Day one: had a clean start and struggled through the usual chaos in the first leg of the race. I was in scout and it took us almost three hours to catch up to the solar car because we had to pass every car behind ours. We only left about half an hour after Luminos, if that.
Ian drove the first shift. There was a ton of passing: we passed the two teams that had started in front of us (Kogakuin and Arrow) and Nuon, Tokai and Michigan all drove aggressively to make up for their starting positions. Nuon got in front of us, and we then passed them when they stopped in the middle of the steepest hill on the race to push their car up. They must have passed again before the first control stop, because they have a commanding lead right now.
We later talked to an observer who said that Nuon had to stop on the hill because of traffic in front of them. They couldn't start again because of various technical details about their motor. Their observer said that they needed to push because staying where they were was unsafe. The officials are not assessing a penalty because what they did was in the interest of safety. I will refrain from commenting on it until the race is over.
Tokai ran at 110 or 115 out of Darwin and must have passed like mad because they were in fifth place by Katherine.
Twente must also have been running fast. They started in fourth and were in first place by Katherine.
Michigan started fifth and we played cat and mouse with them all day. They would pass, then we would pass, then they would pass again. We were running at about the same speed.
At the end of the first day the order was Nuon, Twente, Tokai, Stanford, Michigan. We stopped eight kilometers before the control stop at Dunmarra. That was control stop number two. We were within shouting distance of where Michigan stopped, but ahead by about 500 meters. (There is a ten minute buffer for stopping at the end of the day that lets you stop at a good campsite. However much time you take after five is time that you spend waiting at your camp after eight am. We used one minute of that.)
After Tennant Creek I took the trailer ahead to find the best stopping point around, with the best clear spaces for array standing.
I will explain array standing and how we choose a campsite later.
In the morning we put the car on the array stand, charged, took it off and put fairings on, drove 8 km to the control stop and then took the fairings off and put it on the array stand again. An interpretation of the rules that Nuon found means that teams are now array standing at control stops to get more power. It's a lot of work for our team but worth it for the power. It's also making us happy that we practiced all of this on the way north, because we can go from array standing to driving in under four minutes. Teamwork and training are helping us here.
Tokai pulled out of Tennant Creek a minute before Twente even though Twente got there first. We think that Twente made a mistake as they got ready to leave that cost them a minute, and that Tokai was ready to go as soon as the officials said they could. Nuon was still in front.
We spent the segment from Dunmarra to Tennant Creek driving with Michigan only five minutes behind us and matching our speed. Our trailer stayed behind them to keep an eye on them, and they sent a scout forward to sit behind our chase and do the same.
I took the trailer forward again to lay claim to a good spot for camping and charging, because we expected to be within a kilometer of Michigan again. We wanted to end the day in front of them if possible, in fourth place.
We're 21 kilometers outside of Ti Tree, the next control stop. Tomorrow morning will be very similar to this morning.
We went into town to check times at the control stop and found out that Michigan is about 70 km behind us. Rumors are running through camp but we have no concrete information about what happened.
As of writing this we are in fourth place. Wish us luck, clear skies, and tailwinds!
Written October 7, 22:06 Darwin time.
P.s. No pictures in this post because I want it to upload fast with our limited internet access.
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