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By Richard King
U.S. Department of Energy |
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 19, 2003 -- By 1 p.m. on Saturday all the teams made it to the Albuquerque stage stop. As a whole, the teams are ahead of last year's pace. I'm going to start with the back of the pack because I've been reporting on the leaders.
The University of Pennsylvania team was the last to arrive. They are using a four-year old motor that is drawing too many amps. With an inefficient motor their mileage is drastically reduced and they had to trailer. The team remains in good spirits.
Auburn was the last to arrive under their own power at 12:08 p.m. The only breakdown was for a loose nut that came off the suspension. They are a scrappy team fighting every minute to finish the whole race under their own power. They have made every checkpoint within five to 10 minutes of closing time.
The University of Purdue was third from the last to arrive. Their solar array shorted at the Sayre checkpoint and caught fire. The carbon composite shell and some plastic wiring started dripping tiny balls of fire onto the ground before they could put the fire out. Evidently it was quite a sight. The team thoroughly checked their solar array and found some shorts they didn't know about. They said their array power improved 300 watts as a result. Now they are going around to the other teams recommending they all set fire to their arrays for increased performance!
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| Photo contributed by Richard King |
| Students from Stanford University brought along a couch to the Albuquerque stage stop in order to relax in style. |
The University of Toronto came in this morning at 8:47 a.m. They have had no problems and are running a good race. They were the ninth team to arrive under their own power.
Cal Sol (Berkeley) arrived last night. Just outside of Tucumcari yesterday afternoon while they were racing on the interstate a tractor-trailer sped by and blew off their canopy. Then the force of air inside the car without a canopy proceeded to blow off their solar array! It lifted up, turned 180 degrees, caught on their roll bar and came to a sliding stop behind the solar car. Fortunately, no one was hurt and neither was the array. It only has some scrapes on the underside. They trailered to Albuquerque to be on the safe side. The team says they will be ready to start again tomorrow morning.
The North Dakota State University team also had to trailer last night. Their motor failed about 90 miles from Albuquerque. They hope to be on the road again tomorrow.
McGill University from Canada has a fast car. They arrived at 2:05 p.m. yesterday (Friday), just ahead of Stanford, the tenth car to arrive. They would have been in earlier but they had a water short in their electrical system. Wait a minute. It hasn't rained on any team so far. We have had a completely sunny race. Sheepishly they admitted it was self-inflicted. Teams spray water on their arrays when stopped and charging in a checkpoint because solar cells loose 1 percent of their power output for every one degree Celsius rise in temperature. So cooling the solar arrays produces a little more power output - a racer's edge. Evidently a team member was practicing to be a fireman and doused the car a bit.
Rolla is still the team to beat. Minnesota and Principia are close behind. All three came in to Albuquerque on Thursday afternoon. These are the times of arrival for the Albuquerque stop on Friday and Saturday.
Friday, July 18:
| Queens | 8:34 a.m. |
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WMU | 9:13 a.m. |
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Waterloo | 9:32 a.m. |
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Columbia | 9:42 a.m. |
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Kansas State | 1:03 p.m. |
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Arizona | 2:01 p.m. |
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McGill | 2:05 p.m. |
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Stanford | 2:16 p.m. |
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Iowa State | Trailered |
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NDSU | Trailered |
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Cal Sol | Trailered |
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Texas A&M | Trailered |
Saturday, July 19:
| Toronto | 8:47 p.m. |
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Cal Poly SLO | Trailered |
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Purdue | 10:16 a.m. |
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Auburn | 12:08 p.m. |
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Pennsylvania | Trailered |
Tomorrow the solar cars start at 9 a.m. as a group for the race up and over the Rocky Mountains. The altitude here in Albuquerque is around 3,000 feet. Flagstaff, at the summit of the mountains along Route 66, is 7,000 feet in altitude. That's a lot of climbing in the next 300 miles. Now the lightest cars with the most power will really shine.
I just checked the race standings as they are posted right now. Looks like a real battle is materializing between 3rd and 4th position. Principia is only two minutes ahead of Waterloo.
This has been a great overnight stop here at the campus of New Mexico State University. Sandia National Laboratory and NREL have put on a nice show and the New Mexico solar folks have been feeding the teams all day from their solar cookers - hot dogs, pizza and cookies. Great to be able to relax and get recharged.
At tonight's team meeting Princiapia was awarded the teamwork award and North Dakota State University was awarded the sportsmanship award. New Generation Motors (NGM) awarded the stage winner, Rolla, with yellow shirts.
REPORTS FROM THE ROAD
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