Hello, Solar Friends!
On our second to last day of racing, the team awoke to a sunrise only the Australian Outback could afford. To one horizon, the setting moon and dark starry sky were being chased away by the beginning of another day. In our beds (an assortment of Wal-Mart sleeping bags), we lay gazing at the two-toned sky through the roofs of our tents and a film of buzzing flies awaiting our inevitable exit. The traffic on the Stuart Highway was beginning to pick up again with the coming of the dawn, and we could hear our teammates stirring in the tents around us. These were the morning sights and sounds we’d gotten used to in the past few days, and this was our last morning to experience them in the Outback. We knew that by the end of the day we’d have reached civilization again. It was a bittersweet morning.
With the team loaded up in the vans and ready to embark, the car’s treaded Dunlop tires gripped the warm pavement. The phrase “solar is rolling” echoed across the channel one radio frequency, and we were off the line, starting right on time at 8:00 a.m.
Ra 7 got moving at a pretty good clip right off the bat with a well-charged battery pack and Tom Brownell behind the wheel. In no time at all, we’d made it to our control point in Glendambo. As we were charging in the parking lot, team Aurora pulled in, just about 15 minutes behind us. We left the control point with Justin Sinichko in the car and high hopes for the midday sun. The following drive between Glendambo and Port Augusta was hilly and scenic, and we passed a whole family of emus by the side of the road! We were making great time, and the car was performing the best it has yet.
As we pulled into the town of Port Augusta just after 2:00 p.m., we hit some traffic and a few red lights – obstacles we’ve been fortunate not to see much of during this race. At one red light in town, the solar car had stopped on the line and could not get going again when the light turned green. “The accelerator pedal just isn’t working,” Justin radioed back to us. In moments, our head safety officer Mark Evans and car leader Peter Chaney were out of the van and at Ra 7’s sides to push her safely out of the intersection.
Ra 7 rolled toward the side of the road and out of harm’s way, but it seemed the problems did not stop with the accelerator. The brake pedal had also gotten jammed, and Justin was unable to stop the car once it was rolling. Ra 7 coasted along the curb for a few feet, then came to a jostling halt against the bumper of the lead vehicle. With the safety crew flagging traffic and a team on the ground removing the upper body in a flash, we quickly saw that Justin was entirely unharmed, and the car itself suffered only the tiniest damage in the carbon fiber shell of the lower body.
With those assurances, the team focused on discovering and solving the problem that had caused these mishaps in the first place. The braking issue required only an easy mechanical fix in the pedal, and the car immediately resumed braking safely and completely, as it should. After examining the accelerator pedal, we determined it was not a mechanical problem that had robbed Ra 7 of her acceleration. Our next guess was the motor controller. After replacing the motor controller with one that we borrowed from our racing friends at Rolla, we learned that this also was not the source of the breakdown. It seemed the motor itself was the culprit, and we radioed to Ken Pratt, who drives our truck and trailer, for him to bring us our spare motor.
While waiting for the truck to arrive, we decided to move the car to a safer location than the side of the road since we’d be doing some major repairs. (Our motor is mounted to our single, foam-filled rear wheel, so putting in a new motor meant a difficult tire change around the rear suspension along with completely reinstalling the motor itself.) We happened to have stopped right in front of a residential driveway, and the homeowners had come out to the fence to see what the commotion was about. We didn’t even have to ask twice for these kind strangers to offer us the use of their driveway to complete our repairs away from the traffic. Their hospitality didn’t end there, though. As we worked, the family brought out jugs of ice cold water for us – a welcome relief from the heat.
We believe now that the motor failure was caused by overheating due to excessive use of the regenerative braking feature – a much less concerning reason than many we could have imagined! Once the truck arrived with the spare, the repair went smoothly and quickly, considering its complexity. It took the team less than half an hour to replace the motor and the rear tire, a time that would be impressive even under the best of conditions. Altogether, we were stopped on the side of the road for just under an hour before we could finish the last three kilometers to the control point at Port Augusta.
While we were stopped, team Aurora went cruising past us, and by the time we reached the check point, they were already on their way down the track again. It looks like we won’t be beating them this time, but we’re pretty satisfied that we were able to hold them at bay for so long this morning!
The 30-minute media stop in Port Augusta seemed relaxed and uneventful after the motor change stop, and by 3:40 p.m. we were back on the road. The battery pack had had plenty of time to charge up during all the stops, and Justin was ready to get the car back up to speed and make up some lost time.
