tents woke up to soggy pillows and a strange intermittent rain… I woke up to see our courageous Scout driver, long-time solar car team member Ken Pratt, sprinting around the campsite plopping orange traffic cones over each sprinkler head. With the water under control, we wrung out our sleeping bags and slept soundly until morning.

Our biggest accomplishment for the day was getting our entire team (and all of our equipment) across the border and into Canada safely. Our two international students, Brian Kamusinga (from Kenya) and Randy Wirahadi (from Indonesia) traveled in the Scout vehicle (ahead of the caravan) so that they could have the time they needed to proceed across the border legally. The caravan followed without a glitch. The border crossing guards had a special lane set up for solar car caravans, and we were able to pass through in less than ten minutes and continue racing on into Canada.

Once in Canada, the team rejoiced for the new adventure of measuring speed in kilometers per hour and because it was only after we crossed the border that Ra 7 saw her first sunshine of the day. The morning was cloudy and a bit rainy coming out of North Dakota, but once we got into Canada, we saw only sunshine. Many of our competitors got stuck in the rainclouds that we breezed past, and only five of the fifteen teams racing were able to make it into Winnipeg under their own power. Without the sunshine, those ten teams had to trailer their cars in to make the checkpoint in time.

Another cause of delay today was a parade down the main street of Morris, Manitoba. Officials warned us ahead of time that the parade would be marching down the only street through Morris (the same street that’s on our route) during certain hours of the morning. As it turns out, the Michigan team, running about an hour ahead of us at the border, hit traffic around the parade that slowed them down a bit. Our team, on the other hand, pulled into Morris just as the policeman one car ahead of us was re-opening the left lane for through traffic. The parade had ended, and instead of wading through traffic, we were able to zip through Morris at speed.

When we reached Winnipeg, we were greeted by several gracious volunteers from Red River College, the site of the stage stop and the home of one of our NASC competitors. After charging for our allotted 30 minutes, the batteries went to rest in impound, and the team went to rest at the Arbez family’s home (local Principia supporters). Dawn and Guy had prepared a feast for the team, and we enjoyed cooking out with friends and taking a dip in their swimming pool. We are all sleeping here safely tonight, out of harm’s (and sprinklers’) way.

In the morning, we’ll start the fourth stage of the race at 9:01am, in second place again. From here, the route continues on to checkpoints in Brandon, Manitoba and Regina, Saskatchewan, and then to our final stage stop (before the finish line in Calgary) in Medicine Hat, Alberta. We’ll update you on our progress again tomorrow night (look for the email), and don’t forget to listen to the radio show at 10pm at www.prin.edu/radio.

Cheers,
Karen

P.S. The fundraising information, as promised tonight on the radio show:

For those supporters interested in making a financial contribution to help pay for race expenses, we have the following contribution levels – although a donation of any size, big or small is equally appreciated.

$100 Adopt a Battery – you get a subscription to the Solar Flare newsletter and 1 race T-shirt.
$500 Adopt a (Solar) Cell – you get a subscription to the Solar Flare newsletter and 2 race T-shirts.
$1000 Ra 32 Club – you get a subscription to the Solar Flare newsletter and 1 limited edition race polo shirt, plus your name on the trailer.
$2000 Crystal Club – you get a subscription to the Solar Flare newsletter, 2 limited edition race polo shirts, your name on the trailer, and a Ra 7 commemorative crystal (with the car laser etched in the crystal).
$5000 Adopt a Sun – you get a subscription to the Solar Flare newsletter, 2 limited edition race polo shirts, your name on the solar car, and a Ra 7 commemorative crystal.

Donations may be sent to:
Fundraising Chairman
Principia Solar Car Project
1 Maybeck Place
Elsah IL 62028

All contributions are tax deductible to our 501(c)(3) educational organization. Please include a corporate matching form if your employer has such a program!


Hello Solar Friends!

