Arrival: Aurora 101

Arrived Victoria Square

Update: Aurora 101

Departed Angle Vale

Update: Aurora

Sighted 2086.8km South of Darwin, in the rest area described on page 24 of the route notes (in the Technical Centre).

--Event Director

Update: Aurora 101

Camped 60km North Alice Springs

Aurora: 29 September, Day 5

We had a meal at local pub, and spent the night in cabins at a nearby caravan park, out of the cold weather.

At 6:00, we were back at the finish of timing, charging the car for the final drive into the centre of Adelaide.

We are in no particular hurry now. We left the finish of timing at about 8:30, and drove the final 20km into the city.

About a kilometre from Victoria Square we parked our support vehicles and piled into the WSC bus, which led the solar car to the finish line. The new finish procedure worked well---the entire team were together as we crossed the line, where we were cheered in by a large crowd (mainly Dutch!)

We will be in Victoria Square until Sunday afternoon. If you are in Adelaide, come and see us.

Aurora: 28 September, Day 4

Sunrise. The sky is covered in clouds, and there is a strong wind from the southwest. The entire team is at the array stand holding down the array.

The sun occasionally comes out from behind the clouds, giving us a few minutes of bright sunlight.

It is raining.

We got very little charge again this morning. Our batteries are 35% full, but the sky is completely overcast and there is a very strong headwind. We set off at 80km/h.

At 0840, we have the windscreen wipers on in the lead car. We are getting only occasional patches of sunlight. But it is clearing out to the west.

We arrived at the Glendambo control point at 9:06, about 8 minutes ahead of Michigan. TIGA are nowhere in sight.

The cloud front is running parallel to the road. Five minutes out of Glendambo, we crossed onto the sunny side. We are getting about 10% more power than we expect because of reflection from the edges of the clouds.

By 10:10, we were back under the cloud.

Michigan overtook us at about 11:30. Shortly afterwards, we both came out of the clouds into bright sunlight.

We are sitting right behind Michigan, doing about 85km/h. Our battery level is slowly increasing above our planned discharge profile.

We pulled into Port Augusta just behind Michigan. TIGA was not far behind.

Michigan had to do some work on their car (remove a chunk of metal wedged in the front), so we left 30 seconds before them.

Michigan overtook us at 14:55. We are now sitting behind Michigan, to see who's battery will die first. The sky is still cloudy.

In the most exciting and stressful leg of the race, Todd has fallen asleep in the lead car.

At 15:20, Michelin slowed to 75km/h. This is good---our battery charge is dropping a little too fast.

It is raining, and very windy.

Nuna has passed the finish of timing, with an average speed of 102km/h.

At 15:50, Michigan pulled over with a flat tyre. We continued in the rain at 60km/h.

After Port Wakefield, we decided that we could safely increase our speed---if the battery voltage started dropping, we would still have enough energy in the battery to limp to the finish line. We sped up to 105km/h. The battery voltage did not drop until 10km north of the finish of timing. We crossed the finish of timing at 17:05.

If Michigan or TIGA cannot get to the finish line before 8:05, we will be second.

We have been told that Michigan is at Port Wakefield, and TIGA is 25km further north. Second again!

Aurora: 27 September, Day 3

The airport forecast for Alice Springs says clear, and the forecasts for the northern and western districts say fine and sunny.

We had 10 minutes of charging this morning before the sun disappeared behind the only cloud in the sky. By 7:00, the entire sky was filled with clouds.

We left our overnight stop at 8:07, and headed off at 95km/h. Our battery is over 60% full, which will help us get through the cloudier conditions over the next couple of days.

By 8:50, the end of the clouds was in sight. We sped up to 100km/h.

We came out from under the clouds at 9:50, and slowed to 95km/h to recover some of the energy we used getting beyond the clouds.

At 10:30 we passed the Michigan truck. We are now sitting right behind Michigan. We are both doing 95km/h.

Michigan appear to be slowing. At 11:10, we passed them and resumed travelling at 95km/h. Soon afterwards, we increased our speed to 100km/h.

