The car is in Australia. Our supplies are in Australia. There’s just one more thing we need in Melbourne before we can begin final testing – The Team! Yesterday, Ann Arbor said goodbye to the first wave of the Race Crew. At the time of this post, our advance crew is in flight over the Pacific, due to touch down in southern Australia in a few hours.
The flight path from Detroit to Melbourne is over 9000 miles long. Content adapted from Google Earth.
This first wave consisted of Rachel, Santosh, Ethan, Blaine, AJ, Jordan, and adviser Chito. After flying through Los Angeles, they boarded flights for the 14+ hour journey to Sydney. From there, they’ll change planes and converge on Melbourne on the southern coast of the continent. Waiting for them in the Port will be our semi trailer and Quantum. There will be no time for sightseeing once they’ve arrived – work will begin immediately.
One important task that will begin upon arrival is the outfitting of the chase vehicles. The Strategists in the advance crew will leave on a route survey as soon as this is completed, which will allow the team to begin full mock races shortly after everyone else team arrives. Other members of the advance crew will work on preparing the team’s lodging and working with the Port of Melbourne to retrieve our cargo.
The remaining members of the Race Crew will leave Ann Arbor this Friday. Once the full crew has arrived and relocated to Adelaide (our base of operations through October), Quantum will receive some finishing touches and be put through its paces on Australian turf for the first time. Stay ‘tuned in the coming weeks for blog updates and pictures coming hot from the streets half a world away!
This post was written by Interim Operations Director Aaron Frantz, who cannot sleep on airplanes and would likely go stir-crazy on any flight over eight hours long.
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