We are currently on the road! Our support vehicles left right on time with weather leaving at 8:30 and scout leaving at 8:50. Continuum left 10 minutes later at 9am sharp. The starting line setup was great. Unlike WSC, all the support vehicles were already lined up in order. As the solar car came through the start line our lead vehicle was already in front ready to go. Chase pulled in behind and were off. With a police watching the turn onto the road we took off down the race route. We are now 6 miles out. More updates to come soon.

Race day begins quite early as the team is currently traveling to Plano. Getting Continuum out, doing a full inspection, and then getting ready for the all team photo will take us to 7am. Continuum will then be at the star line no later than 8:45. By the way, we have officially won pole position and will cross the start line first at 9am.

We have also made a few modifications to the team in the past couple days. I would like to welcome Paula Harrison back to the team. Paula was a driver for Continuum in the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge and she will be driving again in NASC. We are also inviting two Western Michigan students to join our team and travel with us as unfortunately they did not qualify this year.

Good luck to all the 15 teams competing today and my sympathy to the teams that did not qualify; we look forward to seeing you in the next WSC or NASC!

As the day progresses I will continue to update the blog via my phone with quick status updates!

Go fast, Go smooth, Go BLUE!!

We have successfully completed our second day of qualifying at the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas. From our calculations, we drove enough laps in the two days to earn pole position for NASC 2008!

After nearly a week at the MotorSport ranch in Cresson, we have left for Dallas, where we will be staying prior to the race start in Plano. On tonight’s agenda is dinner with the Alumni Club of Dallas, along with a number of fans and supporters currently in the area. Many thanks to all of those who visited us at the track this week–it was great to have such an enthusiastic crowd to cheer us on.

Today we started the second day of qualifying 38 laps up on Calgary and roughly 60 laps ahead of Minnesota. I was in Continuum for the first two hours of the day, then handed off driving to Brooke for another two hours. Two hours later, at 1 PM, Brooke pulled in for relief and we switched from Sava moped tires to Michelin Solar Radial tires. We had been using the moped tires for their durability on track, though we wanted to run a few laps on the track using our racing configuration.

After a few laps on Michelin tires, I came back in and we swapped in our new front suspension for the first time. This suspension was machined by Paul Relf from our sponsor Viper Technologies in Torrance, California. With this part, we were able to run an NGM motor capable of generating more horsepower to get us around the track quicker. Despite time on the side of the road for the tire and suspension changes, we were able to keep ahead of Minnesota and Calgary, who both spent significant time making repairs.

Although offical results will not be verified until later tonight, we expect to come away with pole position. This should put us in control for the beginning of the race, allowing us to run our own strategy and not waste power passing other teams. Thanks to all the team members, sponsors, alumni, family members, friends, and other supporters who made this possible. We’ll have more updates as the race gets closer!

My apologies for not posting this update sooner, but I’ve been in and out of the car most of the day. I was in the car when the team completed our first 60 laps of qualifying, quicker than any other team–making us the first team to qualify for NASC! It was a hot and grueling 60 laps during the morning, and I was in the car for over 3.5 hours to prepare for and complete these laps. We were the only team that did not have to exit the track between 9:00 AM and 12:30 AM–a testament to Continuum’s reliability and our team’s strength.

Brooke got in the car after I finished my 60 laps, and has since completed over the 15 laps required for each driver. We are currently first place in laps completed. Our biggest competitor from the beginning of the day, Minnesota, has spent a significant amount of time in the pits with both electrical and mechanical problems. Once the track closes at 6:00 PM we’ll surely have some more detailed numbers posted.

As for 7am this morning, we have passed the braking test and completed the final scrutineering station, dynamics! Of the eight stations, we now have green stickers in all eight. Yesterday, the officials also came by with the equipment to measure our array and upon inspection, we passed as well.

That means we are now ready to race on the track. The track qualifying event begins today in 15 mins and will last two full days. Each team needs to complete 60 laps to qualify. After this is completed we will continue to run on the track to amass as many laps as possible. The team with the most laps, starts the race Sunday morning first.

The car is currently driving to the track and will be ready to start racing at 9am sharp! Steve will be our first driver and Brooke will follow this afternoon.

John timing a braking test prior to our departure for Texas. TruckNTow.com provided much of our safety equipment including flags and safety vests. SportsCounters.com provided each race crew member with a stopwatch for just such occasions.
Unloading Continuum on the track in Cresson, TX.
Passing the figure 8 test during scrutineering.
Our sleeping quarters, provided by Base-X. This was before we set up a second Base-X tent for working on the car.
A Whelen strobe light was taken from one of our support vehicles and added to the solar car in order to pass regulations.

