Sisters man battles through solar car race

The sun didn't shine as brightly as hoped for Wesley Ford's Stanford Solar Car Team at last month's Veolia World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Ford and his crew battled bushfires, torrential rains, chronic repairs and an incredibly competitive field in their quest to win the difficult cross-continental race, held October 16-21. When the final results were signed by the Chief Timekeeper on November 4, Stanford's Xenith solar car came in 11th place, logging 2,547 total miles, just short of the finish in Adelaide. The overall winner was Tokai University of Japan, who completed the 3,000-kilometer race in 32 hours 45 minutes with an average speed of 91.54 kph.

The contest showcased the latest in alternative transportation technologies and pits man and his inventions against the harsh perils of Australia's outback. Ford, a Sisters High School graduate and class valedictorian, attends Stanford University and traveled Down Under at the end of September in preparation for the event with his team.

"The race has been pretty exciting for us," he said in an interview with The Nugget. "We had a relatively fast qualifying lap time in Darwin, so we started the main race as the seventh vehicle out of about 40 teams. We moved up to fifth place, but started having problems about 200 kilometers into the race."

After receiving a prized set of low-rolling-resistance tires just before the race, that apparent score quickly became a headache.

"We thought the prototype tires could give us a strong advantage, but we ended up having problems. We had to do three unexpected tire changes, which left us on the side of the road for hours while we swapped out flat tires. And during one of our tire changes we accidentally damaged a mechanical component while reinstalling the motor. We were in 16th or 17th place once we had the motor fixed, but we were able to pass a lot of teams once we were moving again."

After changing back to more reliable rubber, the Xenith car moved back to 10th place the next day but time was running out even though their systems were generating 10 percent more power than the other teams.

"At one point, the entire race was stopped due to brush fires burning along the Stuart Highway," he said. "Rumor had it that the town of Barrow Creek, one of our control checkpoints, partially burned down. After the race started up again we drove into thick clouds that blocked the sun and slowed our car. All the teams faced the same overcast skies, headwinds, and rain so the field wasn't moving very fast."

With increased cloud cover, the team concluded the race short of their goals but in high spirits.

"Fortunately, we collected a lot of great data on our car," said Ford. "We didn't do as well as we hoped given our mishaps early in the race, but we already have plans on how to refine our technology for the next race. We're still proud of our accomplishments and the fact we built a competitive solar car as a student-run group. We had some bad luck and made a significant mistake the first day."

For Ford and his entire 20-member crew and support team, racing across the Australian outback was a unique adventure.

"The landscape is very desolate, but we saw some kangaroos, wild dogs, and plenty of poisonous things. We started our race days at 8â¯a.m., so we all got up early to charge our car in the sunlight at sunrise. The race stopped every evening at 5 p.m., so we spent the night camping in the desert wherever our car sat. At night there are rarely any cars and we'd relax under the stars. It was dark enough to see the Milky Way. It was really an amazing, rewarding experience."

Ford estimates the team has invested over 12,000 hours into the construction and transportation of the car, at a cost of roughly $500,000.

For more information and race photos visit www.solarcar.stanford.edu.com.