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.

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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?!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

*Houston Solar Race Team

Bruce and Calhoun City Parades

The Calhoun City Christmas Parade was Friday, December 7, 2007 at 6:30 P.M. and the Bruce Christmas Parade was Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 5:00 P.M. Here are the pictures from the parades...

Paige Smith and Jayla Alexander sit in the team's dragster before going around the square of Bruce.

A quick pose before the parade!

Parading around Bruce's square.

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.