Let me describe our lodging for the night through the eyes of unofficial team videographer Mark Evans: the shot begins with a close-up of the front door of a Holiday Inn in Grand Forks, North Dakota. As the camera zooms out, it glances past our car charging in the parking lot and rests on the grassy patch just past the parking lot–where Principia has set up tents for the night. After traveling roughly 350 miles from Sioux Falls, we’ll be camping in the back yard of the Grand Forks Visitors’ Center tonight.

Tom Brownell was the first driver in the car today. We had almost reached our next checkpoint, Fargo, ND, when Tom’s 6-hour time limit in the car ran out. We orchestrated a quick driver change on the side of the road, and Peter Chaney delivered us safely to the checkpoint–just 13 minutes after Michigan had arrived! (We left one minute behind Michigan this morning, and despite the clouds, we managed to stay hot on their tail throughout the day. As of Fargo, we were just about 35 minutes behind Michigan for total elapsed time in the race, running a very close second place.)

While we were stopped for charging and outreach in Fargo, we were delighted to meet several Prin supporters who decided to make the trip out to cheer us on. (We were also delighted to receive a pan of fresh brownies, a dessert treat that made our mediocre dinners–MREs (Meals Ready to Eat)–a lot more enjoyable. Thank you!)

I’ve received a couple email questions about some things I’ve mentioned in past emails, so I’ll also take a minute to explain a thing or two. First, penalties. Teams can be assessed time penalties (minutes added to their total elapsed time) for such offenses as speeding, running red lights, not impounding their batteries on time, or trailering their car. These penalties are assessed for each team at the end of each stage. So far, Prinicipia has received a few penalties for speeding, but as our telemetry team perfects its communication with the driver and as the drivers learn the feel of the car, the speeding has ceased (we hope!).

Speaking of impounding the batteries, a few of you have asked about that, as well. Because the challenge of the race is to travel across the continent using only solar power, one of the regulations is that the car’s battery pack be charged only by energy gathered by the solar array. In order to enforce this regulation, the observer (NASC official who travels with the team) supervises race charging hours in the morning and evening and ensures that the batteries are safely locked away during non-charging hours. We call this “battery impound”–locking the batteries up at night so that teams cannot sneak in extra charging from other sources.

If you have more questions that you’d like answered, your easiest resource is the “voices of Principia” coming to you each night over Principia’s Internet Radio. Email your questions to talk.radio@principia.edu, and tune in every night at 10pm Central at www.prin.edu/radio. We’ve had team members taking turns hosting the show and fielding questions, so it’s a new show every night and a nice complement to these emails. Check it out!

These emails are also now appearing on our website, along with a link to the radio show, a quick link to new NASC photos, and a brand new page of team member bios for the race team members. Just visit www.prin.edu/solar and click on the “NASC” tab in the top right corner. Thanks to David Crabill for getting these features up and running!

That’s all for tonight. We appreciate all of your prayers and support–tomorrow we’ll be taking the team (and all of our equipment!) across the border into Canada. I’ll write again from Manitoba!

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

At the end of the day today, once all of the teams had arrived here in Sioux Falls and had charged and then impounded their batteries, NASC officials held an all-team meeting to make a few announcements. One item on their agenda was to announce the winner of the second stage of the race–the team with the shortest time elapsed between Neosho and Sioux Falls. The hushed crowd erupted into cheering and applause as the officials announced Principia College as the winners of the stage! Even though we arrived in Sioux Falls after Michigan, out total time was lower (after all penalties had been assessed) than Michigan’s. So even though we’re still second in the race as a whole, we won this stage! The entire team received NASC hats with embroidery on the side that says “Stage Two Winner, Neosho to Sioux Falls.” We were ecstatic to have won, but we were also overjoyed to get the overwhelming support and cheers from the rest of the teams around us.

Since we didn’t race at all today, there isn’t much else to report for the day. The weather was rainy this morning, so we were unable to charge the batteries or get any work done on the car until early afternoon. We spent the afternoon at the Falls Park in Sioux Falls to interact with the public and with our fellow teams, but our car needed little attention. We were able to charge the batteries for two and a half hours this evening, and now we’re completely ready to take on the next stage–from Sioux Falls to a checkpoint in Fargo, North Dakota, and then on to our next stage stop in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Just a brief note for tonight, but stay tuned for another racing day update tomorrow! And as always, check out our radio broadcast at www.prin.edu/radio and our website, www.prin.edu/solar.