The closer we got to Adelaide, the more natural features we’d been missing reappeared: bodies of water, trees, mountains, and even clouds. There was a little too much cloud cover in the late afternoon for solar racing at full speed, but by the end of the day we had logged another 572 km and gotten within 180 km of the official end of the race.
At the end of the day, our 10-minute window of searching for the right place to stop for the night led us to an open field of straw with a gravel drive just off the highway. We pulled off into the dirt and set up the array stand, facing the setting sun. Soon the landowner came out to investigate, and he assured us that we were welcome to use that bit of his farmland to charge out batteries and work on the car until sunset. Our scout had found a campground farther down the road for our nighttime accommodations, but the farmer invited us back to his field for our morning charging and final preparations. It was our second run-in with selfless kindness from people we didn’t even know in just a few hours, and we were grateful to see this proof that our needs have already been met with love.
We finished off the night with a hearty steak dinner at a local pub and a bittersweet sendoff to our media van driver (recently re-dubbed “Hollywood”) Sten Palmer, who had to return to her job in Port Headland. The team bedded down early with the car tucked into the crate to get a good night’s sleep before our final day.
The plan for tomorrow is to really push the limits on our car to make it to the official end of timing with our battery pack almost completely drained. Once our time has stopped ticking and the race is officially finished, we will pause to charge up again and then wend our way into town to cross the ceremonial finish line in Adelaide around noon. As far as we know, we are currently in 7th place, and with team Twente about an hour behind us and team Aurora about an hour ahead of us, we don’t expect that to change.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update about our last day of racing and then a final report on Saturday after the awards ceremony. And be sure to catch our last couple of radio shows, too. We’ll be broadcasting live on Princpia Internet Radio (www.principia.edu/radio) at 3:30 p.m. Central time on Thursday and Friday.
As always, thanks for your ongoing support. We’re almost there!
Cheers,
Karen
P.S. My apologies for the late posting of this update. I told you the team bedded down early, and that included the keys to the vans – aka my access to our BGAN unit from CapRock, which gives us satellite internet. So it had to wait until the morning!
Disclaimer: Due to differences in web browsers and email servers, some of the formatting, including spacing and punctuation, may not appear correctly in your email. To see these updates in their correct format, go to www.principia.edu/solar. And when you do, leave a comment!
Hello, Solar Friends!
On our second to last day of racing, the team awoke to a sunrise only the Australian Outback could afford. To one horizon, the setting moon and dark starry sky were being chased away by the beginning of another day. In our beds (an assortment of Wal-Mart sleeping bags), we lay gazing at the two-toned sky through the roofs of our tents and a film of buzzing flies awaiting our inevitable exit. The traffic on the Stuart Highway was beginning to pick up again with the coming of the dawn, and we could hear our teammates stirring in the tents around us. These were the morning sights and sounds we’d gotten used to in the past few days, and this was our last morning to experience them in the Outback. We knew that by the end of the day we’d have reached civilization again. It was a bittersweet morning.
With the team loaded up in the vans and ready to embark, the car’s treaded Dunlop tires gripped the warm pavement. The phrase “solar is rolling” echoed across the channel one radio frequency, and we were off the line, starting right on time at 8:00 a.m.
Ra 7 got moving at a pretty good clip right off the bat with a well-charged battery pack and Tom Brownell behind the wheel. In no time at all, we’d made it to our control point in Glendambo. As we were charging in the parking lot, team Aurora pulled in, just about 15 minutes behind us. We left the control point with Justin Sinichko in the car and high hopes for the midday sun. The following drive between Glendambo and Port Augusta was hilly and scenic, and we passed a whole family of emus by the side of the road! We were making great time, and the car was performing the best it has yet.
As we pulled into the town of Port Augusta just after 2:00 p.m., we hit some traffic and a few red lights – obstacles we’ve been fortunate not to see much of during this race. At one red light in town, the solar car had stopped on the line and could not get going again when the light turned green. “The accelerator pedal just isn’t working,” Justin radioed back to us. In moments, our head safety officer Mark Evans and car leader Peter Chaney were out of the van and at Ra 7’s sides to push her safely out of the intersection.
Ra 7 rolled toward the side of the road and out of harm’s way, but it seemed the problems did not stop with the accelerator. The brake pedal had also gotten jammed, and Justin was unable to stop the car once it was rolling. Ra 7 coasted along the curb for a few feet, then came to a jostling halt against the bumper of the lead vehicle. With the safety crew flagging traffic and a team on the ground removing the upper body in a flash, we quickly saw that Justin was entirely unharmed, and the car itself suffered only the tiniest damage in the carbon fiber shell of the lower body.
