r3 Solar Car Team Progress

It's been a long, difficult learning experience for this team. Since the Rayce Start Sunday, everyone's been looking forward to getting back to Winnipeg, to get home, get a home-cooked meal, see friends and family, and re-stage the cars with all the other teams.

Winnipeg is a Stage Stop, meaning that it's not just a Checkpoint where everyone breezes through in a minimum 30-minutes. All the teams have to be here by a certain time, and continue the rayce at the same place and time once again. Most teams arrived here before the Red River Raycer, but the team that everyone was waiting for at the Red River Campus was the r3 Solar Car Team.

With all the struggles that the team had faced, they admittedly are no longer in position to compete. The gap to the next-higher position is too large, due to all the trailering penalties, and the gap to the lower positions can be ignored, because those cars are basically sidelined. This team only looks upwards anyway. Getting back to Winnipeg allows the team to reset the rayce, and start a new challenge. Let's see who gets to Medicine Hat first, the next Stage Stop. And then let's see who gets to Calgary first. That'll show the others what this team could have done, given a mere week of competition raycing experience. The r3 Solar Car Team is confident that they can show very well on this second leg.

When awoken in Grand Forks, at the usual 5:45 AM time, they looked up to see gray skies. With the running the day before, the batteries were already low. Again, the rayce is admittedly over for this team. This first leg can be written off. They trailered to a sunny spot, parked for 90 minutes charging the batteries on the array stand, and packed the car up to head towards Winnipeg.

With all the attention on this team, the r3 Solar Car had to make a show of it. They unloaded at the Westburne Electrical parking lot, Notre Dame and Keewatin, and drove the rest of the way as their typical complete raycing caravan towards the College. In contrast to the calm atmosphere of the Westburne lot on a Saturday afternoon, the Red River College bus loop was absolutely packed, with people, cameras, microphones and decorations. The build-up to this moment was intense, and the tired raycers rolled in home.

Several interviews and chats later, the r3 Solar Car team members were ready to go home and find their own beds. They packed up the car in the trailer, confident that the morning sun would completely charge their nearly-full batteries.

Their rayce would begin tomorrow.