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

This morning we began our work under the cloudy remnants of last night’s storm in Omaha, NE. We charged our array in the diffused light of an overcast sunrise until 8:11am, when we took off for Sioux Falls, SD. Driving out of Omaha, we realized that Nebraska was much hillier than we had anticipated, and the combination of the constant rolling hills and the sub-optimal charge in our battery pack made for a bit of a rocky start. We used up much of our available energy early on in the day as we powered through the clouds and small towns surrounding Omaha and had to stop by the side of the road to charge just a couple hours after we began driving.

Once outside of Omaha, the clouds cleared, and when the afternoon sunshine hit our array, we were able to pick up the pace and run at the speed limit for the rest of the day. We arrived here in Sioux Falls, our next stage stop, around 1:40pm. A local police escort on a motorcycle led us into the city, and we arrived to crowds of fans and eager spectators. Our first half hour here was spent charging the batteries (before they had to be impounded) and handing out info cards. Tom Brownell, who was the driver for all of today’s leg, hopped out of the car to roaring applause, and he must have signed about 20 autographs for awe-struck children who watched our race car arrive.

Once the batteries were impounded for the afternoon (until the race day ended at 6:00pm and we could retrieve them for more charging), we got the rare opportunity to rest in an air conditioned space without having to worry about or work on the car–luxurious free time we haven’t seen in weeks since we’ve been working so hard just to get the car running. We checked in to our hotel and took it easy until 5:00pm, when we returned to the car to prepare for her evening charge.

While the batteries charged from 6:00 to 8:30pm, we did some more outreach to the people of Sioux Falls and also took some time to hold our own Wednesday night church service in the back of our trailer. Our team metaphysical head, Mark Evans, provided readings, and we all had gratitude to share about the race, the team, and the tremendous support we’re receiving from afar. We’re all very grateful for your prayers! One thing we agreed to work on as a team that we would love your support for is including the other racing teams and all of the race officials in our daily protective work. Our friends at Rolla had a bit of a scare with a battery fire in their supplementary battery pack, and the fact that no one was hurt served as a reminder to us all to keep up the metaphysical preparation, even when it seems like our team is having an easy trip. All of the teams that are out on the road with us stand to benefit from our clear thought and conviction that God is the only power at work. Thanks for your support, as well!

Tomorrow is another “rest” day for us since we arrived at this stage stop a day early (like we did on Sunday in Neosho). We expect to spend the day working on the car, interacting with the other teams, and reaching out to every curious bystander in Sioux Falls. If you’re nearby, come see our car on display! If you can’t quite manage a last-minute trip to South Dakota, remember to check out the website for recently uploaded photos: www.prin.edu/solar.

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

Matching the standard we set for ourselves on our first day, we finished the racing day in second place again, still on the tail of the former champions, the University of Michigan. Out on the road, today was relatively uneventful, which is good news for a race day. We began the day in second place, leaving Neosho, Missouri at 9:01am, and we finished the day in second place at a checkpoint in Omaha, Nebraska. We did not pass any teams, nor did anyone pass us out on the road. Along the route from Neosho to Omaha, we also passed through a checkpoint in Topeka, Kansas, where we traded out observers and drivers (Justin Sinichko drove from Neosho to Topeka, and Peter Chaney drove from Topeka to Omaha) and received some tasty homemade refreshments from Prin supporters from all over Kansas. Thank you all!

Aside from that stop, the most exciting moments of the day were two seconds-long stops by the side of the road to re-secure one of the quarter-turn screws that connect the upper body (array) of the car to the lower body. During the second stop, one of the race officials pulled up behind our caravan to observe our repairs, and he told us he was very impressed with our roadside safety procedures.