At 12:20, about 100km from Cadney, we slowed back down to 95km/h. This is the sunniest part of the route, and a good opportunity to get some more energy into our battery for tomorrow.

We arrived at the Cadney control point at 13:22. Nuna were long gone. Michigan arrived 7 minutes behind us. TIGA arrived just as we were getting ready to leave.

For the rest of the afternoon, we ran at 95-100km/h.

At 16:00, the clouds started rolling in from the west. We are not going to get a full charge tonight. We slowed to 95km/h, to allow the charge to build up while we are driving.

We stopped at Bon Bon for the night. It has almost everything we could want---toilets, water, shelter, picnic benches. The only thing missing is our big trailer, which stopped 50km north of Coober Pedy with a blocked fuel line. But it is on its way, and should be here just before dark.

The western sky is now very cloudy. The forecast for northern South Australia is for morning showers. The forecast for Adelaide in the afternoon is for rain and possibly small hail. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Aurora: 26 September, Day 2

The sky was a little hazy last night and this morning, so we did not quite get as much recharge energy as we expected. But we still have plenty of charge for the remaining journey to Adelaide, and are expecting to be in Alice Springs by the end of the day.

We set off at 08:00 doing 100km/h. At 08:30, TIGA overtook us. We overtook them again at 09:30, doing 105km/h.

We arrived at Tennant Creek, 250km from our overnight stop, at about 10:30. We were 5 minutes behind Michigan. Nuna were already gone. TIGA were one minute behind us. The race for second position is very close.

Our youngest member, Todd (13), forgot to get the strategy car lunches our of the boot at Tennant Creek, so we are surviving on Scotch Finger biscuits. But he is doing a good job keeping track of our location along the route, so we will probably keep him.

The leg from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs is about 500km. If it is hot in the car, we may have to stop for a driver change.

TIGA overtook us again at midday. We are cruising at 100km/h. TIGA, who beat us at Suzuka earlier this year, appear to be "borrowing" our strategy, two-hundred metres ahead of us. Very cunning!

At 15:30, TIGA started slowing. We overtook them.

We arrived at the Alice Springs control stop before 16:30. Nuna were long gone. Michigan were still about 6 minutes ahead. TIGA was just behind us. We left the control stop just before 17:00, and camped on the outskirts of Alice.

There are predictions of clear skies tomorrow, but cloud in Adelaide on Wednesday. The battle for second place is going to be interesting.

Aurora: 25 September, Day 1

This year we had a new starting procedure, with solar cars and support cars sent off from the Supreme Court square at one-minute intervals. It worked well.

At the last set of traffic lights before the highway veers left towards Alice Springs, our chase car stopped for a red light. When they got going again, they missed the turn to Alice Springs and headed towards Perth. Fortunately, we were able to put our lead car behind the solar car and use TIGA's chase car as our lead car until we got our wayward chase car back.

By the outskirts of Darwin, we had passed Formosun and TIGA. Michigan were still ahead.

By 10.00 we were cruising at 105km/h. Nuna overtook us.

Mid morning, the clouds started rolling in.

Just outside Katherine, we caught up to another solar car (Nuna?) at roadworks. But we then got stuck at the lights for 5 minutes.

At the Katherine stop, we were about 8 minutes behind Michigan and 4 minutes behind Nuna. TIGA and Formosun are right behind us.

At 12:30 we passed Michigan, who where changing a tyre by the side of the road.

Michigan passed us again at 14:00. The sky is almost clear again.

We arrived in Dunmarra behind Nuna and Michigan, with TIGA right behind us and Formosun not far behind.

We finished the day 16km south of Elliot, further than we have ever gone before on day one of the WSC.

Aurora: 24 September, Hidden Valley

To determine grid position, each team does a flying lap of the Hidden Valley race track. We put Derrick in the car, hoping for a time around 2 minutes for the 2.9km circuit.

We are fourth on the grid. The top times were: TIGA (1:59), Formosun (2:01), Michigan (2:02) and Aurora (2:03).

We passed the swerve and braking tests easily.

We have been joined by a camera crew from the Discovery Channel, who will be accompanying us to Adelaide.