With those assurances, the team focused on discovering and solving the problem that had caused these mishaps in the first place. The braking issue required only an easy mechanical fix in the pedal, and the car immediately resumed braking safely and completely, as it should. After examining the accelerator pedal, we determined it was not a mechanical problem that had robbed Ra 7 of her acceleration. Our next guess was the motor controller. After replacing the motor controller with one that we borrowed from our racing friends at Rolla, we learned that this also was not the source of the breakdown. It seemed the motor itself was the culprit, and we radioed to Ken Pratt, who drives our truck and trailer, for him to bring us our spare motor.
While waiting for the truck to arrive, we decided to move the car to a safer location than the side of the road since we’d be doing some major repairs. (Our motor is mounted to our single, foam-filled rear wheel, so putting in a new motor meant a difficult tire change around the rear suspension along with completely reinstalling the motor itself.) We happened to have stopped right in front of a residential driveway, and the homeowners had come out to the fence to see what the commotion was about. We didn’t even have to ask twice for these kind strangers to offer us the use of their driveway to complete our repairs away from the traffic. Their hospitality didn’t end there, though. As we worked, the family brought out jugs of ice cold water for us – a welcome relief from the heat.
We believe now that the motor failure was caused by overheating due to excessive use of the regenerative braking feature – a much less concerning reason than many we could have imagined! Once the truck arrived with the spare, the repair went smoothly and quickly, considering its complexity. It took the team less than half an hour to replace the motor and the rear tire, a time that would be impressive even under the best of conditions. Altogether, we were stopped on the side of the road for just under an hour before we could finish the last three kilometers to the control point at Port Augusta.
While we were stopped, team Aurora went cruising past us, and by the time we reached the check point, they were already on their way down the track again. It looks like we won’t be beating them this time, but we’re pretty satisfied that we were able to hold them at bay for so long this morning!
The 30-minute media stop in Port Augusta seemed relaxed and uneventful after the motor change stop, and by 3:40 p.m. we were back on the road. The battery pack had had plenty of time to charge up during all the stops, and Justin was ready to get the car back up to speed and make up some lost time.
The closer we got to Adelaide, the more natural features we’d been missing reappeared: bodies of water, trees, mountains, and even clouds. There was a little too much cloud cover in the late afternoon for solar racing at full speed, but by the end of the day we had logged another 572 km and gotten within 180 km of the official end of the race.
At the end of the day, our 10-minute window of searching for the right place to stop for the night led us to an open field of straw with a gravel drive just off the highway. We pulled off into the dirt and set up the array stand, facing the setting sun. Soon the landowner came out to investigate, and he assured us that we were welcome to use that bit of his farmland to charge out batteries and work on the car until sunset. Our scout had found a campground farther down the road for our nighttime accommodations, but the farmer invited us back to his field for our morning charging and final preparations. It was our second run-in with selfless kindness from people we didn’t even know in just a few hours, and we were grateful to see this proof that our needs have already been met with love.
We finished off the night with a hearty steak dinner at a local pub and a bittersweet sendoff to our media van driver (recently re-dubbed “Hollywood”) Sten Palmer, who had to return to her job in Port Headland. The team bedded down early with the car tucked into the crate to get a good night’s sleep before our final day.
The plan for tomorrow is to really push the limits on our car to make it to the official end of timing with our battery pack almost completely drained. Once our time has stopped ticking and the race is officially finished, we will pause to charge up again and then wend our way into town to cross the ceremonial finish line in Adelaide around noon. As far as we know, we are currently in 7th place, and with team Twente about an hour behind us and team Aurora about an hour ahead of us, we don’t expect that to change.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update about our last day of racing and then a final report on Saturday after the awards ceremony. And be sure to catch our last couple of radio shows, too. We’ll be broadcasting live on Princpia Internet Radio (www.principia.edu/radio) at 3:30 p.m. Central time on Thursday and Friday.
As always, thanks for your ongoing support. We’re almost there!
Cheers,
Karen
P.S. My apologies for the late posting of this update. I told you the team bedded down early, and that included the keys to the vans – aka my access to our BGAN unit from CapRock, which gives us satellite internet. So it had to wait until the morning!
October 30th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Just checked the Global Green Challenge Rankings. Principia finished 7th. Wonderful race. Wonderful stories. Wonderful experience. Congratulations. See you again at NASC 2010!