At the end of the day, we pulled into the checkpoint in Omaha, waited our required 30 minutes there (so that we can head back out onto the open road first thing in the morning on our way to the stage stop in Sioux Falls), and packed the car away for the night. A local church here–2nd Church of Christ, Scientist, Omaha–brought us a delicious dinner of pizza, drinks, and cookies. In addition, church members Mike and Janet Kenyon offered us their home for the night. We are so grateful for the early finish and for our hosts’ generosity–especially since there is a windy, rainy storm raging outside right now. We are all tucked safely away inside, the car is sleeping peacefully in her trailer, and we look forward to starting out on the route again tomorrow morning refreshed and fully charged. Tomorrow we’ll head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for our second stage stop. I’ll write you when we get there!

Cheers,
Karen

P.S. Just in case the website (www.prin.edu/solar), these emails, and the radio broadcasts (www.prin.edu/radio) aren’t enough, you can also check out additional photos on PrinCam–www.prin.edu/princam. Thanks to Doug Miner for joining the team for a day and taking so many great photos!


Hello Solar Friends!

Today was nice and relaxing as far as solar racing is concerned—we got to sleep in until 6:45am! Since we got into Neosho a day early, we didn’t race at all today. We had a whole day just to work on the car, do some laundry, repack the trailer, and visit with the other teams. Our team worked specifically on telemetry and regenerative braking (regen). The regen now works (to be tested tomorrow, though), and we’re well on our way to a working telemetry system. Along with these major improvements, we also had time for other mechanical repairs, such as replacing a brake rotor.

Since all of the teams were together again this evening, we also had the opportunity to interact with our comrades from Minnesota, Oregon State, Rolla, and other schools. Rolla (now Missouri S&T) contributed to that camaraderie by sponsoring a catered dinner for all of the teams, together with Rolla alumni, who gathered in Neosho to support their car’s progress. While at dinner, a few teammates and I were fortunate enough to have the chance to share Christian Science with a few other students who asked about Principia, its purpose, and its students. In connection with our top goal of glorifying God, we love the chances we get to share our reliance on God with those around us during the race who are curious about the source of our success.

One final exciting development of the day: we have photos available on the website! Check them out at www.prin.edu/solar. You can look through images from scrutineering, our display day in Plano, and our first day of solar racing. Enjoy!

One of our fans has also shared with us a link to a video of Ra7 in action. Click here to view it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/2664217531/.

Enjoy the new media—photos and video—and don’t forget to check out the radio podcast, too, at www.prin.edu/radio. I’ll write again tomorrow with our progress in the second stage of the race.

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

The first official race day of NASC has come to a close, and Ra7 has made Principia Solar Car history with one of our most successful days of racing ever. We started the race in Plano, TX at 9:07am (positioned 8th of the 15 qualified teams) under cloudy skies, with Tom Brownell behind the wheel.

For the first half of the day—until we arrived in McAlester, OK, our first checkpoint—the sun chose not to shine on the string of solar racers stretching through northern Texas. Many teams had to take breaks to charge on the side of the highway, but Principia’s array collected enough of the meager sunshine for us to maintain an average speed of 25 mph. Slow and steady, we passed several competitors on the shoulder this morning—FH Bochum, University of Calgary, Red River College, University of Kentucky, and even University of Michigan and Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly Rolla).

By 1:30pm, we had arrived in McAlester at Eastern Oklahoma State College (McAlester Campus) for our first media stop—a 30-minute break from racing to refuel the vans, switch drivers, and interact with the media and other fans. We were the fourth team to enter the checkpoint after Minnesota, Michigan, and Rolla. When we left the checkpoint around 2:00pm, Justin Sinichko took over as the driver of Ra7, and the clouds cleared to reveal sunny blue skies for the rest of the afternoon.

