Since the team returned from Mock Race, many preparations have taken place to make Infinium a better car and our team perform better.
Yesterday Infinium was driven around campus to test some modifications and caravan procedures. Today Infinium drove on the highway to practice driving at freeway speeds with traffic. While engineers have been busy working on Infinium, the operations division has been outfitting carvan vehicles.
Ford Motor Company was kind enough to loan the team 2 F-150's and 2 Flex's to use as support vehicles during the race. To make them more Michigan themed, a wrap provided by Monroe Vinyl Graphics resembling the Michigan winged helmet was applied to the hood of all four vehicles. Decals provided by Signs in 1 Day were applied to the sides and rear of the vehicles to make them look more official. The vehicle made for some great pictures.
What a week! Mock race was really cool experience. Driving the solar car on open roads and trying to hone my skills at maintaining speed on hills and turns was so much fun. As a member of the electrical division, it was really amazing seeing how well the electrical system performed over the 4 days of racing, and it really made me realize how great of a job the last team did in designing it. I think the mock race gave the team members, new and old, a good idea of what we will be expecting in terms of problems such as troublesome "just before the top of the hill" red lights / stop si... i mean RED signs (haha) and swapping out spares quickly to save time.
Also, looking back, I feel like I joined the team at the right time. I joined while the team was still racing Infinium in Australia and now I will be racing Infinium in ASC2010. Racing a car you didn't build may seem less fun, but I think this will help us to design our next car. I feel that having a good sense of what kind of obstacles the car will face in a race is absolutely essential when designing the car. The process of the team preparing itself and Infinium for ASC gives us the opportunity to generally get familiar with what our next car will need to overcome.
Overall this week was tons of fun, even though we all probably felt disgusting from the blistering heat and 2 days of Base-X with no shower.
Last night the team camped on the Mississippi River. The surrounding landscape created a tremendous view in the morning sun.
Yesterday evening we held a team meeting, and decided to modify the schedule to finish Mock Race one day early. Today we will treat Normal, IL as a 15 minute checkpoint and then sprint the final leg to the finish line in Naperville, IL. By finishing today, the race crew can return to Ann Arbor tonight. Everyone is looking forward to a shower after camping in the humid weather.
The weather is great this morning which will allow Infinium to reach Normal in the early afternoon.
The team rolled into Rolla just before noon today and we observed a 1 hour control stop. During this stop we were able to meet the Missouri S&T Solar Car team and enjoyed chatting about the race and our vehicles.
U of M meets Missouri S&T
After our stop Infinium rolled back onto the road. On our way to Alton, we passed lots of people. It was interesting to see all the different reactions. Some people waved, took pictures, cheered, and there were even a couple "Go Blue!"'s yelled at us. It is amazing to see how many people are exciting to see and learn about solar technology.
The Alton control stop is located right next to the Mississippi River which requires Infinium to cross the Clark Bridge. We were able to get a nice video of Infinium crossing this bridge. I hope you enjoy.
After a long day of travel, the Team has settled down for the night at The Potter's House of Camdenton, Missouri. Senior Pastor Tom Ford and Guy Lombardo have kindly allowed the Team to set up camp behind the church. The Team's caravan vehicles, tent, mobile kitchen, semi trailer, solar car and equipment are set up across the large parking lot and lawn. All of the Race Crew's twenty-odd members will sleep in the Team's Base-X tent tonight. We plan to reach Rolla tomorrow.
Infinium traveled smooth from Topeka to Jefferson City, having only 6 minutes of downtime. As a precaution, Infinium pulled over to replace the rear wheel and motor due to some scrubbing. The modifications our electrical engineers made yesterday saved the team several additional minutes on the side of the road.
Our team observed the 2 hour control stop at the capital building in Jefferson City, and is now back on the road heading to Rolla. We will not be able to reach the stage stop today, so our visit with the team from Missouri S&T will have to be pushed back to tomorrow afternoon.
After observing the stage stop in in Topeka, Infinium left this morning heading towards Jefferson City, Missouri. We are expecting good weather, but the speed limits on this part of the route are very low. The combination of slow speeds and a 2 hour control stop will make it very difficult to reach Rolla today.
After leaving Neosho this morning our team was able to find a small pocket of cloudless sky that followed us all the way to Topeka. It was truly lucky since the sky to our North, East and West was dark and storm. Along the way an operations member was able to get rooms at the Ramada Topeka Kansas sponsored. Tomorrow we will be observing the stage stop to practice our morning and evening procedures, along with some other mechanical and electrical tests.
Mock Race in finally underway. Infinium left the the starting line in Tulsa at 9:00AM this morning. We are expecting good weather this morning and should reach Neosho before 1:00PM this afternoon.
