Houston Christmas Parade

The Houston Christmas Parade was Saturday, December 1.
The Houston Solar Race Team, along with many other entrees, paraded around the square of Houston. The parade started at four o'clock P.M. The sight of our trailor excited many of the onlooking citizens. They clapped continuously at all of our accomplishments. Although the weather was warm, the streets were still filled with the Christmas spirit!

Amber Patch and Alisha Holder sit in the dragster waiting to line up for the parade.

Ramona Booth and Jeri-Laken Alexander prepare to lead the team around the square of Houston.

Waiting for the parade to begin.We had a few minutes to play around while we were waiting!

On display for the Mississippi Technology Alliance

Mrs. Anita Ellison, Mrs. Donna Turman, and Mr. Keith Reese made a trip to Jackson on Wednesday, November 28 to display the solar car for Mississippi Technology Alliance.

The mission of the Mississippi Technology Alliance is to drive innovation and technology-based economic development for the State of Mississippi. MTA is a non-profit organization organized into three centers:

•The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
•The Center for Innovation-Led Economic Development
•The Center for Capital Formation

These three centers facilitate our mission to help entrepreneurs, manufacturers, communities and investors create Mississippi companies.

Mrs. Donna Turman and Mrs. Anita Ellison with the car on display.

We greatly appreciate their support, and look forward to working with them in the future!

Collaboration with the Solar Wind Adventure

Chuck and Diana Hall have taken on an amazing project! They have collaborated with us for help and guidance throughout their project.

The Hall's currently reside in Texas and are both alumni of Purdue University. They have been judges for the Dell-Winston Race that takes place or starts in Dallas, TX every year since 1996. The idea for the project was discussed this past summer with Mr. Reese when General Hall was the judge for our team one day. Mr. Reese was enthused by the idea, and immediately was interested. He granted the Hall's access to the lab at our school and the use of some of our solar cells. After the boat's completion, it will be stored in the lab for safe keeping. It's always a great feeling to help someone who is helping our environment!

The Hall's made a trip to our lab to speak to Mr. Reese and the team Thursday, November 29 and stayed through Friday, November 30 to continue talking about the terrific plan. "Solar Wind Adventure" is the link to their site on the right side of our blog. Here are some pictures explaining what went on:

Chuck and Diana Hall with Mr. Reese discussing plans for the project.

Some of the members of the team cleaning off the solar cells that are being used on the Solar Wind.

Exploring the different possibilities for the arrangements of the solar cells on the Solar Wind.

Will Turman and Jonathon Barnett of the team bring out the solar cells so that we can meter them correctly.

An important element to check the correct efficiency is putting them in the Sun!

Preparing to meter the solar cells.

Reading the metering of the solar cells.

Mr. Reese metering a panel.

The team with Chuck and Diana Hall.

Thank you for this terrific opportunity Chuck and Diana Hall. The Houston Solar Race Team is honored to be a part in your awesome project! :)

A New Way To Contact Us

We now have a new email address. We would like you to either comment on this blog, or email us at sundancer@houston.k12.ms.us. Whether it be questions, comments, or information, we would love to hear from you. Thank You!!

Such excitement!!

The Sundancer team is proud to announce that we will be receiving one of the most competitive car molds in the United States and quite possibly one of the most competitive car molds in the world!!
At this time, we are planning on competing in all three divisions in the Dell-Winston Challenge during the summer. These divisions are advanced, classic, and open. We are extremely excited to be doing this!
This opens the doors to many new experiences for all of us, but this also calls for many new sponsors and many more people willing to contribute to our cause.
We would greatly appreciate all the help that we could possibly receive!
If it is possible for photos to be taken of us on Saturday, December 1, 2007, at our hometown parade at 4:00, we will post them on Monday, December 3, 2007.

Thank you!
*HCH & JBA

Hi everyone!

This blog is now under construction by Hilary Hancock and Jayla Alexander. We will be updating frequently... At least every Monday. We express our sincerest apologies on behalf of the whole team for not updating lately. We've been extremely busy since we have arrived back in the United States. We just got back from Australia about two weeks ago now. The trip and the race went over very well. We appreciate everyone's efforts and support to help us out in any way possible.

At this time, we are entering our "renaissance" stage... We're moving towards improving our original car AND building a new car that will hold the title "Sundancer II".

...However, right now, our main focus is Sundancer II. Our original car is currently traveling in international waters on its way back from Australia! We cannot wait for its arrival so we can start improving! All the team members are tremendously excited about the new car and everything involved in progressing towards a superior outcome! Here are some pictures from the race in Australia... Hope you enjoy!

The team flew from L.A., over the Pacific Ocean, and to Brisbane by Qantas airlines. This particular flight was about fourteen hours long!

After arriving at our hotel in Darwin, we took a minute or two to check out the view from the balcony of our rooms. Kerry's Automotive Group (Chrysler) in Australia donated vehicles for our team to use throughout the race.

*Special thanks to you for such a great contribution!

This is our car out on a "practice run" on the Hidden Valley race track.

