Hands Where I Can See Them!

What started out as a routine meeting turned out to be a very eventful night. New advancements were made on the car so we decided to take it out for a quick test drive through our town. We loaded up in the back of Big Red, called the police for an escort, and away we went. We didn't get very far before we noticed the back tire was flat. We pulled over in a vacant parking lot and our team was quick to fix the problem! We were back on the road in no time when we saw the Chief of Police quick on our tail. We were speeding! The speed limit was 15 and our car was topping out at 50 mph! Our team was dumbfounded and extremely excited! All of our hard work had paid off. The only problem was we didn't have our drivers licenses. We were so quick to leave the school none of us had our purses or wallets. A few of our members had to be taken away and one of them even tried to escape! Sundancer proves once more that anything is possible!

Whitney trying to make the escape and get the handcuffs off.

Thomas had the right to remain silent....but he didn't have the ability!

Put your hands where I can see them!

Just kidding! None of our members were really arrested.

We would love to show the police officers of Houston our deep appreciation for being so supportive and cooperative of our team. Without them we would not be able to be so successful!

Flywheel Festival

As the school year comes closer to coming to an end, the race is getting that much closer. We have various things planned for the next few weeks as we prepare for the challenge this summer. Houston is known for our hospitality in hosting the Flywheel Festival every year and this year the team is going to have a special guest. We are very excited about Mr. David Hearne attending and getting to meet our new team members. His book Hulagu's Web features the Sundancer Solar Race team. We are very excited about this venture and getting to know Mr. Hearne better. We will be posting a link on our web site soon so you can check out the book and have the opportunity to purchase your own copy of Hulagu's Web!

As March comes to an end and April begins the anticipation is becoming unbearable! We have started testing one of our cars for scruitneering. Here are a few pictures of us begining the process. Please continue keeping track of us on our blog as we continue making advancements on our cars.

With February over, we are another month closer to the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge, and we are staying busy. The team is turning in intents to race and preparing the applications.While our solar car members remain active in the Sundancer program, they are also involved in other school activities. Josh Griffin is perhaps one of the most active. He participates in the school's baseball team as well as cross-country. This past fall, Josh walked away the 2008 3-A boys State Cross-Country Champion.

Greetings from team Sundancer! With 2009 well underway, we realize that we have only five short months to prepare for the race in July. We have currently been training our new teammates and are thrilled with their progress. The team will only be returning five veterans this year. Like always, Sundancer is ecstatic to attend the race and be with the solar car family. Good Luck to all!

CHRISTMAS TIME!

The Christmas season is here and we are all ready for our vacation away from school! Never the less, our team is still hard at work whether we are modifying our car or participating in Christmas events. We were recently in the Tupelo Christmas parade and also in our town's parade. We would like to again thank everyone who is involved in our solar car program and wish everyone a HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!

The SUNDANCER TEAM would like to wish all our sponsors, fans, friends, and family a HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We are so appreciative of all the support and good wishes you have given us over the years. It is this time of year that we as people need to give thanks to special people in our lives. THE SUNDANCER TEAM thinks that you are all special people. We are all still busy and have big plans for the future. Keep up with our progress on the blog. Once again:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Sundancer Meets Starkville Middle School

We were so excited to meet a few of the bright minds from Starkville Middle School. We were able to discuss their toy project and how to achieve all of their goals.

OUR RUN TO MEMPHIS

We had our second training run Sept. 26-27. We left out of Houston a little later than we had planned so we didn't get as much driving time in as we had hoped for. Despite the lack of driver training we all got a little of the"cross country" experience. We were planning on camping on the side of the road wherever we stopped. We have done this before so as we unloaded our luggage and set up our tents, we didn't think anything about it. When we were finished we all wanted to go eat so we loaded up on the bus and headed for the nearest roadhouse, of course! Later that night when we returned to our campsite we had a police officer waiting on us. He informed us that what we were doing was too dangerous and they would not allow us to camp on the side of the interstate.. imagine that?! We informed him that we had done this several times before, but it didn't matter. We HAD to leave. As much as we hated it, we had to go find a hotel, sleep in an actual bed, and take a shower. The next day we got up bright and early to start charging the car. When we left the hotel we set out toward Graceland. Thomas Brown drove Sundancer all the way from our hotel to Graceland. As soon as we got there we set the car up to charge while we toured Graceland and did some souvenir shopping. All in all our team had a wonderful time! ..we even initiated our new members.

SUNDANCER meets ATK

This past Wednesday our Solar Car team had the opportunity to visit ATK in Iuka, Mississippi. ATK specializes in making composite materials that are used for a variety of things. One of their recent productions was the delivery of the Delta Launch vehicle. ATK is also a leading provider of small and micro-satellites. This innovative company is leading the way in exploring a new frontier in space with lightweight materials, such as composite. We had the privilege to meet with them and discuss ways to improve and redesign our solar car. They were extremely helpful and we hope to continue working with them! We can not tell them thank-you enough for all of their help!