Thank you to all of our new sponsors!! (Image of the new logo on the semi.)

The 2007 University of Michigan Solar Car Team race crew ended up as a remarkably accomplished wave of new students. It included students ranging from Mechanical to Aerospace to IOE to LSA to the School of Education. Each one of us had traded a career of accomplishment to vest themselves in the same altruism that was felt by Solar Car Alumni years ago. I for one stared wide-eyed into a life that would change me as much as it had changed the Solar Car Team members before me.

This was the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, Project: Continuum. There would be nothing else like it on or off campus and I knew that after my time on the Solar Car Team, I would be like nothing else on or off campus. The only thing that the Solar Car Team promised me and everyone on Race Crew is that we’d get the opportunity to prove ourselves. Indeed, most of us did. I for one scrambled to define my role on the team. I knew that Michigan Race Crew Alumni could teach a monkey to build the entire car; what they wanted instead, was someone strong and smart enough to know when to push the car farther and when to back off. Race Crew members are not mindless workers facing a generic race. This was a race that demanded the heart of every team and this was a team that runs on the business of discipline and dedication. The Solar Car Team wanted everything from me and I must admit that there were points in time when I felt everything was too much. I knew though, I had volunteered for this job and I could quit anytime I liked. But that would accomplish nothing.

As time went past, the true meaning of Solar Car Team surfaced. It didn’t simply stand for Solar Car Team. It stood for Strength, Courage, and Teamwork. Strength to hold on not only as an individual but also as a team through the best and the worst, Courage to redefine and push the limits of solar car racing with every passing year and Teamwork to accomplish any task, any problem as a team and knowing that we would succeed and fail only as a team and nothing less. Soon for all of us on Race Crew, “Solar Car Team” slowly became our first, middle and last name.

As a team we grew, but a team isn’t built overnight. There were times when we all sat in a classroom at a mandatory meeting to discuss our feelings. I waited for someone to fire up the warm soapy tub and start singing “kumbaya”. Never happened. Sitting in a circle, I knew the sentiment seemed common. Even though some of us stood on the edge of self implosion, it seemed to be no one else’s business. But I was wrong. It was. As a team we came to know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes better than anyone else on earth. We knew things girlfriends, boyfriends, dads and moms will never think to ask, see things that no one else would ever understand and bare things no one else would want to see. Words like brother and sister came out because in many ways, we work on a level of trust few people ever know. We succeeded because of our trust in each other: 23 hands with one heart. Work together and live. Fragment and die. The rules are so elegantly simple. These rules would be understood soon enough for all of us.

The overwhelming sense of loss we felt is difficult to explain even now. We as a team hadn’t known a whole lot of failure, yet that moment, that image still engraved in our minds, made the whole two years seem like a waste. It gripped us as the single greatest mistake of our life. Just being there. For an entire summer, we focused all our energy on building and preparing to race the best solar car the world would see. We also invested ourselves into the process of developing the best team that ever assembled. Then within the course of 5 minutes, it all went away. All the work. All the sacrifice. All the prayers. My mind flipped back through every lesson the Solar Car Team had taught me, from the first hand experiences, to Solar Car Alumni instructions to the Solar Car Team’s motto: “Go fast, go smooth, go blue”.

I now understand that what happened at the World Solar Challenge will weigh on me a little longer than I had originally thought. During my lifetime at Australia, I’d strolled the years of my life, guessing, believing, regretting, hoping. I’d read books, written documents, watched movies, consumed who knows how many gallons of water, all in hope of getting home with my head in one piece. My dreams replayed the sound of terror raging through; faces appeared as a slow parade. I woke up and laid there with a wrenching sadness in my stomach. All I wanted at that moment was to run back in time.

A few days later, I took a stroll out in the nearby hills of my hometown, Fremont. The place begged me to return to Australia Nothing pleased me. I realized then that I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted, but it would not make much of a difference. There’s no place I haven’t already been. Right then, I knew what lay ahead. What I had to do. No sorry, what WE as a team needed to do. We as a team couldn’t fall. Falling down wouldn’t help. Lots of other people depended on us. Each and every one of us could run as far as we wanted, regretting, hoping, as I’ve done in the hills, but the real destination lay inside us. The voices in us that reminded us of the World Solar Challenge and what happened. As long as we live, they will be with us.

