NASC 2005 Day 2
The race is still very tight with little room for error. We stopped driving today at 5:52 pm in Independence, KS and started charging our batteries. Cars are supposed to stop driving for the day at 5:45 pm but there is a half hour window after so teams can choose a suitable location to stop. After stopping we drove a van ahead to check out Michigan. Michigan is twenty miles ahead of us, but they stopped at 6:04 pm, meaning tomorrow we will start 12 minutes before they do. The race is tight and we have no room for error. Both us and Michigan are driving the speed limit all day, so the race is a matter of reliability.
The morning began mostly cloudy in Weatherford, TX, and with Zac Kahly behind the wheel we set off north. The caravan encountered light showers that were not a problem and so the car continued on. After three hours, we changed drivers and John Wanner drove the next three hours into the media stop at Broken Arrow, OK. The media stop was frantic, with just 30 minutes given to send out the vans to refuel, change drivers, and go to the bathroom. We showed up at the media stop about ten minutes after Michigan, and the University of Missouri - Rolla showed up about ten minutes after us.
After the media stop Peter Meinz was behind the wheel, and it was smooth sailing until the team hit a major thunderstorm system at the Oklahoma - Kansas border. The car worked well during the storm, but we pulled over under an overpass just to play it safe. After the storm passed quickly, and we proceeded smoothly into Kansas.
The weather's looking great tomorrow and we're looking forward to another great day of driving. It is approximately 500 miles to Sioux Falls so we are anticipating a Thursday morning arrival at that media stop. We would love any and all fans to show up if they have the time.
July 18, 2005
Comments
John Farmer
Great job, and all that array looks excellent, but i think you're losing track of the days, cause by my count, you should have a little less than 100 miles to Sioux Falls when you start on Wednesday morning
Posted by: John Farmer | July 18, 2005 at 11:15 PM
bleeder
EVERYBODY GET DOWN!!!! ITS A SNIPER!!!!!!!
Posted by: bleeder | July 18, 2005 at 11:53 PM
Adam Delwiche
Good Job!
ASC is reporting that you guys and gals are in first place (at Broken Arrow, I believe)
http://americansolarchallenge.org/event/asc2005/media/daily0718.pdf
"As of 11 p.m. CDT, the University of Minnesota has moved into first place. The University of Missouri-Rolla and the University of Michigan are in second and third place."
"Minnesota traveled the 518 miles in 10 hours, 9 minutes and 33 seconds. Missouri-Rolla is 37 minutes behind at 10:46:58. Michigan arrived in at 10:59:41."
That is an average of 51mph!
Good Luck tomorrow!
Posted by: Adam Delwiche | July 19, 2005 at 12:17 AM
DragonflyTV Fans
Go speed racers! Long distance cheers from your DragonflyTV fan club in St. Paul.
Posted by: DragonflyTV Fans | July 20, 2005 at 10:17 AM