Brian's Blog
The penultimate day before the event dawns and the angry sun tears itself out of the horizon and leaps raging into the sky. It looks like being even hotter and stickier today than previously.
Syd is off playing knight on a white charger…actually his charger is red, he’s in the Rodeo fuel pickup. We’ve taken a Malaysian team under our wing. They’re driving a pedal trike with a hydrogen fuel cell power supplement. At a pedal rate of 70 strokes per minute they can achieve 35 mph. It’s a test bed for motorcycle mounted hydrogen fuel cells due for commercial release next year. Here’s their problem. They needed to collect four large hydrogen cylinders in a pickup…except that they didn’t have a pickup and we did. Actually they didn’t have a support vehicle at all, just the tricycle, which they had dismantled and flown out from the Philippines as hand luggage. So, as well as picking up their hydrogen cylinders we also drove them to a van hire place. Team Ethanol seems to have become the default father and mother figures for the event and we’re picking up orphans all over the place!
The rest of the team spent the morning down at Hidden Valley raceway. It’s well named, the road signage is almost non-existent and it took us ages to find our way there. This is where the solar car teams do their final scrutineering checks and lap qualifying times, to determine the starting order for the race. The Greenfleet cars are all there on display and it gives the teams a chance to get to know one another better.
An unexpected bonus came up with the announcement that the Greenfleet cars would have a chance to do a lap around the race circuit at one minute intervals. Unfortunately, the second car out broke down in the middle of the track on the second bend. By the time they got a support vehicle out there and moved it off the circuit, the allowable track time for the day had almost elapsed. So the rest of the cars can only manage a couple of single file parade laps.
Rats!!! The only bright spot is that the car behind the Saab was so slow that we could hang right back to get lots of track space between us and the cars in front. Then give it a bootfull and blast through the corners and up the straight to catch up. Even with that limited outing it’s obvious that the Saab is by far the most powerful Greenfleet car there.
In the afternoon Jane took the Saab for a promo photo shoot with the United Nations of Beer rep. More about that from Jane later.
We’ve done a trial pack today so that we know how much room we have for food supplies.
Final briefing this afternoon for Greenfleet and the media gave us last minute instructions for the start and the journey. Then back to our apartment for a quiet Thai take-away dinner and an early night. It’ll be a 5am rise to get packed and out to the starting grid tomorrow. If the 2005 event is anything to go by this one will be packed with enthusiastic spectators. The excitement is building up in the whole team and sleep tonight might be more by accident than design. Stay tuned for live updates from the starting grid…the main event is about to begin.
Syd is off playing knight on a white charger…actually his charger is red, he’s in the Rodeo fuel pickup. We’ve taken a Malaysian team under our wing. They’re driving a pedal trike with a hydrogen fuel cell power supplement. At a pedal rate of 70 strokes per minute they can achieve 35 mph. It’s a test bed for motorcycle mounted hydrogen fuel cells due for commercial release next year. Here’s their problem. They needed to collect four large hydrogen cylinders in a pickup…except that they didn’t have a pickup and we did. Actually they didn’t have a support vehicle at all, just the tricycle, which they had dismantled and flown out from the Philippines as hand luggage. So, as well as picking up their hydrogen cylinders we also drove them to a van hire place. Team Ethanol seems to have become the default father and mother figures for the event and we’re picking up orphans all over the place!
The rest of the team spent the morning down at Hidden Valley raceway. It’s well named, the road signage is almost non-existent and it took us ages to find our way there. This is where the solar car teams do their final scrutineering checks and lap qualifying times, to determine the starting order for the race. The Greenfleet cars are all there on display and it gives the teams a chance to get to know one another better.
An unexpected bonus came up with the announcement that the Greenfleet cars would have a chance to do a lap around the race circuit at one minute intervals. Unfortunately, the second car out broke down in the middle of the track on the second bend. By the time they got a support vehicle out there and moved it off the circuit, the allowable track time for the day had almost elapsed. So the rest of the cars can only manage a couple of single file parade laps.
Rats!!! The only bright spot is that the car behind the Saab was so slow that we could hang right back to get lots of track space between us and the cars in front. Then give it a bootfull and blast through the corners and up the straight to catch up. Even with that limited outing it’s obvious that the Saab is by far the most powerful Greenfleet car there.
In the afternoon Jane took the Saab for a promo photo shoot with the United Nations of Beer rep. More about that from Jane later.
We’ve done a trial pack today so that we know how much room we have for food supplies.
Final briefing this afternoon for Greenfleet and the media gave us last minute instructions for the start and the journey. Then back to our apartment for a quiet Thai take-away dinner and an early night. It’ll be a 5am rise to get packed and out to the starting grid tomorrow. If the 2005 event is anything to go by this one will be packed with enthusiastic spectators. The excitement is building up in the whole team and sleep tonight might be more by accident than design. Stay tuned for live updates from the starting grid…the main event is about to begin.
1 comment:
Hi Brian,
Sounds like the Malaysians win for transportation inginuity in the pedal trike catagory. At least they didn't try to check in their hydrogen cylanders, or like Heather, try to sneak them through security. Any chance these guys will just disassemble and catch a flight to Adelaide?
If Hidden Valley raceway was so difficult to find, is it possible that participants could still be there, looking for a way out?
Good luck on day 1 of the race! Local knowledge and air conditioning will come in handy!
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