The next stop on the race route after McAlester, OK is Neosho, MO. Neosho is our first stage stop, so every car must reach Neosho by the end of the day on Monday to restart together from Neosho Tuesday morning. There were two teams (of the 15) who managed to complete this estimated two-day jaunt in our first day of racing: University of Michigan and Principia College. That’s right, we powered through the afternoon on full sunlight (averaging about 55 mph) and arrived in Neosho just as the first race day came to a close—an entire day ahead of schedule.

So what does that mean for our team? A day of rest! Sort of. We won’t be racing at all tomorrow as the rest of the teams arrive here in Neosho. Instead, we’ll take the day to work on the car and polish up a few of the rough patches we discovered today, when we drove our car on public roads for the first time. We’ll need to do some work on the motor controller and the telemetry system, as well as repairing our fairings and re-securing our turn signals. We’ll still have a busy day, that’s for sure, but we’ll stay off the road until Tuesday, when all the teams will start together again from here in Neosho, MO.

We ended the day triumphant with a celebratory dinner at a local Mexican restaurant here in Neosho. We had the honor of being joined by two solar car greats: Alain Chuzel, who is responsible for encapsulating our solar cells, and Doug Carroll, former advisor for the Missouri-Rolla Solar Car Team and the man who literally wrote the book on The Winning Solar Car. While sitting at dinner, talking with Doug about the progress our team has made in the past few weeks, he asked us seriously, how much does it cost to adopt a solar cell (one of our tea’s fundraising drives)? On the spot, he pulled the exact amount of money out of his wallet and handed it to our advisor, Joe Ritter, saying, I want to be a part of your team. It was quite an honor to realize we had the respect of a role model we so greatly respect and to whom we truly owe much of our success.

One other quick story about the team bonding going on here on the race: I told you about Sam from the Minnesota team helping us with our motor controller the other night. Last night we had the opportunity to return the favor. A Minnesota teammate called us around 11:00pm, looking for spare trackers (an expensive and rare electrical component that is necessary to draw consistent power from the solar array). Minnesota had fried their seven trackers, and could not race without them. We loaned Minnesota all eleven of our spare trackers, and they were able to begin the race this morning on time. This demonstration of the reciprocity of love and cooperation was great to experience.

I’m sure I’ll have more to share with you all tomorrow as the other teams arrive and the team camaraderie picks up again. In the meantime, check out the podcast of tonight’s Principia Internet Radio broadcast at www.prin.edu/radio. Advisor Steve Shedd hosted tonight’s show, so you’ll get a slightly different perspective from a new voice. Tune in again tomorrow and every night this week at 10:00pm!

Cheers,

Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

First off, I’d like to welcome those newly added to the email list–there were 55 more just added tonight! We’re working hard to keep this list current, but now that we’re really in the thick of things, it’s hard enough to steal time in the day to write the updates themselves! We’re doing our best to read emails and add new addresses, but it might take a day or two for your new requests to be processed. Thanks for your patience. And don’t worry about missing a day or two–pretty soon we’ll have a blog spot on our website where you can read all of the updates that have been sent so far. The most important news you all should know is that we officially qualified yesterday, and the race begins tomorrow!

Since this challenge is almost as much about the outreach and education as it is about the racing, all the teams spent today displaying their cars in the parking lot of the Plano Centre (the starting line) for the general public to come check them out. Principia’s car had a lot of visitors, including a nearby Prin Club, church members and Principia alumni from all around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, alumni from other schools that are competing, and curious Plano locals. We shook a lot of hands, handed out a lot of info cards, and answered a lot of questions.

The race will begin tomorrow from the Plano Centre (in Plano, TX) at 9:00am, and we look forward to seeing many of you cheering us on as we pull out! Of the 15 teams that will be racing, Principia will start 8th, at 9:07am. For those of you too far away to be here physically, I’ll do my best to reconstruct the day for you tomorrow evening in both an email update and a radio broadcast. (Yes, from here on out we’ll be doing both every night.) So tune in again to Principia Internet Radio at www.prin.edu/radio at 10:00pm CST (or listen later by clicking “podcasts”)! As always, your questions are welcome at talk.radio@principia.edu.

Now it’s time for a good night’s sleep before our first official day of racing. I’ll let you all know how it goes tomorrow!