I spent the next few hours on the plane back to Michigan remembering what I was taught about in standing up to the consequences of failure and watching my days in Australia flash in front of me in less time it took for me to compose this. In that moment, I remembered what it was that made me and probably everyone else on Race Crew join the Solar Car Team to begin with—A challenge, A cause. We didn’t join for a grade, for money or for anything else. For most, Solar Car had very little to do with our future lives: lawyer, biomedical engineer, artist, school administrator. If that cause is not meaningful enough to withstand the test of a couple falls, then it isn’t worth investing our lives in. You can’t just give up and die the first time someone knocks you down. Right then, I realized how I’d lost myself. It didn’t really have much to do with Australia, the World Solar Challenge, or my summer in Ann Arbor. It had to do with me. I’d stood too long in the Solar Car Team’s model of excellence. Selection bred it. Race Crew grew it. Months on the team made it part of my inner self. But it’s just a myth. Sometimes the strongest men and women fail, even with the best intentions. There were many gifts that have been given to Race Crew. One of them is weakness. Another is the ability to accept it.

I could remember the start at the World Solar Challenge—the countdown. It was just our Race Crew and the world. This moment. All the choices that we made thus far summarized in one immeasurable consequence. That quickly, it could be over. We breathe. Sometimes the most important decisions are the ones you don’t make. My mind turned to Rogers, Brooke, Sarah, and all of Race Crew—All heroes in their own way. There’s Rogers teaching a wide-eyed new kid on solar car how to wire up a GM vehicle without getting himself killed. There’s Sarah, who dragged me back into a world that made sense every time I drifted away. There’s Brooke, leading and showing me the way toward something new and better. And in every picture, someone pulls me deeper into the moment, a greater truth. I see my family waiting for me to come home. Their smiles raise me, no matter how difficult the scene or painful the recollection. They save me when I fall.

“Five”
I’m a 20 year old. A two and half year member of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team. This is my 1st race on Race Crew. In some ways I feel like I’ve been training for this all my life. In some ways I feel like I have no idea what my next move is. No matter what happens, I know my team is behind me

“Four”
You think about all the hundreds of tests run you’ve done, the hundreds of bolts you screwed in. The very first hour of the day to the last hour, we’ve worked. We practice until our hands go numb. Continuum is our pride and proof of our team’s success

“Three”
The Sun is our fuel, our power and here, our entire universe boils down to a solar car and 25 human beings working in concert to run the best race with no error.

“Two”
Keys in ignitions, array online, computers powered up, sunglasses on, gloves on, seat belts click. This was our time to shine; our time to show the world what it means to be a Michigan Wolverine, our time to prove our excellences.

“One”
And so it begins. Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue.
* * * *

Arriving back from the World Solar Challenge in Australia, I wanted to tone back on Solar Car and focus my life on academics, not that my Solar Car experiences were mediocre in anyway. There will be nothing in my life that would be on par with the experiences that the team has given me. More than a course, the team showed us that academics were necessary and at the same time that we were scratching the tip of the iceberg of what the real world entailed. It was the middle of January when there was talk of having an entirely new race crew assembled to race our car for the North American Solar Challenge. It was the same car that we placed our sweat and tears into from Ann Arbor to Australia, from the initial mold to the crash to the finish line.

We as a team came together and after much deliberation, we realized that even though most of us were done with solar racing, we simply were not finished with the team. Greater than just myself, the team had one more chance to prove to the world what Michigan was capable of. We all had unfinished business on the team and this would be the time to finish it. No one knew the car better than we did. No one knew each of the members of the race crew the way we knew each other’s strengths, weakness, likes, and dislikes. We succeeded, as a team in Australia, because of our trust in each other and we were going to show it once more.

I rejoined the team in charge, once again, of race crew and support vehicle outfitting and communication. Reunited, most of us, we set out to show the world what they missed in the World Solar Challenge. At the same time new members of Race Crew have joined us in our journey. I smile every time I see each and every one of them. In many ways, they were reflections of who we were a year ago and their enthusiasm reminds us of the many people, young and old, we inspire every single year. From long public relations events to a simple drive by, the amazement and joy we pass on is immeasurable on any scale. My every move everyday has changed because of how much I want to instill in their minds with the experiences that have been laid upon me ever since I started.

