Although the American Solar Challenge is far from over, I’m getting a head start on my personal Gem Awards for the race. The “Beautiful Background Gem” goes to the National Trails Intermountain Region for its wonderful scenery. Running the race along the Oregon Trail was a brilliant idea!
The race chart below is similar to that previously posted, but based on official data to date. A small elevation chart is included at the bottom. The chart is constructed with reference to a theoretical car which drives at exactly 80 km/h all the way. Vertical position indicates how far behind that theoretical car the various teams are (in elapsed-time terms). Penalty minutes are added in at the right-hand side of the chart. Trailered vehicles are shown at the top left. Notice that Western Sydney are only 19 minutes behind Michigan, and ETS/Eclipse only 87 minutes behind Michigan.
In the Cruiser (MOV) class, Minnesota and Onda Solare are both still running well behind the 53.5 km/h required speed (shown by the dashed green line), and so are attracting slowness penalties (per regulation 13.3.A). In fact, Minnesota is below the 45.8 km/h threshold where Cruisers are given a zero efficiency score (dashed pink line). I’m not quite sure what the strategy for these teams is, but both Cruisers appear to be in trouble.
Also, the cars have been climbing, but the big climb is yet to come. Good luck to everybody!
Scientific Gems 