Our car at the electrical station at scrutineering.

Mr. Reese celebrated his birthday while we were in Australia and

received an official Panasonic World Solar Challenge shirt as a present from his team.

First day of race!

We were caught up by a red light leaving Darwin.

Australia Bound!!!!!!!!

The Houston Solar Race Team will be leaving Friday, October 12, 2007, headed to Australia for the Panasonic World Solar Challenge! We are all extrememly excited!!! We will be gone for 3 weeks, and we will race through the Australian Outback for 9 of the days. During those 9 days, we will be camping out along the road!! It should be very interesting! We will try to update the blog anytime we get a chance to let everyone know what is going on! Thanks so much to everyone who follows us and all of those who donated money and time raising money in order to make this trip possible!!!

Day Seven

The day began at Wal-Mart in Canton, Ohio. After only two miles of driving the back left wheel broke and flew off. We had to stop on the side of the road, decide what we were going to do about the problem, and then come up with a plan. After only a few minutes a guy was nice enough to stop and direct Mrs. Turman and Mr. Reese to the nearest Lowes. They rushed there as fast as they could and bought the parts we needed to fix the back end, and we repaired it as fast as we could so that we could get back on the road. We were running pretty good, but shortly before we got to the days finish line we had another small set back. Lance was driving and noticed that a weld had broken that's purpose was to brace the array. Once again we pulled over, and managed to fix the problem within minutes and get back on the road. Even though our day held a few obstacles, our team stuck together and worked through them and managed to win day seven, putting us in the lead of the race.

Day Six

Day six was a pretty smooth day for our team. We drove from Wilmington Court House in Ohio to Lancaster, Ohio. In Lancaster we displayed our cars at a car show they were having! This town was very welcoming and presented us with a gift for us to remember our time there. They were having a small festival and it was so much fun! Some of our team was even up with the town members doing a line dance. We then trailered on into Canton, Ohio. Of course we got lost on our way there... I think we have gotten lost during our trailer time almost everyday we have had to trailer!! Though we have made a few wrong turns and taken a few wrong exits our adults are doing a really good job, these roads up here are just confusing compared to Mississippi roads! Our team did win day six and we were all very excited!!

Day Five

Mrs. Ellison and Susan George at the Harry Potter festival!
The witches!

We have driven so many miles that we ran blew the tire off the open trailer on our way Wilmington, Ohio.
Our rest stop where we got to tour the facilities!
The Vice President of YUSA gettin ready to drive our car!

The Harry Potter festival!

Friday we left Nashville, Tennessee, trailered to Wilmington, Ohio, and then drove to Washington Court House in Ohio. We only had to drive about 29 miles, but this was a very hard few miles because we were going through towns and trying not to get stuck at red lights. We managed to make it through most of the red lights and only got stuck at about two or three out of some nineteen! One of our rest stops was YUSA, this company was nice enough to give us a short tour and even provided us with supper later that night. Their Vice President, Vincent Allgeier, even came down to our car and took it for a little spin around the Court House. Later in the evening, some of the group went to the Harry Potter festival that was going on in Wilmington, Ohio, and it was so much fun. We bought capes, hats, and Harry Potter glasses and made lots of pictures with the people that were dressed up as characters from the book. This morning we found out that we did win yesterday too!!! So day four and five were really good for us!

Day Four

Stopped on the side of the Natchez Trace, Patrick, Lance, and Mr. Reese having a small discussion about what was ahead!
Hilary eating her lunch! She looks hungry doesn't she??
Clay being a great safety officer... he was waving the traffic around and protecting the solar car!
Clay bringing us all the sweet potatoe snacks that we got in Houston!

Caleb and Jeri-Laken, taking a load off for a minute!

Day four was a hard day for some of the team because after sleeping in our own beds for a night it was hard to not want to stay there. Despite how much we all enjoyed being in Houston, everyone got up and left out at 9:00 AM as we had every other day. We drove up the Natchez Trace all the way to Cherokee, Alabama, and then trailered into Nashville, Tennessee. Our team felt like we had a pretty good day because during the time we were racing we were having to watch our speed so we did not exceed the speed limit on the Trace. That is pretty awesome to have to worry about going over the speed limit instead of going under it and holding up traffic. Once we got into Nashville we displayed our cars at one of the Dell headquarters. They had us a very nice meal and everyone there was extremely nice! Sundancer did win this day, so we were all very excited!!

Day Three

Mr. Reese soaking up the sun!
Big thanks to Steven Iames with Waukaway Water Company for donating the "Sundancer" water! It has been a big hit throughout the race.
Mrs. Ellison with her grandchildren when we were in Houston!
Me and Paige riding the motorcycles with Mr. Todd and Mr. Rob! Everyone loved that they got motorcycle escorts into town.
Our team recieving a check for $5,000 from the Mississippi Biomass Council! Thank you so much!!