Cheers,

Karen


Dear Solar Friends,

We are in the race, as we qualified today! This means we completed the track portion of the scrutineering week; we ran about 100 laps on the 1.7 mile track at the Motorsport Speedway in Cresson, TX. The team pulled together to overcome a few technical challenges in time to complete the qualifier. While we still have a bit of work left to do on the car before the race, the team is taking the evening to rest back at The Leaves in Dallas.

Instead of delving into the details of qualifying in this email, I invite you all to listen to our broadcast on Principia Internet Radio! You can listen at www.prin.edu/radio by just clicking on the “Podcasts” button. Be sure to listen to Karen again on Sunday night, and please submit your questions to talk.radio@principia.edu. It’s been a pleasure filling you all in on our exciting activities, and Karen will be sure to keep you posted!

Cheers,
Katie


Hello Solar Friends!

I’m happy to bring you excellent news! Today Principia successfully passed scrutineering! This means that we have all green stickers for each station, and we’re ready to hit the track for qualifying early tomorrow morning.

It was a big day for all the teams today as some were finishing scrutineering while others began qualifying. Our morning began bright and early at 5:30 am, as we thought we would be ready to pass dynamic testing at 6:30 am. Unfortunately, our motor ran into a few more problems during the night that we ended up debugging this morning. We missed the window for dynamic testing and were told that we wouldn’t be able to test again until 6 pm that evening. This meant that we wouldn’t be able to qualify or even practice on the track until tomorrow. At about 9 this morning, things weren’t looking bright for our team as we didn’t even have a running car.

Fortunately, everything seemed to fall into place as it always does. Early on, we passed the mechanical inspection with just a few minor changes. With more help from our friends at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, we also figured out the new problems with motor.

At 10 am this morning, our car ran under its own power for the first time! Believe me, there’s no feeling like it. Shortly after that, we were told to come on up for dynamic testing! The officials moved a few things around and we were able to test in the afternoon, hours earlier than we were initially told would be possible. One of our drivers, Tom Brownell, passed the figure 8, slalom, and U-turn tests with ease. We later passed the braking test on wet pavement with another driver, Peter Chaney, behind the wheel.

After that, we had all green stickers and were clear to move to the track! At this point, we only had a couple hours left in the day. Qualifying basically has two parts; the team and the car must qualify, as well as individual drivers. The team qualifies by driving 60 loops on the 1.7 mile track. This must take place in one day (between 9 am and 6 pm), to prove that our car will be able handle driving on the road for extended periods of time. Individual drivers must each drive at least 15 loops on the track to qualify. All of these laps (for both team and individual driving) must have a minimum average speed of 25 mph.

Tom Brownell took to driving the course first. As these were the very first miles on Ra 7, you can imagine how ecstatic our team was! He finished 14 laps, with a fastest speed of 3:05. This was a full minute faster than he needed to maintain the 25 mph minimum. Peter Chaney drove next, and was our first driver to qualify! (This worked out quite well, as he is in a wedding tomorrow and unable to make our next day of qualifying.) He also did quite well, with a fastest time of 3:01. All in all, we ran 32 laps today! (Interestingly enough, that is also our team number…) Both of our drivers exited the solar car with huge grins on their faces. I must admit, the rest of our team was grinning too. After two years of hard work, the sight of our car gliding around the track was unbeatable.

All in all, 7 teams qualified today and many are sure to follow tomorrow. We expect to take the track at 9 am tomorrow morning to begin a wonderful day of qualifying. Be sure to tune into Principia Internet Radio (www.prin.edu/radio) tomorrow night at 10 pm (central time) to hear how everything turns out! We are so grateful for all the good recognized today and how everything always works out; thank you for your continued support and well-wishing!

Cheers,
Katie Farquhar


Hello Solar Friends!

First of all, thanks to all of you who listened to our first ever solar car news broadcast on Principia Internet Radio last night! The show was a hit, thanks especially to all of you who wrote in to talk.radio@principia.edu. Be sure to listen again this coming Friday for our second broadcast!If you missed the first one, you can listen again at www.prin.edu/radio just by clicking “Podcasts.”

