I opened my eyes and noticed it was already time to get up. After day one, our bodies were tired, but the excitement of the upcoming day kept us going. We rushed out of our rooms and jumped into the vehicles, heading back to the race start. As it neared 9 AM, Dr. Marks and his team signaled our car to come up to the Dell-Winston archway. At 9 o-clock, Dr. Marks gave us the green flag and we were off, eager to maintain our first place position like the day before. It was a stressful morning but when we reached the city of Henderson, we were greeted by the media, the public, and the town officials. After a quick lunch, our team mingled throughout the public and media and explained the experience of participating in a solar car race. Around 1:30 we were off again, heading towards Lickskillet, TX. Luckily, our team has been successful in avoiding penalties and mechanical breakdowns, which allowed for smooth travel to Lickskillet. Once we reached the end point, we trailered our vehicles to Shreveport, LA.
       Our stop in Shreveport placed us right next to an Interactive Science Museum called Discovery SciPort. The DWSC staff and team members were given free admission to enter and a video of a past solar car challenge was showed. Later in the day, we had a hearty chicken and catfish dinner and ventured back to our hotel in an attempt to get several hours of sleep.

Mark Lucera is a member of the NFA Solar Racing team. This is his second year in the DWSC.

       It seemed as if we had forgotten to sleep as we gathered early this morning for a quick team meeting and some last minute packing. Was it really 6:00? It was hard to remember that we’d slept at all. However, tired and hungry as we were, we high-tailed it to 1 Dell Way and were able to finish up some final preparations before the start of the race. By a quarter to nine, tensions were running high, but excitement was ubiquitous as we awaited the crossing of our first starting line ever. With a wave of the green “go” flag and a few words of good luck, our car was off and we had officially accomplished part two of our journey’s goal! (Part one was just getting here.)
The first leg of the trip was quite exciting, complete with a minor meltdown and a hat penalty. (We’ll know for next time.) Well, fixing problems is what we are here to do isn’t it? …And fix it we did! The key and one set screw that held the gear to the motor shaft had mysteriously disappeared so our team captain fabricated a makeshift key and a few of us helped to reattach the chain and sprocket—all under the watchful eye of our judge, of course. Back on track, we coasted slowly for a while, then stopped for a quick lunch and talked about the morning’s ride with another new team from Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
       The afternoon was warm one; we went through over a case of water! The coordinators certainly hit the money on that one. The semis and passing cars were a bit intimidating along some of the two-lane roads, but all of the commuters seemed relatively considerate to our cause. We decided to finally trailer up when it started to sprinkle around 5:30—our batteries were drained anyway. Our unofficial mileage was 73.5 out of 115.6 miles of race route today. Not too bad for a first run eh? With all the seriousness though, there were some really funny moments like when I ran over a dead raccoon (gross!) and when one teammate lost two pairs of shoes when he stepped in different ant piles. (He was o.k. eventually). For our first day ever, it was a great time and we were all really glad to know that the car will be ready for business again tomorrow. We may not be the fastest, but we are well on our way to crossing the finish line, which, after all, is why we are here. If anything, we learned more about our car and were able to shape many good memories of our inaugural race day in the Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge. Hope there are many more to come.

South Plantation Solar Knights
Plantation, Fl

Taylor Sawyer is a recent high school graduate and excited first-time attendee of the DWSCC.

       The second day of scrutineering began today at the Austin Marriott North as teams gathered at 8:00am to attempt some more stations’ approval.  Fortunately, today’s weather was not a cause for trouble; teams could freely work and continue the scrutineering process.  After a few hours and much success, all solar cars were moved to downtown Austin for an afternoon public display at the One Texas Center.  Our friends from the Texas Solar Energy Society welcomed us as solar enthusiasts, community members, and small families came to examine the cars and ask the teams about their projects.  Later that afternoon, teams headed back to the hotel to continue scrutineering or get some rest before the opening banquet.  Just before the banquet, seven of the nine teams had been granted the permission to race, and the other two teams were working hard to finish the necessary preparations in time for the race’s start.

       At 7:30pm, all of the teams sat for a delicious banquet and the world premiere of our beloved Stewart Mayer’s 2006 Dell-Winston Solar Challenge race video.  After a bit of reminiscing among audience members, Dr. Marks stood and welcomed the teams and captains to the 2007 Dell-Winston Solar Challenge!  Team members and race staff were all introduced, and our Dell host, Dean Kline, shared some words of encouragement with the racers and educators.  It wasn’t too far afterward that Dr. Marks advised everyone to get some rest to prepare for the next day’s start to our long trek to New York.

Teams will be drawing their starting orders shortly after 7:00am when they have all arrived at Building 1 on Dell Way tomorrow morning.  At 9:00am, that first team and their judge will begin the first of nine days of terrific cross-country racing!

Chuck Hall writes today about the first day of scrutineering.  Chuck is a long-time friend and supporter of the Dell-Winston Solar challenge.

       The alarm went off at 4:30am, and we mustered the staff to set up the scrutineering stations so that we could start with a bang at 8:00.  The judges sat with radios chattering and pens readied for their first cars.  We were then informed by our combination weatherman, radio expert, and intrepid paramedic, Fred Varian, that a nasty storm was on the way, and that we needed to take down our canopy so it wouldn’t get blown away.  The logic escaped me on the canopy policy, but our radio immediately went dead, which stopped discussion of the point.  We then enjoyed 2 hours of intermittent rain and the Winston kids’ snoring as they made up for lost hours of sleep.

       After the skies settled, we started to process the teams through station 6, the endurance test, which includes a check of safety equipment and a chance for the teams to demonstrate their skill at loading the solar car onto its trailer.  It’s always fun to watch the members quiz each other about where they have stored the fire extinguishers or safety flags, but it seems that most teams eventually give up and make a run to Walmart.  We uncovered broken lights, unusable radios, and discharged fire extinguishers: we were very happy to help weed out these potential problems.  All of the racers took our safety lectures in stride with no smiles or guffaws, and for that we give them credit.  The solar teams are a great bunch of students, and it’s a pleasure to work with them.

Although the first few hours of scrutineering were rained out, the good weather’s return allowed the Ocean Springs and Houston teams just enough time to successfully complete our inspections!  The other teams will hopefully finish tomorrow during the second and final day of scrutineering.

       Welcome to the Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge blog!  During the event, team members and event staff will update this blog with updates throughout the day.  Feel free to participate by writing comments on the blog, and the comments will be passed on to the appropriate personnel.

       The Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge is an international high school solar challenge established by the Winston School in 1993.  High school students as part of a class or a club build road-worthy solar cars that travel along public roads.  Teams spend the entire year designing the vehicle, building it from scratch, and testing it before bringing it to the challenge.  This year teams will travel from Austin, Texas to Newburgh, New York over nine days.

       For those along the event route, please come out and join us.  For those who aren’t, please track our progress on this site.