Pre-Race Update

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Greg Nash.

Here is a recap of our past week. We logged about 1000 km on Daedalus on our way up to Darwin through the outback. Aside from a flat tire Daedalus performed like a champ in the shinning sun of the outback! Daedalus had no problem on the hot roads, road trains or any of the other random surprises in the hot desert.

While traveling the Stuart highway we encountered wild kangaroos, night time wind storms, beautiful scenery and a wonderful views of the Milky-way at night. Many of us can not wait to get back to the remote stretches of the Stuart highway to see the stars at night after racing Daedalus.

We arrived in Darwin last Saturday and went straight to the race track to perform our pre-race checks. What we found was amazing! Around 40 other solar vehicle teams are at the Hidden Valley Raceway preparing their vehicles to compete in the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge!

We have been putting in long days, rising before the sun is up and leaving long after it has set it. It's a lot of work but it is all worth it.

On Thursday we went through Static Scrutineering. All of our in-vehicle systems passed! We had one minor problem with our battery lock-box that was promptly fixed. We are hoping to get some track time today after Dynamic Scrutineering to get out there to max out our systems and do our final checks.

Daedalus is performing like a champ. She is so fast that our chase vehicle is having trouble keeping up with it on the racetrack! Tomorrow morning we begin the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge! We cant wait to begin.