With each passing day, filled of hope and pride, we will continue to move forward together–no matter what. I know for me, it has been and still is a huge honor to have the opportunity to race alongside so many magnanimous students. For some of us, the journey is coming to a close, for most our journey has only begun. One team, one heart, one dream, one sun, one car.

One.

-Richard Ho

Nearing the end of day two of scrutineering our team finds itself with just two more stations to complete: array and dynamics.

Scrutineering lasts three days and is made up of eight stations that are used to ensure each team meets regulations and has both a safe car and a safe team. The eight stations are support, array, electrical, battery protection, mechanical, driver, body & sizing, and dynamics. The only station that does not relate directly to the solar car is the support station. This station ensures that the support vehicles have the proper equipment and that the team is practicing proper safety techniques. After demonstrating our safety procedures and getting a couple pointers from the safety officer, we were able to properly demonstrate safe roadside procedures and pass the station.

The array station checks for array power and measures the array to ensure it fits to regulations. We have passed most of the station, but we are still awaiting officials to create the templates needed to ensure we have the correct number of solar cells on our car. Hopefully officials will have the templates completed tomorrow. The electrical station looked into all electrical components of the solar car and was coupled with battery protection (BPS). BPS is important as it shuts off the battery pack if any battery module goes over voltage, gets too hot, or meets a few other non-safe conditions. We passed both these stations on our first pass!

Next we have the mechanical station. Receiving a yellow sticker at this station on Monday meant we had three things to fix on the vehicle. Returning to the station this afternoon, we have now received a green sticker and have cleared the mechanical station. We also weighed in our driver, passed egress (the driver was able to get out of the vehicle in under 10 seconds), and passed the driver station. Next up we have the body & sizing station. This station inspects the vehicle to ensure it meets many of the remaining regulations such as the size of the vehicle, the presence and intensity of lights, the visibility of the driver, and many others. Passing this station on Monday with a yellow sticker, we returned today and received a green sticker.

Following the main stations is dynamics. Teams must complete driver, body & sizing, mechanical, electrical, and battery protection with at least a yellow sticker before attempting to pass the dynamic station. Attending this station on Monday, we passed the turning tests, the figure eight test, and the slalom test. We need to return and repeat the U-turn test, and complete the dry and wet breaking. Unfortunately as soon as we were ready to return today, a large storm hit Cresson, Texas. With rumors of hail, we decided to put the car away and attend the station early tomorrow morning, when the station opens. While putting away the tent, our team took advantage of the Base-X tents. Within minutes of deciding to pack up camp for the upcoming storm, our team set up wind lines on the main tent and had a second tent set up for shelter.

And now the team prepares for sleep and heads to bed. Until tomorrow, good night!

Our first full day at the Cresson MotorSport ranch saw us wake up early to simulate a morning charge. Set up in a grassy field between the garages and the race track, our team was the lone team at the track besides Durham University. While Australian race regulations permitted the team to start charging at sunrise, North American race regulations keep the team’s battery locked and impounded from 8:00 PM until 6:30 AM. Therefore, as much as we enjoyed waking up at 4:30 in Australia to charge, we had to wait until 5:15 AM to wake up.
Charging in the morning

During the morning charge, we took the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the facilities while eating breakfast. Most importantly, team members had the opportunity to shower without having to wait for 20 other teams.
Camp at MotorSport Ranch

Following our morning charge, we took advantage of the empty lot to drive Continuum around for a few tests. Although the track at the ranch remains closed to solar car teams and support vehicles until Wednesday, we did have time to watch track members drive around the 3.1-mile road course. In great contrast to most of the race route, the track at the MotorSport ranch provides for a number of hills and curves. The track should be quite a challenge for most teams, as the elevation changes and camber of the turns both require a lot of extra horsepower–something no team here has. On Thursday and Friday, teams will have a chance to complete as many laps as possible around the track for the race’s pole position–it should be quite interesting to see all the cars on the track at once!

In the afternoon, team members made runs to pick up some items that were needed at the track, as well as picking up a team member from the airport, Chris Hilger. Chris, who has been working on procurement of materials for the 2009 car, will be serving as an observer for the race. When John Federspiel, Sarah Napier, and Chris left the airport, they were able to pick up some titanium that will become part of our 2009 vehicle, Infinium. Thanks to S R Sales Co, near Fort Worth, for sponsoring the team and allowing us to obtain titanium for our next vehicle.
Sarah and John with Marty from SR Sales

In the afternoon, race officials and other teams began to arrive at the ranch, filling the parking lot with a variety of solar cars, trailers, and support vehicles. After months of hard work spent preparing Continuum for the race after Australia, it was a good change seeing all the other teams that have been working hard to ready their vehicles as well.
Teams set up at the ranch

Once all the officials had arrived, our team filled out registration papers and completed driver weigh-in. For NASC, drivers weighing under 80 kg (176 lbs) must carry extra ballast to even out the playing field. Our drivers took very deep breaths while on the scale, but in the end, both were forced to carry quite a bit of extra weight.

