Qualifying Completed
We have successfully completed our second day of qualifying at the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas. From our calculations, we drove enough laps in the two days to earn pole position for NASC 2008!
After nearly a week at the MotorSport ranch in Cresson, we have left for Dallas, where we will be staying prior to the race start in Plano. On tonight's agenda is dinner with the Alumni Club of Dallas, along with a number of fans and supporters currently in the area. Many thanks to all of those who visited us at the track this week--it was great to have such an enthusiastic crowd to cheer us on.
Today we started the second day of qualifying 38 laps up on Calgary and roughly 60 laps ahead of Minnesota. I was in Continuum for the first two hours of the day, then handed off driving to Brooke for another two hours. Two hours later, at 1 PM, Brooke pulled in for relief and we switched from Sava moped tires to Michelin Solar Radial tires. We had been using the moped tires for their durability on track, though we wanted to run a few laps on the track using our racing configuration.
After a few laps on Michelin tires, I came back in and we swapped in our new front suspension for the first time. This suspension was machined by Paul Relf from our sponsor Viper Technologies in Torrance, California. With this part, we were able to run an NGM motor capable of generating more horsepower to get us around the track quicker. Despite time on the side of the road for the tire and suspension changes, we were able to keep ahead of Minnesota and Calgary, who both spent significant time making repairs.
Although offical results will not be verified until later tonight, we expect to come away with pole position. This should put us in control for the beginning of the race, allowing us to run our own strategy and not waste power passing other teams. Thanks to all the team members, sponsors, alumni, family members, friends, and other supporters who made this possible. We'll have more updates as the race gets closer!
After nearly a week at the MotorSport ranch in Cresson, we have left for Dallas, where we will be staying prior to the race start in Plano. On tonight's agenda is dinner with the Alumni Club of Dallas, along with a number of fans and supporters currently in the area. Many thanks to all of those who visited us at the track this week--it was great to have such an enthusiastic crowd to cheer us on.
Today we started the second day of qualifying 38 laps up on Calgary and roughly 60 laps ahead of Minnesota. I was in Continuum for the first two hours of the day, then handed off driving to Brooke for another two hours. Two hours later, at 1 PM, Brooke pulled in for relief and we switched from Sava moped tires to Michelin Solar Radial tires. We had been using the moped tires for their durability on track, though we wanted to run a few laps on the track using our racing configuration.
After a few laps on Michelin tires, I came back in and we swapped in our new front suspension for the first time. This suspension was machined by Paul Relf from our sponsor Viper Technologies in Torrance, California. With this part, we were able to run an NGM motor capable of generating more horsepower to get us around the track quicker. Despite time on the side of the road for the tire and suspension changes, we were able to keep ahead of Minnesota and Calgary, who both spent significant time making repairs.
Although offical results will not be verified until later tonight, we expect to come away with pole position. This should put us in control for the beginning of the race, allowing us to run our own strategy and not waste power passing other teams. Thanks to all the team members, sponsors, alumni, family members, friends, and other supporters who made this possible. We'll have more updates as the race gets closer!
Labels: NASC 2008 Season
Posted by Steven Hechtman at 8:14 PM | Permalink |
8 comments
8 Comments:
Pole position, that's outstanding!
Steven,
Thanks for the regular updates, and congratulations on the success of the team in achieving the pole position. Go Blue!
Way to go, team! As faculty and alumna, couldn't be prouder of you - Dr. Montgomery, ChE
Wow, there are some good looking cars at the race! I put together a FriendFeed room (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/nasc-2008) that aggregates a bunch of the team blogs as well as one flicker account that has some great photos. Let me know (fn@altgate.com) if you see any other blogs I should add to the feed.
Excellent news! What was your time for fastest lap? Minnesota had a 2 min. 47 sec. lap, I believe. You know I love it when you put numbers in the blog.
Oh, and to answer a question Doug and I had a while back, plant photosynthesis is about 3-6% efficient. The Dept. of Energy officially announced gallium arsenide solar cells with 40.9% efficiency. Clearly Mother Nature should have gone with gallium arsenide cells and lithium ion batteries instead of chlorophyll and sugar.
What happened to Western Michigan's car? Minnesota's blog says the top shell (with the array) flew off while they were driving around the track. Will Western be able to race? 25 teams signed up. By my last count, only 11 qualified to race. And by my count, the teams to watch are Michigan, Minnesota, Bochum, Missouri S&T (used to be Rolla), and Calgary.
Furqan! You're my new hero. That FriendFeed room you set up is ausgezeichnet! (I'm learning a lot about the internet from this blog. Last racing season someone taught me to use altavista's babelfish, the translation website. I've been using it to read Bochum's blog (or tagebuch), often with hilarious results.)
How are you finding all these links for the FriendFeed room? Are you googling your brains out, or what?
Excellent job, just excellent.
- your new fan, TC Lambert (tclambert@gmail.com)
Thx for the props, TC, I just did a mashup of the team blogs mostly...
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