TAFE SA: Friday October 26th – DAY 14

We woke to a gorgeous blue sky and a good charge on the battery this morning.

We passed another team on our way to the Port Augusta control stop.
On the way we faced a very big hill, longer than the one we got stuck on the first day and almost as steep, but we had planned well and with a run up we were able to get over it easily and enjoy the long downhill run on the other side.
Once again the car was able to cruise on the speed limit for long stretches.
At the Port Augusta control stop we came in 14tht overall and while it is difficult at the moment to confirm our position, we are probably in the top ten of the adventure class solar cars.
Unfortunately, we suffered a puncture just as we rolled to a stop under the direction of the marshal. The rules forbid working on the car during the control stop so after the 30 minute wait we had to roll the car out of the marshalling area and change the wheel.
Because we were already safely stopped in a “good” place and had 30 minutes to think about it, it was changed in only a few minutes and we were underway again.
Later in the afternoon we still had good sun and we had been running fast when we reached a long downhill stretch and used the regeneration feature again to put current back into the batteries. There was a problem however, when suddenly the car lost all power and coasted to a stop near the bottom of the hill.
It quickly became apparent the system had shut down the motor to protect the batteries.
Like all good technicians, the first thing we tried was turning it off and turning it on again and we soon had the car going again.
At 5:08pm we arrived at a petrol station at the turn off to Redhill and were made welcome by the proprietor to camp for the evening.

Tomorrow, the final day, begins with bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee from the roadhouse. We expect to be arriving at the last control point at Virginia where official timing for the race ends. We will then proceed down Port Wakefield Road into the city and with luck and good sunshine we will arrive in Victoria Square about lunchtime.

TAFE SA: Thursday October 25th – DAY 13

This morning we had to change all four tyres after parking in a patch of bindis overnight. We pulled one bindi thorn out of a tyre and were rewarded with a loud hissing sound as the air came out at 100psi.

Today we travelled 581 km. This is the furthest Kelly has travelled in one day during this year’s event. Our average speed was 77 kph. In the afternoon the car cruised at 110kph for extended periods. We had a safe day as well, no more incidents.
We had a control stop today at Cadney Park and as usual we took advantage of the sun while we were stationary to add charge to the batteries.
As we had been averaging a higher speed, the team that arrived just before us were kind enough to let us go first from the control point.
As it was, they were about 30 minutes in front of us anyway so it didn’t really make much difference to them and it was safer than passing on the road.
In any case, they overtook us again a bit later on down the road, when we experienced delays due to problems with our radio communications.
Problems with batteries in our portable radios meant that the vehicles in our team miscommunicated about a driver change and lost some time while the changeover was reorganised for a second location, although we did manage to keep the car on the road and rolling during the aborted stop.
We finished up in a gigantic truck park on the side of the road 138 km North of Glendambo in the middle of nowhere with our evening brightly lit by the nearly full moon.
While we waited for our chuck wagon team to make dinner we investigated the latest symptoms in an ongoing problem with our sophisticated electronics.
We were pleased to discover that a loose wiring connection was causing a problem and when we removed the offending circuit board we discovered a number of severely cooked components.
It was a real pleasure to sit in a large circle around a big campfire in the moonlit bush.
After dinner we repaired the damage and swapped the circuit board for a spare one we had with us.

TAFE SA: Wednesday October 24th - DAY 12

This morning we set out under clear blue skies for Alice Springs, still 194km down the road, the battery pack somewhat refreshed after collecting the afternoon and morning sun.

With good sun and energy in the batteries we sat on 60kph for the first hour until the sun was higher and then cranked Kelly up to 80kph. The last 20km into Alice was a steep down hill section, which gave us some experience using regeneration, where we use the motor to slow down the car and pump energy back into the battery pack.
As we approached Alice Springs we were informed that our cruiser towing the gear trailer had rolled over 65 km north of Alice Springs. We were told that everyone was alive but we weren’t sure who was in the car or what injuries they had received.
We arrived in Alice Springs just before 11:30am and discovered we would be held over until 2pm. We left the car to soak up the midday sun and to get a sigificant charge up on the batteries.
As we waited we received more news about the accident and established one occupant was ok and another had some kind of injury. Both were being transported to hospital in an ambulance.
Some of our gear turned up in one of the official’s cars but most of it was being picked up by the remaining support vehicles.
After arranging all of the details for the damaged vehicles and filling out the paperwork, our manager visited the hospital to check on how our comrades were going.
At 2pm we set off from Alice Springs with the battery two thirds full and decided to to make as much distance as possible.
We drove quickly through the hills south of Alice Springs and progressed quickly during the rest of the afternoon. We had the excitement of overtaking another team, a difficult manoeuvre considering we had to get all three of our vehicles past the three vehicles of the other team on a winding road with road trains going in both directions.
We caught up with another team late in the afternoon and were informed they had heard about the accident with our support vehicle. They kindly offered us hospitality and later in the evening they loaned us a barbecue.