In the evening, many teams continued work on their vehicles, while others settled down for the night. While some teams left the ranch for the night, those who remained returned to their tents around the track. We went to bed, preparing for Monday’s first set of scrutineering tests.

Last night our team arrived at the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas, site of scrutineering and qualifying for the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. Our arrival came after two full days of driving from Michigan covering over 1200 miles, as well as a stay in Dallas, Texas. The team will be staying overnight at the MotorSport ranch through Friday, living out of our support trailer and taking cover in our portable shelter. Thankfully, there are air-conditioned facilities for team members to use at the track, though showers are quite limited–this may prove uncomfortable as the week’s temperatures hover at over 95 degrees.
Camp at the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas

The team’s voyage to Cresson began Wednesday evening, when the semi trailer departed our workspace with Continuum. Once again, America’s Transportation Resources (ATR) has provided the team with a driver for the semi trailer, while Exel Logistics has supported the team with the semi cab. For the race, Lonnie Giffen from ATR will be driving the trailer, while David Menke, President of ATR, may be joining us later in the race. Thanks to the support of both of these companies, we knew our semi trailer would be in good hands for the trip down.

No sooner than when the rest of the team left Ann Arbor in our fleet vehicles from GM, did ferocious weather strike again. As we stopped at a restaurant just outside of Ann Arbor, torrential rain showers poured down on us, and gusts of winds at up to 70 mph threw tree branches onto the road. Once the rain storms died down somewhat, the team got back on the road, drove out of Michigan, through Indiana and into Illinois.
Alex snickers at any “racing fuel” other than the sun

After a full evening of driving, we arrived at a hotel in Illinois around 2 am, then departed the next morning. A full day of driving on Thursday saw us arrive in Dallas, Texas, where we were warmly welcomed by the staff at the Embassy Suites Dallas-Love Field, which had offered its support to the team again, after originally becoming a sponsor for our Mock Race. On Friday the Fourth of July, our team took the day off to celebrate the Independence Day Holiday in Dallas. Many team members cherished the opportunity to sleep in at the hotel, recovering from countless consecutive days of work. Much of the group even caught a showing of Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E in theatres, before we headed off to a barbeque at the house of Adriel and Charlotte Givens, family friends of team member Jeff Rogers. We all greatly enjoyed the company and cooking of the Givens family–it was a pleasure to spend the holiday with them. As the sun disappeared and darkness set in, we moved to White Rock Lake Park and found a good vantage point for the evening’s fireworks. From the park we were able to see the city’s multiple fireworks shows as the night passed.
The team celebrating the 4th at the house of Adriel and Charlotte Givens

From left: Jeff, Adriel, Chito

On Saturday, July 5th, it was back to work for the team. After breakfast, we spent the morning and afternoon making final preparations before heading to the track. Engineers made minor modifications to Continuum and the fleet vehicles, while strategists reviewed their code and tested race strategy software. Our operations crew readied themselves for a week at the track, ensuring that the team would be able to function from our support trailer.

After an afternoon of working, the team left for the Dallas/Fort Worth suburb of Watauga, where we dined at OC Burger, owned by Ken French, a family friend of Paula Harrison and her parents, Joe and K.C. Harrison. Paula was a driver of Continuum during the 2007 World Solar Challenge, and her parents have always been great supporters of the team. We thank them for treating us to an amazing dinner, and we look forward to seeing them soon in Texas. The food at OC Burger was enjoyed by all–we recommend it to anyone visiting the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the race.
The team at OC Burger with owner Ken French

With our stomachs filled, the team set out on our final leg of our journey to the track in Cresson. Cresson, located about 30 minutes outside of Fort Worth, was a short drive from OC Burger. Once we pulled into the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, we were greeted by the team from Durham University, one of the international teams who came here all the way from the United Kingdom. Durham had already set up tents at the track, so we set up next to them, had a team meeting of our own, then went to bed. We all knew we would need a good night’s sleep for the upcoming week of events.