Another day of scrutineering has come and gone, and once again, we’re moving steadily forward. The new sticker count: one yellow in Mechanical and six greens in Array, Body & Sizing, Driver, Battery Protection, Electrical, and Support. The Mechanical team is working on changing that one yellow to a green in the pit beside me as I write this, and once we get that aspect of the car re-scruntineered tomorrow, dynamic scrutineering is the last challenge standing between us and the qualifier. Our current plan is to arrive at the track at a startling 5:30am tomorrow to ready the car and our drivers for completing the braking test, the figure eight, and the slalom test, all before the qualifier begins at 9:00am. But I’ll let you know how all that goes tomorrow. Let me tell you about today!

With all the work our team has been putting into the car around the clock, it’s no surprise that we’ve added so many green stickers. Some of our triumphs for the day include getting the turn signals and strobe to work, having our last driver pass the egress test, and reassembling the steering linkages. What DID surprise us today was the track. Today was the first chance we got to drive out on the track here at the MotorSport Ranch, and we discovered that it certainly was not built for racing experimental vehicles. The track includes many tight turns, often on an incline, and after a couple run-throughs, the teams here voted to cut the 3.1-mile track down to a more manageable 1.7-mile loop, cutting out a few of the most difficult corners. We should be ready to hit the track running as soon as we pass dynamic scrutineering tomorrow morning!

Perhaps our biggest victory today came late in the evening when we finally got our motor running for the first time! The motor controller had needed some debugging, and it was giving our electrical and telemetry teams quite a hard time when we took a break for dinner. (Red River College had grilled burgers and hot dogs for everyone at the track, so we enjoyed an all-team cookout with the other solar racers.) During dinner conversation, it came out that we were having trouble with our motor controller, and right away we had volunteers from other teams to help us out. After dinner, Sam from the University of Minnesota and Daniel from Missouri University for Science and Technology (formerly Missouri-Rolla, our oldest friends in solar racing) came over to our pit to try their hand at working through our motor controller issues. It didn’t take long with those two working side by side with our own electrical and telemetry experts. Soon our motor was whirring smoothly for the first time, a milestone we all celebrated.

As I mentioned earlier, the team is still working on into the night, readying our car for tomorrow when it runs under its own power for the first time. Tomorrow, we’ll have one of our drivers, your friendly Business Manager, Katie Farquhar reporting to you, so look forward to her email update from the track! Again, thanks for all of your support and well-wishing.

Cheers,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

Most of the teams participating in NASC 2008 have set up shop in the pits provided at the race track and have been working side by side for the past few days putting the finishing touches on their cars to prepare them for scrutineering. Our team, however, set up our home base in an empty parking lot near our hotel, away from the noise and bustle of the track pits. When Ra 7 first set foot (or tire) on the pavement at the MotorSport Ranch today for the first day of scrutineering, heads turned. A student from the University of Michigan, one of our top competitors, later told a Principia team member, “We were wondering who our competition would be. Now we know.”

Our car certainly looks formidable (keep an eye out for photos on our website), but before we can race, we must also prove that it is road-worthy—strong and safe. Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, Ra 7 is scheduled to go through a series of inspections for every aspect of its construction and for its dynamic capabilities. For each system that is inspected (electrical, mechanical, etc.), the team will receive a colored sticker. A red sticker means that there are major adjustments that need to be made before the car is ready to drive. A yellow sticker means that the car is safe enough to proceed to dynamic scrutineering but still needs some alterations. A blue sticker means that the car is ready to participate in the qualifying track race, and a green sticker, the best possible result of a scrutineering inspection, means that the car is ready to drive on the open road. A team must earn all green stickers to make it to the road race.

