Hello, Solar Friends!
The race is over, and the results are in: we’ve officially come in 7th place in the World Solar Challenge class of the 2009 Global Green Challenge, behind Tokai (Japan), Nuon (Netherlands), Michigan (USA), Sunswift (Australia), MIT (USA), and Aurora (Australia).
As I explained yesterday, our goal for the morning was to push the car as hard and fast as possible, hoping to cross the finish line with an empty battery pack. Justin Sinichko put the pedal to the carbon, and with Matthew Piatt and Tom Brownell in the Chase van giving instructions, we flew down the road at more than 100 kph – definitely running the pack down, like we planned. Weather reports led us to believe we’d be operating under cloud cover for most of the morning, but those predictions never panned out. We had clear, bright sunshine for most of the way, and we were able to travel much faster than we’d anticipated. Several times, the Lead van had trouble staying far enough out in front of the solar car because it was moving too fast! The morning and the kilometers zoomed past, and we crossed the official end of timing line at 10:13 a.m., securing our position in the standings.
From there, we still had to navigate through the city of Adelaide to complete the course and parade across the ceremonial finish line in Victoria Square. Once we got close, the team piled out of the vans and into the world’s first solar bus, which led Ra 7 to its final destination. In the square, the team surrounded the car on the ground, and we all walked Justin and Ra 7 across the finish line, to the raucous cheers of spectators, officials, and other teams.
Awaiting us at the end of the walk was a majestic fountain in the center of the square, and as the numb euphoria of finishing the race started to wear off, we realized the other teams greeting us were chanting, “Fountain! Fountain!” Justin was the first to make the plunge, and he came out dripping and looking for company. About half the team ended up drenched, laughing and splashing in the fountain in celebration of finally making it to Adelaide. Members of the other teams that had already arrived joined us in the wet and wild cheering and dunking, and the whole square was bright with sunlight and good cheer.
We steered Ra 7 into a display tent to one side, and then spent a few hours talking with the public and hearing racing stories similar to our own from the other teams. No other solar cars arrived on the scene while we waited, and we’re still uncertain as to just how many teams finished the race without trailering. We’re looking forward to seeing the other teams tomorrow and hearing how our friends on the other 20-odd teams fared.
In the meantime, we took some time to ourselves as a team to explore the non-solar-car-related wonders that Australia has to offer. Our destination was the Cleland Wildlife Park, where we saw, petted, and fed kangaroos, koalas, emus, giant pelicans, wombats, echidnas, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, monitor lizards, and wallabies. Then it was off to a celebratory dinner at Outback Jack’s on the beach, thanks to supporter John Chaney, who traveled all the way from Houston just to meet us at the finish line.
Now the team is settled into the Adelaide Shores apartments (and grateful to be back in real beds!) for the next couple nights. We only have a day or so to pack everything up to ship back to the States, but for tonight, we’re happy to forget the work to come and bask in the joy of having run a good race.
Cheers,
Karen
October 30th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
BRAVO!
mucho goodo
fabulous
fantastic
good job
excellent
and i really hope you are having a wonderful time. enjoy!
xo
October 30th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
WOW WOW WOW Prin Solar Team!! It was more fun than a Barrel of Dingos watching & listening to your trek across Australia but most of all it was more inspiring than a Pouch of Roos! All our love and congratulations on a spectacular race — #7 is such a wonderful number! Justin’s Gramma & Grandpap in PA
October 30th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
You guys get first place for the best website, reporting, photos, radio show and spirit.
A magnificent seventh. Have a safe trip home.
Best,
Art Nielsen in memory of John Brostrup
October 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Congratulations on your race. And thanks for the daily e-mail updates. It was so great of you to do such a good job of connecting the rest of the world to your adventure.
I have wanted to see the auto industry come up with new ideas for the automobile. And creative people like you and your competitors are demonstrating in real life that these new concepts are possible. Your cars remind me of the bubble-top Hotwheels cars I used to play with when I was a kid. Your cars prove that it is possible that I may someday commute to work using a solar powered car. Imagine in the Texas heat selecting a parking place in the sun instead of looking for shade.
Be proud of yourselves for leading our way into the future.
October 31st, 2009 at 5:56 am
Congratulations!!!!!! Great job to the entire team! I’ve loved reading your email updates along the way : ) Yeah Solar Car!!
October 31st, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Congratulations Ra7 Team! Ha – as I typed that I realized your place is fitting to your name
) Thank you for making it possible for us to share in your exciting week! The daily emails and radio broadcasts, the photos and the GPS tracking satisfied my constant curiosity of where you were and what you were doing at any given moment. I also enjoyed browsing the blogs of some of the other teams — it was evident that Principia is a team that the other teams like and cheer for as you were often mentioned. Hope you had a day to hang out with the other teams and celebrate a great race. Can’t wait to see the photos of the last few days. Sure hope someone took pictures of my silly boy jumping into the fountain. I’m so glad he had an opportunity to celebrate “Justin style”!