As 5pm approached we found ourselves too far from the next campsite we had marked on our gps system and decided to park on the side of the road. We found an area where we could safely get the car off the road just in time. Even so, the area was covered with bindis and we got several tire punctures in our fragile tires. We were in the middle of no where with a solar car, two sedans and no bedding or shelter or food so some of us went to the nearest town to get some supplies while the rest of us built a camp fire. The others soon returned with bbq meat packs and some chips and drinks. Some of the team visited the “Christine” the Aurora team entry which was 2 kilomeres up the road. They were fantasic, providing us with a bbq and utensil . With the barbecue we borrowed we cooked our dinner.
At about 11pm the other vehicles arrived and we learned that our team mates who were in the accident were going to be ok. One had returned to us only a little bruised while the other had some stable injuries from which he would recover and was being held in the hospital overnight. He was scheduled to be flown back to Adelaide the next day.

TAFE SA: RAA Kelly Progress

TAFE SA RAA Kelly Solar Car is still progressing extremely well, averaging 72.6 km/h, and is expected to be close to Port Wakefield today (by 5pm stopping time) the car is at present 5th in the Adventure class and in 13th position overall and is expected to be arriving at Victoria Square, Sat morning (27/10/07) around 11 am, so if you’re free come down and welcome home the team. Check out the podcast of the 891 radio interview last night

TAFE SA: Tuesday October 23rd - DAY 11

We had a good start getting away on time at 8am to set off for the Tenant Creek control stop.

Wanting to get to Alice Springs today we tried to maintain a good speed but we hit clouds. Lots of clouds.

A weather front from the west covered the whole sky and just got darker and darker. We had much less energy available from the array than we had hoped for and we had to slow down to avoid draining the batteries too much.

As it became apparent that we would not get to Alice Springs by 5pm we bagan looking for alternative stops.

Coming down one of the hills into a blind turn, we were overtaken by a road train swerving in so quickly after passing the solar car we thought it would wipe it off the road. The only person who wasnt terrified was the driver of the solar car!

After travelling further under a patchy sky with a lot of cloud, we were in a situation where we had a choice between stopping early or continuing and risk draining the batteries.

We decided to stop at Ti Tree 193km short of Alice Springs for the night and arrived well before the 5pm finishing time to set the array up at an angle to collect the afternoon sun. We then discovered we had been running on underinflated front tyres for some of the day which may have accounted for some of the extra drain on the battery pack. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.

TAFE SA: Monday October 22nd - DAY 10

The day started at 5:30am moving the stand for the solar cell array into position to charge the batteries from the morning sun.

Just before our 8am departure we reassembled the array with the car and set off for the control point at Dunmarra.

After the 30 minute control stop, we passed through Elliot and one of the support vehicles travelling independently of the solar car broke down about 10 km down the road.

The support crew not travelling with the solar car spent the rest of the day trying to get it repaired.

The team members travelling with the solar car didn’t find out until later in the afternoon because we had driven rapidly out of radio range and out of any mobile phone service area. An official of the World Solar Challenge who caught up with us later in the day passed on the news.

In the afternoon we were still trying to get to Tenant Creek but many hills and a low battery pack in the car made it a slow afternoon and eventually we decided we couldn’t make it. It was decided to stop at a parking bay next to a Memorial to Stuart.

We were 915km from the start and 70 km short of Tenant Creek. After setting the array at an angle on the car and using the jack to tilt it over a bit more to get the best of the afternoon sun we made a makeshift camp while we waited for the rest of our crew to arrive.