Community Welcome Home Celebration

We had a great outcome at our community welcome celebration. It was wonderful to see our town come out and show their support after our victory. We presented a powerpoint of this summer's race and each of the members shared a memory or two. We once again would like to thank our wonderful community for all of their support for our team.

We safely arrived from Texas with no time for rest, it was back to the shop for the team. Our summer schedules have been full of media events, including an interview with MTV's Street Team '08 (link posted below), civic club meetings, and discussing the future of our team. We are currently in the redesigning stage of the Sundancer II. After eight consecutive victories, we are retiring Sundancer I. We intend to race in the advanced division at the upcoming race next July. We are excited about the upcoming celebration event being organized by our wonderful community supporters and steering committee members. It is scheduled for Sunday, August 10, from 3:00 to 4:30 in the Houston High School auditorium. We are preparing a presentation including photos from this summer's race. We appreciate your support and hope that you come out to see us.
MTV Video Link:
http://houston.k12.ms.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF0098A0BE001700991012/

THANK-YOU to TERRELL, TEXAS

The day that we were scheduled to come home from the race, we had an accident in the bus about thirty miles outside of Dallas, Texas. This delayed our return home almost two days. We had no idea what we were going to do or even how we were going to transport about twenty-five people to the nearest hotel. Luckily, the town that we were in, Terrell, Texas, was extremely friendly and more than helpful. They not only provided us with transportation, but they also treated us to lunch and a movie. We are also from a small town, so it was great to have that same hospitality so far away from home. We don't know what we would have done without them. Our team is so thankful they were there to help us. We want them to know that we appreciate what they did very much and we will never forget their hospitality. If we had to choose the place where we wanted to break down again, it would definitely be there! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!

*We also owe another thanks to Dana Skelton, the fine art and district project manager, and his wife for* helping us find a hotel.

The team posing for a picture. Thank-you to Debbi Gamble with the Terrell Tribune for being interesting in our team and our solar car.

Another thank-you to Don Ledbetter, the General Manager of Student Transportation for the Durham School District, and to Shemika, our always friendly bus driver who took us wherever we needed to go.

She was there to pick us up on the side of the road after our accident.

AWARD'S BANQUET

Through our efforts and team work we placed 1st in the Open Division, 1st in the Classic Division, as well as several daily trophies and a GE Engineering Award.

Sundancer Taking A Victory Lap Around The Track

JUDGES ALL AROUND

Our team would like to recognize all the judges that helped in the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge. We appreciate all that you do in making our time there safe and enjoyable.

Roddy the Camera Man That Can!!

Our thanks go out to Roddy for all the team photos during the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge. We appreciate your effort in making this challenge such a memorable experience. It just wouldn't be the same with out you there.

Our Honorary Solar Car Members

It was a wonderful priviledge to have Dr. Coker and Mrs. Janet Coker, our honorary solar car members, visit us at the Texas Motor Speedway. Their company was an amazing addition to our team and made our racing experience better than we could ever imagine.

DAY 6

Josh Griffin also helps another team by driving their car for a while! Doesn't he look good in a pink car?! :)

Today is the last day of the race. We are all tired but it has been fun. We are looking forward to a great, sunny day. This morning at the driver's meeting we received another trophy for Sundancer I. So far we have won seven. Tonight is the closing banquet where the over-all winner will be announced. We are hoping to bring home our eighth victory.

Making last minute adjustments before the race began.

DAY 5

Jonathon helped out another team today by filling in as one of their drivers. This morning at the drivers meeting, when the results from yesterday were announced, we were glad to find out that we had completed the most laps in the Classic Division in the morning session. We also found out that Sundancer I completed the most laps in the open division. We are so proud of our drivers and all of their hard work.

We would also like to thank Schott Solar for making all of this possible. We are glad they are interested in our team and our solar car and also that they have continued to support us.

Sundancer II crossing the finish line!

ALL OF THE TEAMS AT THE DELL-WINSTON SOLAR CHALLENGE 2008

DAY 4

We arrived at the track around 7 o'clock this morning and it was already hot! Before the race starts each day all of the teams have a drivers meeting. This is where the race officials announce the standings from the day before. We are happy to let you know that we recieved three trophies. Two were from Sundancer II completing the most laps in the morning and afternoon sessions in the classic divison. The other was from Sundancer I completing the most laps in the open divison. Sundancer II completed 90 laps while Sundancer I completed 132. We are hoping today goes just as well as yesterday!

