World Solar Challenge, Outback style

 

An example of the open land found in the Outback that is suitable when finding a campsite.

After a long day of racing, there comes the time in which the team needs to find a place set up camp for the night. However, it isn’t as easy as picking a spot on the side of the road. There are many factors that affect our decisions on where to camp.
When there are just ten minutes left of racing left for the day, the Weather and Scout vehicles have those ten minutes to find and set up a place for the team to stay for the night. Weather and Scout look for a plot of land that is large enough to park all the vehicles in our caravan, set up large tents, and is easy enough for the solar car to drive off and onto.
There are a few differences when racing in WSC versus in ASC. During ASC, finding a campsite is challenging due to the fact that there is less open land and the land is usually owned by an individual or company. In the case of ASC, the Weather and Scout vehicles are responsible for asking the individuals who own the property if we would be able to spend the night and set up camp. In contrast, during WSC finding camp is generally easier due to the fact that the area we race through is open land and we can stop almost anywhere.

The 2010 ASC team working together to set up the Base-X

The Base-X tent all set up in the outback.

Once the campsite has been decided upon, the Weather and Scout vehicles need to set up the Base-X tents and array stand. By doing so, when the solar car arrives to the site moments later, the team can quickly remove the array from the lower and angle it towards the sun – allowing for maximum charging time. Two Base-X tents are set up as they are essential for the team: one to house the team and another to use as a “garage” to repair and work on the car. At this point, operations will start cooking dinner, the engineers perform nightly checks on the car, strategy and weather analyze the data collected and plan for the next day of racing, and media captures and updates footage.
During WSC, we are entirely dependent on what we bring to the outback, completely away from civilization. Conditions can be hostile in the Australian outback, so it is important that the team has a few basic items that are necessary to survival. For example, wind speeds reach up to 60 mph, there could be torrential rain, deadly animals or insects, or extreme heat or cold temperatures. A few of the most important items that we keep on hand are reliable pocket knifes and flashlights. Having high quality and reliable knives, like the ones that were donated by Benchmade are useful when needing to prepare meals, cutting electrical tape for fixing wires, and just keeping with the general maintenance of the car.

Benchmade sponsored some beautiful and highly useful knives for the race crew.

In order to work on the car at night, the team requires high performance lighting such as the ones provided by our official lighting sponsor, FoxFury, who donated a team set of flashlights as well as Nomad area floodlights that will help light up the area the team works within.

FoxFury sponsored a collection of (clockwise from bottom) Rook, Command, Scout, and Nomad (not pictured) lighting solutions.

As a whole, the camping aspect is not only a part of the solar car experience, it also allows the team to bond and practice.  The team will have a chance to get a feel for the camping procedures this weekend during our Mock Race, providing experience that will be critical to success during the World Solar Challenge.


We would like to extend a thank you to Benchmade, FoxFury, and HDT (sponsors of the Base-X tents) for their generous donations to aiding the team in our quest to win the 2011 World Solar Challenge.
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Taken in it's entirty from
The University of Michigan Solar Car blog