Scrutineering Session Two

Session do was driver qualification. The Sundacer got David Peel, Roderick Wiley, and Matthew Jernigan qualified, and the Sundancer II got Stefanie Barkley, Andrea Westmoreland, and Lancer Whitworth. The race officials would only allow each team to qualify three drivers on each car because there are so many teams this year they are worried that every car would not be able to qualify drivers if each tried to get more than three.

Today the Sundancer also got a penalty because our batteries weighed over 275, which is the max battery limit, and since we were 11 pounds over the limit we got a two lap penalty. This means that we start with minus two laps.

About Today

Scrutineering is where each car qualifies to be in the race. Today in scrutineering session one we had to go through three stations, 1. Meeting General Requirements, 2. Electrical and Battery Requirements, and 3. Tilt and Turn Radius Check. Thankfully both cars passed all stations. It was really hot outside, but it was still fun. We met new people and saw people that we had met last year. All of the cars look great, including ours. The Sundancer team had a really good first day, everyone got along and everything that needed to be accomplished was. All of our team members made sure that nothing was left undone and really worked together as a team. Tomorrow we are scheduled to have scrutineering session 2 and then after lunch we are off to Fort Worth to the Stockyard District for a parade!

Scrutineering Session One

Tyler is hard at work getting the accessory battery installed in the Sundancer II!
This is Andrea, Stefanie, and Me(Leigh) this is after being in the hot sun all day!!

Lunch with Brian Lynch from Schott Solar

Checking In

These pictures were all made during Team Check-in this morning at about 11:oo! At check-in we got our driver arm bands, radios that were to be used in scrutineering, baking soda for that cars in case of a fire, and our team numbers. The open car (Sundancer) is #15, and the classic car (Sundancer II) is #14. This is Mr.Reese, Leigh Springer, and former team member Sherrie Gail Springer who is an intern this year for the race.

From Houston to Dallas

This is a picture of Lance Whitworth, Tyler Davis, Caleb Alford, and Roderick Wiley. This was made just after loading up the car after checking everything upon arrival in Dallas.
This photo was made at about 1;50 am this morning right before we left. This is the entire crew that we brought to Dallas with us. Peolpe pictured besides team members: Beverly James, Reece James, Susan George, Whitney George, Keith Reese(SPONSOR), Marty Ford, and Robert Ivy.
From left to right: Leigh Springer(Captain of Sundancer), Andrea Westmoreland, Stefanie Barkley(Captain of Sundancer II), Ericka Medders, and in the back is Alisha Holder. This is all of us girls and we were so excited to finally be at the hotel!


*So, here's the story: We left Houston at 2 am this morning and did not make it to Dallas until 5:30pm. After, driving only 3 hours we did not even make it out of Mississippi and the school bus we were taking messed up. We were stuck in Vicksburg, MS for almost 3 hours. The bus did not get fixed, so we had to load everyone up in the 3 vehicles that we had. Mr. Marty Ford, a member of our school board, and the driver of the bus, stayed behind with the bus to wait on a replacement while we headed on toward Dallas. Not only did we have problems with the bus, but when we opened the trailer that the Sundancer was in we found that the rough roads had caused a few problems. These problems are totally fixable so it is no big deal but if we would not have discovered them then we could have had major problems. Now we are all getting ready to go eat dinner because we have gotten the car out and checked it and made sure everything was fine. Scrutineering will begin tomorrow at 1 and we will update you with pictures and everything as soon as possible.*

Today has been a long day, eventhough we have only been here for 6 hours. We had a few small holdbacks, but managed to work them out. As of this moment, everything is totally completed and we are even almost done packing up the trailers. I AM SO EXCITED, AS IS EVERYONE ELSE. We are scheduled to leave at 2am in the morning! I Hope every keeps up with us through this next week, it is going to be exciting. I will be posting daily!!

The Finished Product

These are pictures of our car finally completed!

***** Only 1 Day, 14 Hours, and 58 Minutes 'til we are on our way to Dallas for the Dell-Winston Solar Car Challenge!*****

Final Touches Almost Finished

This is Matthew Jernigan and Roderick Wiley. They are in the process of working on the turn signal switch.

This is a picture of the array of our solar car. We are finally finshed, and are so excited because we have more power than ever!

Rising Excitement

Today we had a meeting with our Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is a group of local business owners, town officals, and supporters. They mean a lot to our team, and are always there for us to lean on. At the meeting we filled them in on everything that has been going on the past couple of weeks. They seemed very excited, which is nothing new because they are always very supportive. This group of people follows us not only through the race, but throughout the entire year. **ONLY 2 DAYS AND 12 HOURS LEFT UNTIL WE HEAD OUT FOR TEXAS**

Final Touches Complete

As of today our car is complete. We have been working really hard the past two weeks and seeing the car completed today was a great relief. It hit me, in only a couple of more days we will be in Texas. Words cannot describe how excited we all are. The whole team has been at the school working since 7:30 am and it is 5:00 pm and we are still here! Even though it has been a long day, everyone's spirits are high and they know all the time and sweat they have put in will be worth it when we get out there on the Texas Motor Speedway! We hope that everyone will keep up with us throughout the race, it means a lot to us!

A Team Ready to Race

This is a team photo that was made today for our local newspaper. We have 13 team members. They are (from left to right):

Matthew Jernigan, Patrick Pearson, Roderick Wiley, Caleb Alford, Tyler Davis, Lance Whitworth, David Peel, Leigh Springer, Blake McCoy, Alisha Holder, Ericka Medders, Stefanie Barkley, and Andrea Westmoreland.

Photos

In these photos, some of the team members review their work after adding new solar panels to the Sundancer.

Sundancer II

This is a picture of our team with our outreach car, the Sundancer II. This car competes in the Classic Division.

Work, Work, Work

Currently, the Houston Solar Race Team is still working on the Sundancer (our solar car). We are in the process of putting on our new solar panels that we recieved from Schott Solar. A special thanks goes to Mrs. Grace Xavier for her continued support and interest of our car. Our team is getting very excited, and we cannot wait to get to Texas and get out on the speedway! We appreciate everyone's support and hope that you continue to follow us through the next two weeks. We will be posting race updates daily on this blog. We love you JASON!! Everyone come on down to Texas and join in on the fun!

Leigh Springer