Crossing the finish line in Adelaide

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29 October 2007: WSC 2007 Results
It's been a few days since the last update - we've been busy celebrating in Adelaide! Jaycar Sunswift III crossed the end of timing at 4:11pm on the 26th October, and we drove through the ceremonial finish the next morning. We placed 4th in the Adventure class, 11th overall, 1st two seater vehicle, and 1st silicon car in Adventure class. Last night, much to our surprise, we were awarded with the prestigious Freescale Technical Innovation Award for the high efficiency of our car. Photos and more information will be posted once we arrive back in Sydney, so keep an eye on this spot.

26 October 2007: Race Day 6 Midday Report
We have just left Port Augusta at 12:30 after a record three minute wheel change and are heading to Adelaide at 85km/hr which means we should reach the Adelaide control stop (20km out of the city on Princes Highway) by 3:45. We anticipate being held there for up to twenty minutes and then will head down Main North Road, through North Adelaide and follow King William Street to Victoria Square where all the cars will be on display for the weekend.

25 October 2007: Race Day 5 SA Border to Glendambo
Today’s drive took us through the flat dry plains of South Australia past Coober Pedy into Glendambo a good 609 km drive. We averaged a steady 80km/hr and had two control stops, the first was at Cadney where we briefly met two of the Canadian teams, Calgary ahead of us and Blue Sky from Toronto behind us. The second control stop, Glendambo, we reached at 4:45 and camped once again nearby. After a rather uneventful day we finished off the afternoon with two separate tyre changes on the side of the road that took eight and seven minutes respectively. Anthony and I spent over fourty minutes trying to change tyres in the back seat of the Rodeo on the road and were feeling rather pleased with ourselves until we were told the teams previous tyre changer took only ten minutes.

Despite the fact that Yael noticed both flat tyres early by the time we got the car off the road we had an impressive looking tyre to put on the wall shredded all the way around. Once the rim had had a quick sand it was as good as new and we are ready to go for what should be our last day on the road with the solar car. If all things go well we will make it to the final Adelaide control stop by four thirty and come through North Adelaide down King William Rd to be in Victoria Square by 5:30. If you are around Adelaide come down and look at all the cars that will be displayed in Victoria Square for the weekend.

Clara and Anthony with a Successful Tyre Change	Yael and Dan with the Flat Tyre

24 October 2007: Race Day 4 Alice to SA Border
Apologies for the sporadic nature of the web updates, it corresponds predominantly to limited phone coverage along with your regular updater abandoning her post to get her hands dirty and assist with wheel and tire changes. As we come nearer to Adelaide and reception improves we shall endeavour to keep you informed more regularly.
As today’s departure was not until 1:30 we had a leisurely morning woken by Nuna’s support vehicle playing the ‘Skippy” theme song and “Land Down Under” from the speaker mounted on its roof. The weather was beautiful and sunny enabling the battery to be fully charged by midday while the team stocked up on food, fuel and showering and attended to the odd electrical issues.
With a full battery pack, Smithy drove a cracking pace in Sunswift which maintained our place and we arrived at five o’clock without any incident to camp in a little rise in sight of the South Australian border. Setting up the tilter to catch the last light of the day has become routine and was followed by Anthony’s nightly tire changes. The mood of the evening was light and cheerful and Ken took out his bagpipes that proved entertaining for all.

Sunswift on the Road	Array at Sunset

23 October 2007: Day Three
Today was the best day so far. The car had a total of 11 minutes off the road, which was for a driver change and wheel check. For what had to be done, 11 minutes is quite good, so we were pretty happy.

We had cloud cover for most of the day, from when we left Tennant Creek, until two hours before Alice. We kept a constant 60km/h, and passed a few teams along the way.

The drive into Alice was absolutely stunning, our car building up speed down the hills, and handling like an absolute dream. It has definitely the best driving of the trip so far.

On arrival into Alice we set up the array to charge, and went to find the time boards.
The picture says it all really,

We are coming 4th in Adventure class, and 10th overall! The team was absolutely over the moon. We are two and a quarter hours behind the next car in our class, so it’s unlikely that we’ll make 3rd, but we’ll be chasing as hard as we can anyway. Due to the stopover in Alice, we’ll be leaving half an hour behind them, so we might pass them on the road, but they’ll still have a major time advantage.

The atmosphere in Alice Springs is great – all the teams are here, and camped together overnight, the Dutch team Nuna, who are currently coming first, had a swimming pool set up, and there are showers!

Tomorrow morning the Challenge class will leave, starting with Nuna, at 8am, followed by the Belgian team, Umicore, at 9.22. The Adventure class will start to leave at midday, at intervals of half an hour. The team that was coming first overall, the Japanese car TIGA, will leave first in our class. They also have a chance of catching up the first Challenge class vehicles, and both Nuna and Umicore have had some minor troubles that have cost them some time, so it should make for an interesting finish.

We needed our sleeping bags for the first time tonight, as it’s started getting a little chilly.

