American Solar Challenge 2003 - July 27th

Race Recap

Now that our team is home, I'd like to send out a final race-related message...

I can speak for our team by saying that everyone who attended the race thoroughly enjoyed the trip, even though it was a long an exhausting race. Below are some highlights from my perspective on this race:

Apparently, our team impressed ASC headquarters with our ability to turn in paperwork on time. We were awarded the "Headquarters Award" for being the most cooperative team during the registration process, most of which was completed before our arrival in Chicago.

Thirty-one teams registered for the 2003 ASC; twenty of those teams qualified to participate in actual cross-country race, and Auburn finished in twelfth place.

Of the eleven solar cars that finished ahead of us, eight of those cars were equipped with the highly expensive and highly efficient Gallium Arsenide solar cells, unlike the Silicon solar cells on our car. Unofficially, our car finished fourth among solar cars that used the more-affordable Silicon cells.

If you look at the final race data from ASC, you'll notice that only 12 cars completed the entire 2,300-mile race without having to trailer. Numerous times during the race, headquarters would call me and ask, "Is Auburn still on the road?" Our response was always a definitive, "Yes!" For our determination and enthusiasm to complete every mile of the race without tailoring, we were awarded the "Spirit of ASC" award and the facetious "Energizer Bunny Award."

Traveling 2,300 miles along a pre-defined route is not an easy task. Our route took us through small towns, back roads, and interstates. I'm proud to say that we only made three wrong turns during the entire race, all of which were corrected immediately. Brooke, Dr. Williams, and Joyner did a superior job in the navigation.

Our six solar car drivers (Rob, Matt, Vince, Daniel, Jeff, and myself) successfully dodged most of the potholes between Chicago and L.A. Collectively, we ran only one red light during the race and received a 4-minute penalty for this infraction. We had just one tire go flat on us during the race. We changed the tire and were back on the road within 6 minutes.

I'd like to thank everyone who sent encouraging messages during our race. I received about 150 solar car related emails during our trip, and I'm glad to know that we have a solid support base from friends and family.

We'll add more race photos to the web page, www.auburn.edu/solarcar within the next few weeks.

War Eagle and God Bless!

Chris Trueblood
Team Captain
truebcp@auburn.edu