Barrow Creek

End of Race Day 2: Second Place

Posted Mon, 10/26/2009 - 8:50am by Steven Hechtman

At the end of the second race day, Infinium is currently in second place, positioned 30 km north of Alice Springs. Tokai University, currently in first place, arrived in Alice Springs at 4:06 PM today, so we are essentially 90 minutes behind the race leader. We are 20 km ahead of four-time champions Nuon, although they have gained on us over the course of the day. Once again today, Infinium ran with great reliability, and we spent no time on the side of the road.

Today was marked by dust from a dust storm blanketing the sky for nearly all of our race route. Roughly 80 km into our day we reached the system, which continued all the way to Alice Springs. The dust in the sky limited the amount of power we were able to get from the solar array, forcing us to reduce our speed from the previous day's pace. We anticipate that the dust should clear up tomorrow as we head towards the South Australian border. Once in South Australia, the speed limit will decrease from 130 to 110 kph, making it harder to catch any team ahead of us. However, if we keep a lead over Nuon, we will be in for some great racing for the next half of the race!

More Travels

Posted Sat, 10/17/2009 - 7:16am by Steven Hechtman

Last night we didn't quite make it to Devil's Marbles, and were forced to stop in Barrow Creek due to a lack of 24-hour gas stations in the outback. Since our scout vehicle was low on diesel and would not be able to go any further without a fill-up, we set up our tent a mile away from Barrow Creek, then woke up early to fill up and make it the rest of the way to Devil's Marbles. Once there, we had a great time climbing the rocks! I should note that we had no injuries worse than a few scrapes and cuts.

Our drive north today took us through Tennant Creek, Dunmarra, and all the way to Katherine--all control stops in the race. On the way up, we ran into some members from the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team. It was nice seeing them once again, as we had not crossed paths since their last visit to Detroit over the summer. Tonight we will be camping at Katherine Gorge National Park, and tomorrow we will get a chance to enjoy the park.