Neosho

Finally, a chance to update. It's been a busy few days as we completed the qualifier and headed out to Plano, Texas, for the official start of the rayce. We ended up qualifying in second place behind Michigan, after putting in a solid two days on the track despite some electrical and mechanical happenings.

In Plano, they handed out some awards for the qualifier, and we discovered that we had posted the fastest lap time of 2:14, and that we also got best figure 8, and best prepared team. We were pretty pleased with these accomplishments, especially the fastest lap which we actually thought was a mistake at first (though the official GPS data shows we did it early in the morning on the first day... no wonder we got so much tire scrub at first!)

Anyhow, we rolled out of Plano exactly one minute behind Michigan, and passed them within ten minutes. The day was cloudy with a bit of rain, but we rolled into our checkpoint at McAlester, OK, having put in a solid morning on the road. We left McAlester under blue skies, but since we had to put new power trackers on the car at the very last minute (many thanks to Principia and Arizona for their help in that matter!), we didn't have enough power to quite make it to the stage stop in Neosho, MO. We were going slow at the end there, and eventually had to stop ten miles away from the stop.

However, we got our evening charge in , along with lots of tire change practice for the pit challenge tonight, and then packed into our hotel, got a little shut eye, and headed back to our stop point early this morning to charge again and finish the stage. We ended up being third to the stop after Michigan and Principia, followed by Bochum (the German team), and Missouri S&T (Rolla). We set up the car and let EE team get to work. Since there's not a lot for other teams to work on right now, at least without getting in the way of Electrical, some of us are back at the hotel catching up on lost sleep or email or what not. We also got a chance to stop by Walmart and the dollar store, which was fun.

Anyhow, we have the day to work on the car, including a morning and evening stage charge (which we did this morning without an array stand by having several members of the team lay under the side of the shell, holding it vertical to get the most power from the solar array - the pictures are hilarious, when I can get ahold of one). After that, and the pit challenge, we leave in the morning for our next checkpoint, Topeka.

As the Beatles would put it;
Tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun.