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The UNSW Solar Racing Team has spent the last four days on the road, leaving our workshop in Sydney on Friday and arriving this afternoon in Adelaide. This will be our base for now until the start of SunRace 2003 on Saturday. Before then the team will be working to prepare UNSW Sunswift II for the gruelling race ahead, and for scrutineering and grid trials on Friday before the start of the race.
The team has followed the route of the race in reverse, familiarising ourselves with the route and gathering valuable data on the route using a GPS receiver. This will assist us in running a strategy during the race to make the most of our car's capabilities.
The first day of our trip was a fairly easy day's driving. We started off late in the morning to allow some last minute packing and making sure the team was well rested. We stopped off in Canberra to visit past team member Jamie Green and give some newer team members training in maintenance of our solar array.
As ominous storm clouds gathered and obscured the sun we packed up and headed on to Gundagai, passing through a brief storm on the way. In light of the rain we splashed out to stay in caravans for the evening, rather than risk a wet night camped in swags. As it turned out the storm had completely bypassed Gundagai and it was a dry evening.
The Saturday was a longer day of driving. We decided that we'd get the solar car out on the road for some testing, and to practice our pit stops. UNSW Sunswift II drove without problems, and by the time we reached the outskirts of Albury we were happy with the way it had been performing, so the car was packed away before we continued on towards Melbourne.
After a brief diversion in Melbourne's outer suburbs as the lead car struggled with navigation, we were on our way out again. Finally as the shadows started to lengthen we pulled in to our accommodation in Bendigo, still with a little bit of light left to put our array debugging into practice. A late night was spent by some team members fixing some minor problems with our electrical system.
Sunday saw an earlier start, with the plan to make it through to Broken Hill with enough time to have the array out in the sun. After driving through Peterborough and on the way to Mildura we couldn't pass up the clear skies on offer at a petrol stop to do some array testing. Over the past two days the sky had been hazy due to recent bushfires, giving less than ideal light conditions. At this stop some team members had to be persuaded not to take a puppy which had befriended us with us.
Finally we were on our way through Mildura and on to Broken Hill. With the vast expanses of not very much on this leg the team played games of I Spy with My Little Eye to entertain itself. We eventually reached Broken Hill, staying at the caravan park that we'll be visiting again soon as the race stops in Broken Hill overnight.
Today was a fairly easy day as we covered the first two stages of the race, passing through Peterborough on our way to Adelaide. There was plenty of time when we arrived at our cabins to get to work on the many little jobs which always have to be done prior to racing.
Willy The Whale
Willy!
Mail Bag
If you have a question for the team, or would like to wish them well, write to our mail bag, care of Ask Willy. | | | |