We kept checking for the other vehicles on the radio but there was no reply until….we all cheered when we heard the voice of a missing comrade over the radio. They arrived soon after.

TAFE SA: Sunday October 21st - DAY 9

Its race day! We woke up at 4:30am this morning to be ready to leave at 5:30am. We needed to be at the starting area in central Darwin by 6am. At 7:45am we had to have our drivers in our car ready to go.

Qualifying in 21st position on the grid, our scheduled start time was 8:20am. Our drivers went to drive the car from the marshalling area to the start line and could not get the car to move. After a few frantic messages on the radio, there was silence. We found out later the motor controller had detected the maximum voltage coming from the fully charged battery pack as an overload and shut down automatically to protect the system.

The delay in starting meant we were taken out of the starting area and had to start at the end of the order so we couldn’t leave until 9am after 40 other teams. Our chief engineer used the time to reprogram the motor controller to increase the cut-off voltage and get the car to go.

A steep hill climb behind other slower solar cars at Hayes Creek ended when we had to stop behind other traffic and couldn’t get rolling again on the steep slope. After considering our options and the rules we pushed it backwards so it was facing towards the road and set out back down the hill. We found a place to turn around and have another go at the climb. This time we were more fortunate with the traffic and the car roared up the hill doing 112kph.

We travelled to the first control point in Katherine where we arrived in 17th place amongst the solar cars, having passed many teams along the road travelling very conservatively or having broken down. After a driver change and refuelling the support vehicles, we set out again.

Later in the afternoon we encountered heavy cloud cover which reduced the energy we got from the sun considerably and we had to slow down to help conserve the batteries. At one stage we were creeping along at 8kph. This meant that we were unable to make our planned stop at Larrimah and found a parking bay on the side of the road at 5:20pm where several other solar cars were already parked.

We set the solar cell array up on a stand facing the afternoon sun to get something into the batteries before setting up camp and getting dinner.

TAFE SA: DAY 8 - RAA Kelly solar car qualifies!

The RAA Kelly solar car has qualified for the World Solar Challenge 2007 after completing manouvering and braking tests successfully and posting a “hot” lap time of 2 minutes 51 seconds, a massive improvement over the car’s previous best time of 3 minutes 37 seconds.

TAFE SA: DAY 8 - Greetings to family and friends from the RAA Kelly team

While we are waiting for the call to qualify, the team member’s thoughts have turned to the family and friends left behind in Adelaide who did so much to support us to be here.

To all of you, we are thinking of you and we thank you for your support and good wishes.

Well, we have just receive the call and we are heading for the pit lane, stay tuned…………….

TAFE SA: Saturday October 20th - DAY 8 - trackside for qualifying

This morning we are coming to you live from trackside at Hidden Valey Raceway as the solar cars go through braking and manouvering tests and put in their “hot” laps to qualify for grid positions for the start of tomorrow’s race.

Its 11 am now and we have been here since 7:30 am. The RAA Kelly team is waiting to be called to the pit lane for their qualifying lap.
Many teams are putting in faster lap times this year than in previous years, so the competition is very tough. There are three classes in this race; Challenge class is for solar cars conforming to new design rules, the Adventure class to which RAA Kelly belongs is for solar cars that have qualified for previous races and a new class, the green fleet for non-solar cars using alternative energy sources.

TAFE SA: Friday October 19th - DAY 7

This morning, the RAA Kelly team took the solar car to the Darwin Show Grounds for scrutineering and team registration.
The main exhibition hall had a circuit of checking stations where scrutineers examined different aspects of the car.
These included measurements of the array area, weighing the car, drivers and passengers and checks on road worthiness, electrics and the batteries.
Our driver/passenger pairs were tested on their evacuation procedures.
All of our occupants were able to evacuate the car within the 14 second time limit, with one pair doing it in 4 seconds!
Overall, the scrutineers rated the car as excellent and we received a special commendation for the quality of the battery pack. In future, our battery pack will represent a benchmark against which other efforts will be judged.
The whole team would like to thank those responsible for designing and fabricating the battery pack.
In the afternoon, some of the team visited Charles Darwin University and in the evening we attended a reception at Parliament House as guests of the Chief Minister.
She thanked us for our participation and wished us luck.

