July 11, 2008
A day in the life of a solar car team member on scrutineering day two……or, no, this is not a holiday it’s long, hot, hard work!!
5:15 up and into the shower – no time for breakfast and it wouldn’t matter anyway as the hotel breakfast doesn’t start until 7am
5:45 into the car for the 30 minute drive to the track (fortunately for us, we get to stay in a hotel, quite a few of the teams are sleeping in tents – or not – next to their cars)
Arrival: Solar Team members arrive at the Texas Motorsport Ranch at 630 am
6:30 setup shop, electrical and mechanical teams untrailer the car and begin working on whatever it is they need to do
7:00 Lynne and Grady head for McDonalds for $125 worth of egg mcmuffins, coffee, juice, yogurt and fruit cups and lots of water
7:30 driver meeting for all drivers, breakfast for the others
8:00 dynamic testing centre is ready for business and we want to be there……but….the car is still going in reverse only (!?!?)
9:00 finally find the problem, a tiny little ground wire is not properly soldered into place and every time we push the car it becomes loose and the motor only runs backwards !!
9:07 off to dynamic testing
9:27 DONE! DONE! DONE! Nailed every test on the first try……Final green sticker in place and we have second place bragging rights ahead of a lot of really big name schools!!!!
10:00 observer meeting for Chuck Semmens, our team volunteer observer
10:30 guided track tour for managers and team drivers to see what the track looks like (sort of like inspection for all the ski racers out there)
11:30 off to the Subway shop for lunch (14 subs with all the permutations and combinations of tomatoes, no onions, no olives, light mayo, sweet mustard…..) and more cases of water
12:00 second guided track tour
1:00 track open for driver training – each of our drivers runs the track three times to familiarize themselves with it. Much celebration as we are the FIRST ones onto the track….other get busy not wanting to be left in our dust
2:00 tidying up of the trailer and watch the mechanical team build cup holders, wash tires (with fruity smelling shampoo) and tweak brakes
3:00 electrical team reconfigures the tritium motor controller as a backup (much whirring and whizzing of the back wheel while the collect data)
Pit stop: The team jumps to action to make a repair on the fly
3:30 mechanical team decides to investigate annoying creaking sound from the back wheels and decide to rebolt and safety wire the brake pads.
5:30 Red River College hosts a barbecue for 400 + …..tons of food and 25 cases of water are consumed – the Red River chef (yes, they brought a chef) just about swoons in the heat shimmer around the barbecue
7:00 start charging the batteries (did the race track realize what their power bill would be with 26 set of batteries plugged in over night??)
9:00 send the mechanical and electrical teams home for the night
11:00 Leo and Lynne leave the track with the batteries charged to 90% - as we pulled out of the track at least five teams were still working away under arc lights……the place was still humming,
Catnap: Electrical engineering manager Leo Marrero takes a well-deserved break from the stress of getting Schulich 1 through scrutineering