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Today was a very up and down day for the team. We started early, trying to get a little more charge in our batteries after a cloudy afternoon yesterday. The sun taunted us, hiding behind thick clouds until ten minutes before the start of the day's racing. We moved off slowly, trying to look after our battery pack and get some charge from the clearer skies.
As the stage progressed we picked up our pace, and we were able to catch up Aurora's car. Regenerative braking to slow down behind Aurora cut out our motor controller, delaying our overtaking manoeuvre but as we pulled into the control stop at Yunta we were ahead.
At Yunta there was frantic activity to change all three of our wheels since they had been damaged when we pulled off the road for the controller problem. Leaving the control stop we had a taste of problems to come. The motor controller wouldn't start, and then the telemetry system had to be reset not long later.
Halfway through the leg we lost power again, with no power coming from the batteries. After some time by the side of the road it was found that a section of our pack was open circuited, not allowing any current through. After some time some cells were bypassed and we were back on the road again.
With our car running properly again we continued on to Olary for the second control stop. Unfortunately Aurora had already left this stop, putting them at least 30 minutes ahead of us. The final run into Broken Hill was fairly uneventful, with the car able to pick up speed to charge up the hills just outside the Silver City and into town.
We pulled into the finish line and quickly set up camp atop a hill beside Aurora to take advantage of the sun and to work on our respective cars. We eventually found the problem with our battery pack. Some of the connections between cells had fatigued, breaking the connection between them. It's frustrating that such a small thing can ruin our chances for winning the stage.
Willy The Whale
Willy!
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