Our Placing At Alice Springs	Our Descent into Alice Springs

21 October 2007: Race day 1
Apologies to those with very little time, but now we are on the race, the updates will be longer. Due in part to lots happening, but mostly to me sitting in a car for 7 hours a day.

In summary, Jason cheered us on at the start line, and then went home. Jaycar sent up their four best store managers at the start line to cheer us on, which was brilliant. We acquired a great observer called Winston, Simon and Smithy drove the solar car, we camped, ate well and slept well.

Now, in more detail...

Jason left us today, to head home, like a trooper he got up at 4:45 with the rest of us, and came to wave us on at the start line. It was great to have him around, and we're hoping he enjoyed himself. Congrats again for winning the competition!

By 5:15 this morning, our solar car was in it's start position at State Square in the centre of Darwin, with thirty-eight other solar car teams. Our qualifying lap meant we were starting at position 22. By 7.30 this morning, state square was packed with people to watch the start of the race.

We would like to give a huge thank you to Gary Johnston of Jaycar, who thought we could do with a cheer squad, and so sent up four of the best store managers to cheer us on at the start line. It was really really nice for all of us to meet them, and they were all so enthusiastic about us and the car, they helped to dispel the last minute nerves some of us were getting. So thank you to Gary, and to the four we met this morning. It was very much appreciated.

On the start line, one of the top teams had to pull out and start last due to electrical issues, and the team in front of us couldn't find their support cars in time, meaning that we left in position 20.

The morning's driver was Simon, who drove what was probably the hardest driving of the day if not the course, from Darwin to Katherine. Time wise, it is one of the longest stints, hilly and shady, which was fine for our solar car to drive, but difficult for us to overtake safely. Unfortunately we were stuck behind a team travelling at 50km/h as we approached the biggest hill of the race, and couldn't get up the speed we were hoping to. Our motor came close to overheating, so Simon had to pull up halfway up the hill. Ten minutes later we were on our way again. We had two more unscheduled stops that morning, to reset and re program our trackers, losing us a total of approximately half an hour driving.

Our first observer of the race was Winston, who as it turns out has organised the first South African Solar Car Challenge, which he is in the process of convincing us to attend (not a hard job). He is excellent company, good for a laugh, and has been filming us constantly, and keeping us on our best behaviour..

After work and dinner had been finished, three of us and Winston went to scout out if there were any teams ahead of us. While we didn't find any teams, we did find Larrimah's animal man, who in his collection had several salt water crocodiles (~9m long), a baby kangaroo who he'd rescued when it's mum was run over, and a couple of very friendly dogs, who were acting as it's mum.
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Dinner was superrrb as usual, and everyone was in bed and sound asleep by 9.30pm.

After some discussion with the officials last night, and a Norwegian tourist this morning (who took his holidays especially so he could drive up and down and follow the race) we can conclude that we are placed somewhere between 12th and 20th. We will know more after the control stop at Dunmurra.

Our garage neighbours on either side, Umicore (Belgium), and TIGA (Japan) are currently placed first and second, which is great, since they were both really nice teams (and clearly have really good cars..)

For all the parents, everyone is healthy, fed, watered, slept, and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Quick update: As of the Dunmurra control stop, we are placed
fourteenth overall.

Jaycar Sunswift III at the start line!	Our day 1 marker - Winston kindly let one of the team add decoration..

20 October 2007: One day to go!!
Today the team was at the Hidden Valley racetrack slightly earlier than usual, at 6.45am this morning, to prepare for the qualifiers. Last night Konny, Anthony and Smithy had to re run a brake line, and bleed the brakes, so we took the car for a quick brake test in the car park, at 7am. We blew a front tyre in the process, but the brakes felt fine.

The rest of the day was spent waiting in our garage to get called up for qualifying. Smithy was sitting in the car ready to drive from about 11am, but due to a minor accident on the track (a wheel fell off), we weren’t called to qualify until almost midday. Smithy drove a beautiful lap, and the car successfully passed the handling and braking tests. Many congratulations to Konny, Anthony and Smithy, our mech team. Our car is registered, and ready to go for the start of the race at 8am tomorrow!

It occurs that very little has been said about our elec team, so: courtesy of Andy, we have eight working trackers (we need six and two have been lent to the New Zealand team who had none working previously), courtesy of Dan we have driver controls, a brake cutout, driver display, rear vision, and spare cables, and courtesy of Simon, we have our strategy code, and our assembled, charged and balanced battery pack and our canopy. And courtesy of our guest Jason, we have a spare CAN cable (the hardest to solder and assemble…)

Ken and Clara are our all rounders, and ken is responsible for a large amount of the soldering, the battery boxes, and various bits of carbon work on the car, and Clara has been doing an excellent job with the canopy, the media, and was responsible for the launch.

Jack and Arthur have been keeping everyone entertained, doing all our last minute shopping, feeding us, taking photos, and generally enjoying themselves.

And that is all for today, we are heading off to pack our cars for the race!

A very happy Smithy, after qualifying!	Our race team looking spiffy in our yellow shirts