Track qualifier & race day one!
Principia Solar Car Team
G'day solar enthusiasts!
We had a very exciting day at the track yesterday for qualifying. Every team was required to have one driver complete a warm up lap followed by a timed hot lap to determine pole position. Then the cars had to complete a u-turn, lane change, and breaking test.
We were about the tenth team out on the track and Jackson was looking very good coming out of his warm up lap. He was certainly glorifying when he finished with a 2:06 lap time, taking pole for fastest lap. Our fastest lap time held up for quite a while, until Turkish team Solaris and Western Sydney completed 2:03 and 2:00 laps, respectively.
After about 33 teams went, the "top 10" shootout began, which involved the top ten teams as chosen by the WSC race officials. Before these top teams went, we were holding third position. We ended the day in 9th position after three of the favorite teams clocked slower laps than we did.
All in all it was a very exciting day at the track. After qualifying, we finished packing up the crate and then went to dinner downtown where we tried some local favorites: crocodile, kangaroo, and barramundi.
Today was another glorious day in Northern Territory. We began with Ra9 and the team on display near the start line for a public viewing. We had lots of good questions and interest about our car and Principia College. And we handed out a lot of our info cards!
We started the race at 8:38 am from the start line headed south towards the first checkpoint in Katherine. The road was much bumpier than expected and we were having some issues with the trackers turning on and off, meaning we weren't maintaining a consistent charge from the array.
We reached Katherine by 1:42 pm, 322 km from the start line, with Jackson behind the wheel. At the end of our Katherine stop, Hayley got in the car and drove about 124 km. We ended up ending the day a few minutes before the required 5 pm stopping time because we still weren't getting enough charge from the array, leaving us in 16th position. We set up camp and began working on the car, trying to rewire the array.
We hope the issue has been solved and we expect a great day tomorrow!
Cheers,
Annika