Day three of the race was Wednesday. Our team left Shreveport about 6:30 AM, trailered the car to Canton, Mississippi, and then put the car out and drove on into our hometown HOUSTON, MISSISSIPPI! We had a pretty hard day, but we still managed to get on home. We did not get the average speed that we had hoped for, but it was not anything the team did; the bolt broke on the accelerator causing us to have to slow down quite a bit. We did not win day three, but we were so excited to be home our team did not let that get our heads down! All of our fellow racing teams loved the hospitality shown by Houston. They loved that someone was willing to wash their clothes and had planned so many things for us to do. California was also very grateful because they finally got their car to work because everyone around the town that could chipped in to assist them in anyway possible. We all also loved the great food, goodie bags and baskets, and last but not least the Elvis Impersonator!

On behalf of the entire Sundancer team, I would just like to thank everyone in Houston for everything you all did for us and for everyone coming out to see us. It made not only our team feel special, but everyone else's too! We love all of you and are so grateful to have such a supportive town backing us through all of our adventures!

Day Two

We love the water truck boys!! Thanks to Ryder for donating this lovely truck!
Once we got to Shreveport, Louisiana, we were hot and glad to get some relief by playing in the water!

Being presented with the key to Henderson, Texas! We enjoyed this town very much... the people were so nice and made us feel right at home!
We were letting all the kids from this town sit in our car to see what it feels like to be the driver of a solar car.

The second day of the race was Tuesday. Everyone woke up early to go get the car out and get it charged up for the day we had ahead of us. We went out second in the line up, so we actually started racing about 9:02. We left Palestine, Texas, drove 117.8 miles, and then trailered the car on into Shreveport, Louisiana. The drivers of the day were Caleb Alford and Lance Whitworth. When we got to Shreveport we displayed our car infront of the local Science Museum. It was a lot of fun because we got to tour the museum for free and it was also a great chance to get out of the sun and get in a cool place! Our team really enjoyed our time in Shreveport, and to make it even better... WE WON THE SECOND DAY OF THE RACE!!!

Day One

Monday was the first day of the race. We started at the Dell Headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, drove 115.6 miles, and then put our car in the trailer and took it on into Palestine, Texas, to spend the night. The drivers were Caleb Alford, LanceWhitworth, and Me (Leigh Springer). Since I drove, I know from experience... IT WAS EXTREMEMLY HOT IN THAT SOLAR CAR!! We did not win the first day, but we did not finish far behind New York, who won first place for the day.

Yesterday, which was Sunday, all the other teams finished up scrutineering and then we all went to Austin and did a big media event. It was so much fun and all the new team members learned a lot about public relations and how to talk to people about our car. Then we came back to the hotel and realized that our blinkers were not working properly, so we had to stay down and work get them fixed. We managed to get everything working properly Sunday night so that the car was ready to race Monday morning.

Last night the interns hosted a team mixer, where all the teams went so that we could get to know each other better. Our team had lots of fun and met many new people. We danced, played games, and enjoyed the band! All in all we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were very glad we attended.

*Above are some pictures of some of our team members as well as a few others and Dr. Marks and Mr. Reese dancing!!

Yesterday was scrutineering for all the teams. Scrutineering is where all teams must qualify their cars in order to race. Our team flew through it with flying colors. The day started out rainy, but at about lunch it stopped and we began. We qualified 15 of our team members as drivers and completed all of the other 5 scrutineering stations in record time.

Getting the car loaded up to head out to the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge 2007!!
Mr. Ricky Allen checking driver's licenses before we left the school to make sure everyone is legal to drive.
This is Clay getting ready to leave, he's not leaving any of the food behind!!

Thanks to Mr. Leon Martin for donating a van for us to use during the next two weeks for the cross-country race.

Thanks to Mr. Steve Eaton of Eaton Motors of Houston, Mississippi for also donating us a van.

Big Thanks to Mr. Raymond Griffin of Griffin Motors in Houston, Mississippi for all of his hard work and dedication to the Sundancer Team. We appreciate Mr. Griffin for always donating the team a van for transportation, helping us get transportation from Chrysler in Australia, and also for his diligent work that resulted in our team being the recipient of a major Chrysler grant.

This is the 2007 Houston Solar Race Team.
Team members include:
Paige Lancaster
Jeri-Laken Alexander
Paige Smith
Hilary Hancock
Leigh Springer
Zack Huffman
Alisha Holder
Austin Marshall
Caleb Alford
Will Turman
Patrick Pearson
Josh Griffin
Lance Whitworth
Jodie Watkins
Jayla Alexander
Clay Fisackerly
Chaperones include:
Keith Reese
Beverly James
Susan George
Anita Ellison
Donna Turman
Robert Ivy
Donna Griffin
Also traveling with the team:
Whitney George
Reece James

The team as well as everyone else going on the 2007 Dell-Winston Solar Challenge has been hard at work all summer long preparing for the race that faces them. Everyone in the town of Houston is very excited and looking forward to following the Sundancer throughout the nine day race.

The team also sends out a huge thank you to Dr. Marks and his staff for putting on this race, Dell Computers for their continued sponsorship, and to our very own local sundancer committee that has planned a special ceremony for when the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge comes to Houston on July 18th for an overnight stay.