After rolling out of the trailer, Ra 7’s first stop today was Mechanical scrutineering, where officials inspected our chassis and all mechanical systems, including the steering, the suspension, and the brakes. The inspectors particularly praised our braking system, the rear suspension, and the configuration of the shocks in our front suspension, but we were not surprised to receive a red sticker at this station. We know we’ll need to re-machine a couple parts of our steering assembly to strengthen them, exchange all of our one-time-use fasteners with reusable ones, and make a few other minor adjustments. Fortunately, we were able to contact a woman with a machine shop right on the track who offered us the use of her shop tonight to complete the required milling. In the spirit of the event, we happily shared this contact with Michigan, our “competition,” and we are grateful that both teams’ needs could be met so harmoniously.

The other two scrutineering stations we got through today were Drivers and Body & Sizing, both of which we received yellow stickers for. Even without previous practice, our drivers cleared the egress test without a concern, each of them managing to exit the car in less than ten seconds. In the Body & Sizing section, the inspectors confirmed that our precise body construction methods (with the plug, the mold, and the carbon fiber lay-ups) really paid off—our car is 4.987 meters in length, just 1.3 centimeters shorter than the maximum regulation length.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue on to scrutineer our array, electrical systems, and battery protection system. In honor of the solar car team’s first ever live broadcast on Principia’s Internet Radio, there won’t be an update email tomorrow, so tune in to www.prin.edu/radio at 10:00pm CST Tuesday night to hear how our second day of scrutineering turns out! And don’t forget to email your questions to talk.radio@principia.edu. I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!
Cheers,
Karen

P.S. Thank you all for the encouraging responses we’ve been getting! I apologize for not responding personally to each of you–we usually receive about a hundred emails a day. But we still love hearing from you, so keep it up! And don’t forget to include your friends in the fun–feel free to forward these messages to anyone who might be interested in Principia, alternative energy, or college students making a difference. Thanks again for your support!


Hello Solar Friends!
As you can tell from the time stamp on this email, it’s already quite late, so I’ll just write you a quick note. We’re in Texas! We made the drive down yesterday with no problems and spent the night at a Christian Science nursing facility in Dallas called The Leaves. After the service at Third Church of Dallas and a delicious lunch with the friendly staff and delightful residents at The Leaves, we drove a couple more hours out to Cresson, where we got all registered for NASC 2008! Tomorrow we’ll start scrutineering, and we’re still working hard to have our car ready to be inspected. I’ll have more details for you tomorrow, after we receive our scrutineering schedule.
‘Til then,
Karen


Hello Solar Friends!

This is Karen Davis, former Project Manager and your NASC 2008 email correspondent. This blog will provide you with daily email updates from the road during NASC and the pre-race scrutineering and qualifying events!

Right now, the team is gearing up for our trip down to Texas. We’ve been working steadily for the past few weeks (day and night!), and all the pieces are finally falling into place. We’re spending the Fourth finishing a few crucial projects and packing the trailer and support vehicles with all of the tools, supplies, and materials we’ll need during the race. We plan to take off from Principia Saturday morning and make the 12-hour drive to Cresson, TX. (I think we’re all looking forward to the excuse to take our first break in weeks!) We’ll spend a week in the Dallas area for scrutineering (technical inspections) and the qualifying track race, and then the road race begins on July 13th.

If there’s a checkpoint or stage stop near you, we’ve love for you to stop in and visit. Traditionally, we’ve had Prin supporters cheering us on at every stop along the route. So come on out to see Ra 7 in action, and if you feel like bringing along some drinks, snacks, or fresh cookies… we won’t mind! But more than anything, we appreciate your support. We hope to see you soon!

In addition to this daily email update, Principia’s race-time public relations endeavors have expanded to broadcast journalism! I’ll be calling in to Principia’s Internet Radio every night from 10-10:30pm (CST) for a conversation with Rick Dearborn about our daily challenges and triumphs. Tune in at http://www.prin.edu/radio. If you have questions about the team or the race, just email them to talk.radio@principia.edu, and I’ll do my best to answer them on the air.

Have a great holiday weekend–the next time you hear from me, we’ll be in Texas!

Cheers,
Karen


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