American Solar Challenge 2003 - July 19th
New Mexico
This morning we're in Santa Rosa, NM. We spent the night here and thoroughly enjoyed an extra hour of sleep due to the time zone change. Our car is charging now while we take turns raiding the continental breakfast at the Super 8 Motel. We have about 65 miles of I-40 to battle, then about 45 miles on old 66 to Albuquerque.
Driving on the Interstate is very fast-paced. We are required to maintain at least a 35 mph speed, but today's interstate run will take us up 3000 feet in elevation to over 7000 feet. We should have enough battery power to assist us in this section.
Chris Trueblood
Despatch from the trenches
It is a beautiful morning here in New Mexico as we try to complete the final 168-mile interval of our second race stage from Rolla, MO, to Albuquerque, NM. Team spirits are high and getting higher with the realization that we've passed the halfway-point of our journey. In approximately one hour, we hope to become one of only twelve teams that have driven every mile of the race thus far.
I think it is significant that we are holding our own against, arguably, the top six engineering programs in the country:
MIT -- did not show up at Chicago
Stanford -- currently in 14th place
Berkeley -- currently in 15th place
Georgia Tech -- did not qualify
Purdue -- currently in 16th place
Michigan -- did not qualify
That having been said, there is still plenty of racing left; about 850 miles worth. Every one of the top nine teams, except for Kansas State, is equipped with gallium arsenide solar cells. It is almost like there are two separate races being run; one with GaAs cells and the other with silicon cells. We think there are a couple of teams that we can still hope to pass. By the same token, there are GaAs teams behind us -- Iowa St. and Stanford -- that might do well the rest of the way.
Media coverage of the event, and of the Sol of Auburn, continues to be very good. Auburn people have shown up at almost every stop along the way. We've just completed a 80-mile stretch of I-40, with camera-toting spectators stopped on the shoulder seemingly every mile of the way. Tractor-trailer rigs passing by continue to be a point of concern. Berkeley's array got airborne yesterday breaking latches ... fortunately no one was hurt. We continue to strive towards driving every mile of the race and to try to finish in the top ten.
Regards,
Sushil