Monday, May 12

Hello from Topeka! Today, Monday, was a great day for our solar car. We successfully checked-in our car and passed various tests (braking, electrical system, mechanical system, solar cells, etc.), and we are ready to run our car on the track tomorrow. The race begins on Wednesday, so we'll have some time to rest on Tuesday.

We were the first team to pass all the scrutineering stations. We still have a few minor changes to make on our car before Wednesday, but we're mostly ready to begin the race.

Many other teams are still working hard on their cars, trying to prepare them for the second (and last) day of scrutineering. We're sharing the same hotel with Western Michigan University. They, like most other teams, have been friendly to us. Our trailer looks awesome with its stickers and logos. However, it doesn't top out Iowa State's full-size 18-wheeler.

Tonight we're grilling out by the pool at our hotel. I've seen many other solar cars today*most of which are 2 to 4 times as expensive as ours. I think that if we can continue to play hard and play smart, that we'll do well in the upcoming race.

And yes, we did find a BBQ house that serves sweet tea in Topeka*amazing.

Tuesday, May 13

In the morning it rained so we decided to stay indoors. When the weather cleared around lunchtime, we took the solar car back to the race track and drove it around the road course a few times. A few minor problems surfaced, but we fixed them this evening.

Also, today we ran in the Sprint competition ... a quarter-mile drag race. We had the highest top speed of the 6 cars that participated, and we had the third highest time for running the quarter-mile drag strip.

We'll begin the ASC Qualifier Race on Wednesday at 9:00am. The weather should be in our favor tomorrow and Thursday, but in Kansas you can never be too certain.

15 teams registered to participate in this week's events, 3 teams successfully passed most of the inspections, and 6 teams successfully completed all of the inspections. So, there will be 9 cars starting the Race on Wednesday. We're going to be third in the line-up.

Wednesday, May 14

It's been a tough two-days of racing but Sol of Auburn held up pretty well. The road course at Heartland Park is extremely rough with lane-wide gaps throughout the course. The turns are very tight -- so tight that when we drove our van on the course the evening before the race 30 was the top speed on most of the turns. Our solar car averaged about 28 mph on the track.

The rough track has caused all but 3 or 4 car teams to have problems. During the races we would receive reports from other teams about the status of their car on the track. They included reports of wheels flying off of cars, spin outs, tows into the pit, and damaged equipment.

In contrast, Sol never broke down on the track. We detected and corrected our major problems when the car was in the pit.

Fifteen teams showed up on Monday for check in. Only ten passed the necessary inspections to race this week. When the qualifiers were over, Auburn had qualified and was seeded 5th.

submitted by Chris Trueblood