DAY 3

Even though it's only the first day of racing, we are feeling very confident about both cars. We are having great lap times and charging well. We won the first new competition yesterday which was seeing who could carry their car 15 ft. the fastest. We did this is only 10.5 seconds!

Also, last night at the awards banquet, we received the first place trophy from last year that we didn't get while we were in Newburgh, New York. That was another great way to start off the race. We would also like to send out a special thank-you to our Superintendent Dr. Coker and his wife for coming all the way to Texas to show their support for our team!

DAY 2

Today, the second day of scrutineering, we finally completed all of the stations and are getting ready for the race tomorrow. We only had to make a few minor adjustments to our cars. We have all qualified to drive not only our cars but also some of the other cars. A few teams did not have enough drivers, so we volunteered to drive for them a few days. It will be tough competing against our own car, but we have to show true sportsmanship. We are about to go to the hotel and get ready for the opening banquet which is tonight at 7 o'clock. Hopefully the race will get off to a good start tomorrow morning.

Arrival in Texas

After breaking down about one hundred miles outside of Dallas, TX, in the bus, on July 4, it was very hard to find help. When the team from Biloxi passed us, they immediately pulled over to help. Thanks to them, the bus was fixed and we were able to make our way into Dallas and settle in for the night. We are currently setting up and preparing for scrutineering which will start at three this afternoon. The heat is smoltering and it's only 10:15 in the morning! With one more day of scrutineering (Sunday), the race will officially start on Monday morning and will end on Thursday. After that, we will rest for the night and start home on Friday morning. To all those who are keeping up with us, please pray for everything to fall in place and go well, and also the safety of our competitors and ourselves.
*Houston Solar Race Team

The broken down bus!

Thank you Mister bus mechanic man from Biloxi!

Finally coming into Dallas!

Saturday morning.. Inspecting any possible problems before scrutineering.

Will Turman, Josh Griffin, Mrs. Ellison, and Zack on the beach!

At the Hidden Valley Speedway in Darwin.

The view from our hotel in Darwin, Australia.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Jodie Watkins, Josh Griffin, Lance Whitworth & Paige Lancaster

More Photos from Australia!

Our team had an amazing opportunity to go to Australia last fall. We competed in the Panasonic World Solar Challenge against some of the world's best solar cars. We would like to share the experience with you through the pictures that we took while we were there! :)

RESULTS

The trial run did not turn out at all the way we planned. Sorry we have not updated the blog in a few days telling about the results. We have been very busy repairing the car. Our damages included a collapsed frame, a splintered array, and a warped rim. We have decided to play it on the safe side by designing a heavier, more reliable frame and array. This will add about 4oo lbs to our original design, but we should be okay since we are only around 1200 lbs. We hope the law of inertia will be in our favor. We will be updating the blog daily so our fans can keep up with our progress.

On the Road Again

Today will be the first time that we drive our new car on the highway!! We would like to thank the City of Houston for providing us with a police escort and the use of their radar to test our speed. Since this is our first time out in this new car, we will all be required to wear a helmet (just in case things do not go as planned). We all are extremely excited about taking this car out for the first time after months of hard work! It is finally paying off. We will let you know how it turns out!

Shout-Outs and Thank Yous

This summer we will be racing in multiple divisons. We will be using Schott Solar Cells at the speedway race. We would like to thank Schott for all of their help in making us successful. Over the years, our relationship with Schott Solar has grown into what we feel is like an extended family. We would also like to send a big shout-out and thank you to Tim Cook at NTN Bearing Corporation of America. Without his generosity and interest in what we do, our program would simply not "go"!

Upcoming Events

We are very excited about the upcoming race this summer! It will be held in Dallas, Texas, and will take place at the Texas Motor Speedway. We have been working on building a new car, Sundancer II. With all of our hard work, it is almost completed. We are working extremely hard to get a different kind of solar car in each of the different divisons this year.
Besides getting ready for the race this summer, we are also doing a few things around our hometown. The Flywheel Festival is coming up the last weekend in April. We are planning on having a booth there and selling our "Sundancer water". We are also bringing the car along for pictures. We hope that everyone will try and attend the festival. We would love to see you there!

NEW MEMBER!

Josh Davis, the newest addition to the solar car team, is in his first year of electricity. He has worked very hard on helping build our new car, Sundancer II, and we're extremely proud of all of his accomplishments so far!

Let Us Brighten Your Day!

Happy 2008 everyone and thank you for taking the time out of your busy new year to stop by our blog! We are very proud to announce that we've completed the installation of the composite material on our new car. Next, we have to tackle the electrical system. After the electrical system, we work on the body of the car. This year, the girls of the team have considered some fun, bright colors. :) Hopefully, we can brighten people's day! And what is better than helping the environment and brightening someone's day?!