TAFE SA: Thursday October 18th - DAY 6

The team returned to Hidden Valley raceway today for driver training and performance testing, we also received our official briefing.
We spent the rest of the day practicing driving, trail car operations, communications and driver changes.
We all got to walk through the pit lane to meet the other teams and have a look at their cars.
Everywhere we could see busy teams of people preparing for scrutineering and the journey to Adelaide.
The car performed very well again today, the other teams looked on as we drove around the track without dramas or frantic repair work.
At one point, the car was doing 50kph and collecting more energy from the sun than it needed to run the motor,
so it was charging the battery at the same time.
After bringing the car back to the base camp we all went to the Mindil Beach markets for the evening, where we enjoyed food, music, and shopping amongst crowds of people along the foreshore.

TAFE SA: Day 5

It’s hot and humid here in Darwin and we South Australians are sweating and sweltering.

It rained heavily about 3 am and those of us sleeping under the stars were sent scurrying for shelter under the covered dining and work area.
We worked on the solar car all morning, modifying headrests to suit the new crash helmets and tidying up wiring in the cabin. The telemetry teamworked all day on the new telemetry system. In the afternoon we took the car to Hidden Valley Raceway for testing.

Everyone enjoyed the sight of Kelly whooshing down the main straight at nearly 100kph!

TAFE SA: Tuesday October 16th - DAY 4

Team at Mataranka Hot Springs

We finally arrived in Darwin after 4 days on the road. After leaving Daly Waters this morning, we headed to Mataranka Hot Springs for a swim. The thermal pool was surrounded by palm trees filled with bats (Little Red Flying Fox). We all enjoyed the swimming after the dust and heat.

After stopping in Katherine for fuel we headed for Darwin. In the afternoon we saw many fires burning in the bush along the side of the road. The sky was overcast and often filled with smoke. We were concerned for the loss of direct sunlight and its effect on the solar car. Using the pyranometer we measured less than 100 w/sq.m compared to over 900 in clear direct sunlight.

After setting up in a large bus area in the caravan park we enjoyed another swim in their pool and a superb curry dinner put together by our marvellous chefs.

TAFE SA: Monday October 15th - DAY 3

We travelled about 650km from Ti Tree to Daly Waters, stopping at the Devil’s Marbles for a look and then passing through Tenant Creek. Most of our vehicles have been sitting on 130 kmh today (Northern Territory speed limit) except for the vehicles towing the big trailers. Some of the of group went to Mary Ann dam for a swim, described as “fresh, but good!”.
We saw an enormous Whirly-whirly from the road, the first cars to pass it saw it in the distance, but another car further back had to stop because it was converging on them and they waited for it to pass within 100m.

We arrived at Daly Waters in the daylight and we had time to pitch our tents and then go for a swim in the pool at the Daly Waters Pub before dinner.

TAFE SA: Sunday October 14th - DAY 2

Another late start, we are still getting used to the routine of packing up quickly in the morning and getting breakfast out of the way by 7am.
Another long day with 840 km to cover brought us to Ti Tree 200 km north of Alice Springs, with some of the group taking a detour to the Breakaways just out of Coober Pedy for a bit of sightseeing. We saw a lot of the local wildlife along the road, some having had less fortunate encounters with the passing traffic than others. One of our drivers was rather startled when a ‘roo decided to crash into him, doing slight damage to the side of the car.
We arrived in Ti Tree around 7pm and had another late tea before a relatively early night.
One of our team members celebrated his birthday today and some of the younger members of the crew celebrated it enthusiastically.

TAFE SA: Saturday October 13th - DAY 1

The team set out from Regency TAFE at about 9am for Coober Pedy.
The vehicles in the convoy use UHF radios to stay in touch with each other.
The trailer carrying the Solar Car is called “Big Banana” because of its appearance.

We also have “Kelly Camper” - the Heights School trailer with all our camping gear, “Kelly Cooks” with the fold out camper used as a kitchen, plus three other support vehicles.

We reached Coober Pedy at about 7pm after travelling approx. 850 km. The “Kelly Camper” was very slow the first day and got in late keeping everyone waiting to set up their tents!

TAFE SA: RAA Kelly car attracts media interest

The Advertiser, Channel 10 and Messenger Press attended a pre event practise session on Port Wakefield road on Monday October 8 . All ran stories about the RAA Kelly car. We hope for further coverage throughout the event.