Monday, July 23, 2012

Final Results:

Team # and Name	Stage 1 Time	Stage 2 Time	Stage 3 Time	Stage 4 Time	Stage 5 Time	Total Elapsed Time	Miles Credited
2 – Michigan	04:13:29	10:32:55	12:26:15	11:59:47	05:23:55	44:36:21	1652.80
9 – Iowa State	04:22:34	16:03:25	14:02:33	15:36:49	04:49:42	54:55:03	1652.80
32 – Principia	05:26:59	14:22:48	17:12:00	14:18:31	04:29:11	55:49:29	1652.80
254 – CalSol	05:34:35	15:32:19	16:04:08	15:33:46	04:37:17	57:22:05	1652.80
35 – Minnesota	04:32:09	13:25:16	22:01:03	17:00:52	03:53:57	60:53:17	1572.45
256 – Oregon State	5:56:04	17:07:27	16:30:44	31:11:09	06:18:35	77:03:59	1390.05
5 – Illinois State	06:12:05	23:57:36	29:33:27	29:54:57	12:48:54	102:26:59	911.80
20 – Western Michigan	05:10:14	35:54:12	24:18:45	32:07:57	5:31:52	103:03:00	886.80
55 – Montreal	07:21:18	32:25:12	28:46:39	28:58:57	11:38:15	109:10:21	829.35
28 – New Paltz	08:54:39	30:48:12	28:03:03	35:25:57	13:27:42	116:39:33	727.70
4 – MIT	05:27:05	47:10:06	39:49:33	16:00:52	14:08:48	122:36:24	854.65

As published by the Innovators Educational Foundation

Saturday, July 21, 2012

We made it to St Paul, Minnesota, and the 2012 North American Solar Challenge has come to an end. Despite today's weather forecast of clear and sunny skies though, we were unfortunate to spend a large part of this morning pushing through heavy cloud cover and rain. Worried about making it to the finish under our own power, we stayed considerably below marked speed limits until after noon when we finally hit the sun we were promised. As we picked up speed and headed into the twin cities, it became apparent that there was considerably more power in our battery pack than we had expected to finish with. The caravan's speed was more than doubled by the time we were within the last hour of the race, and under the suns rays, were able to maintain the battery pack voltage that we thought would have been nearly depleted by this portion of the race. The team pulled up to the finish line in front of the Minnesota capital with almost half of our pack's energy left which was unfortunate, but after the unpredictable weather we've seen over the past few days, we feel it was worth playing it safe during this last leg of the race to be sure we made it under our own power.

It was good to see those of you who stopped by the display outside the capital following the race. We also own another large thank you to the folks at 3M for a wonderful picnic dinner. Great job this year to all the teams and facilitators of the 2012 North American Solar Challenge!

Friday, July 20, 2012

It seems the 2012 North American Solar Challenge is quickly drawing to a close. We are here in La Crosse, Wisconsin, with the ten other teams still competing on the evening before the last stage of the Rayce. Due to minimal sunshine during the first day of the fourth stage, and consequently a lack of charge in our batteries, we were forced to trailer the car here, but have spent the day today recharging and preparing for the sprint to the finish. In less than 24 hours the race will end in St. Paul, Minnesota, and we hope to see you there with us.

Friday, July 20, 2012

After leaving Illinois Thursday morning, the skies were clear and blue. Packed into the vans, we headed out on stage four of the race which begin along the famed Route 66. The pavement was flat and open, and it seemed like another great day to be on the road. As we moved on and into Wisconsin though, the race route became considerably more challenging. Traffic picked up, clouds blew over, and the long straight aways we became accustomed to in the morning gradually became hilly and increasingly congested. Despite our best efforts to maintain a steady battery voltage, we begin to drain the pack. Eventually when we met up with the highway where the route was taking us, a tough decision had to be made of whether to keep pushing forward, or stop and risk not making the checkpoint and stage stop. We pulled off the race route with hopes of building back some battery voltage before hitting the highway, but the weather quickly turned sour. What little sunshine there was near the entrance to the highway was gone almost instantly and so it was agreed that our best alternative was to trailer yet another leg of the race, to La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Today race route entailed finishing the second part of the third stage of the Rayce, crossing between Indiana and Illinois. We were very optimistic at the outset because weather was forecast to be sunny, and we ran the car well during the first piece of stage three. We left Goshen, Indiana, with the sun at our backs and kept what was thought to be a reasonably sustainable pace. Unfortunately we found ourselves on the side of the road several times diagnosing problems before noon which ate a decent portion of our available race time. To make matters worse, as the day wore on the skies became increasingly overcast, biting into the power available from the sun. Eventually we had to acknowledge that we would not make it to the stage stop in time for designated charging time at 6:00pm. This meant that trailering the car was going to be unavoidable and we were forced to make the decision to cut our losses. We agreed that it would be best to take advantage of the power we could get midday, before trailering to the stage finish. It seems this may have worked in our favor though because shortly before we packed up to head for Normal, Illinois, we were hit in Monticello, Indiana, with a thunderstorm. Despite the disappointment of having to trailer to the end of another stage, the hope is that some of the strategic decisions we made today will leave us better able to handle the the next stage which will be the longest on 2012 Rayce route. This next stage will begin where we left off in Normal, Illinois, make a checkpoint in Verona, Wisconsin, and then head on to the stage stop for the fourth leg of the race in La Crosse, Wisconsin. As usual, we have our fingers crossed for clear skies tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Early this morning we started the fourth leg of the Rayce, spanning Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Normal, Illinois. Dividing this stage was a checkpoint in our own city of Kalamazoo where the race passed through the Western Michigan University: College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It turned out to be a very solid day of racing and the sun backed our journey all the way into the state of Indiana. Now we've found a hotel in the city of Goshen, just beyond where we left off with the race for the day. Tomorrow we will continue on with hopes of reaching the stage stop at Normal, Illinois. From Ann Arbor to Kalamazoo was just over 150 miles, while the route from Kalamazoo to Normal is nearly 300 miles. The second half of this stage is the longest of this years race, and we will need to make good time to complete it without taking a penalty for trailering. Hopefully we will not run into any of the rain that is forecast, or that will cut our chances of finishing this stage under our own power even slimmer. Until tomorrow, Kenwood Hoben

Monday, July 16, 2012

The team spent today regrouping after the disappointing decision to trailer the car to the Ann Arbor stage stop. It was relatively uneventful in most respects. Time was spent making minor fixes and preparations for the stretch of the race, charging, and predominantly cleaning until the rendezvous with other teams at designated charge time. Many thanks to University of Michigan for the great dinner and hospitality we received here in their home city.

Tomorrow we have a checkpoint in our own hometown of Kalamazoo. The checkpoint is located at Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It opens at 11:00am and closes at 3:15pm. The address is:

Western Michigan University: College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
College Circle
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008

The time we will be arriving can't be determined with certainty but we hope to make it to the checkpoint around 2:00pm. We look forward to seeing anyone interested in the solar racing community from our local Kalamazoo area. After stopping briefly at Parkview campus, this leg of the race continues to the stage stop at Normal, Illinois. With a forecast for great weather during this part of the race, so we hope to see you tomorrow in a sunny Kalamazoo.