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At Sunday’s awards ceremony, in addition to the team’s successful 3rd place finish in the 2009 World Solar Challenge, the team also received the Technical Innovation Award. The award is presented by the Australian Research Institute CSIRO, and is awarded to the team that pushes the envelope with regards to ingenuity in the development and racing strategies of a solar vehicle.

We are proud of Infinium’s many technological advances in our A123 Systems LiFePO4 batteries, sophisticated race strategy software suite, iPhone telemetry application, and especially lower surface concentrator system.

As promised…

Last week as the team was packing the semi for its return trip to the United States a very surprising new sponsor was found in the Silver Sponsor section of the semi trailer, Nuon Solar Team! As the Business Director for the team, I naturally set out to find the money owed for such exclusive semi-trailer realestate.

It didn’t take much convincing for the Nuon team to decided they did indeed want to be a sponsor of the Michigan team in order to have their name on the website as a Crew Sponsor. Unfortunately, the Crew Sponsorship will not reward Nuon a placement on the semi trailer, but until the trailer returns home in December, it will sport a Nuon Solar Team decal. Bon Voyage!

On behalf of the Michigan team I would like to say thank you to all of the solar car teams for making this experience so amanzing. We all had a great time getting to know you over the past few weeks. We wish you safe travels home and hope that we meet again some day. If you are ever in Michigan, you better let us know!

Infinium has successfully completed the World Solar Challenge finishing in third place! This finish ties the 1990, 2001 and 2005 teams for the best placing by Michigan. The team crossed the finish line in Adelaide this evening, cruising in at almost 110kph.

Unfortunately, the team was unable to finish the race yesterday stopping 10km north of Port Wakefield. Through out the entire day the team battled Nuon for second place which including at least 6 lead changes. The team was able to pull into the Port Augusta checkpoint 5 seconds ahead of Nuna 5. Shorty after leaving the check point Nuna 5 over took Infinium, but a couple minutes later Infinium moved back into second place. Nuna 5 matched Infinium’s speed and then eventually passed and put some distance between the two cars.

As time in the race day was coming to an end, it looked like Infinium would finish the day four minutes behind Nuna 5.  Unfortunately, the team ran out of momentum trying to make it up a hill, and was forced to push Infinium to the top and take a 10 minute penalty. This penalty combined with the lead Nuon has created, will almost certainly mean a third place finish for Michigan.

Our hats go of from the team from Tokai University who ran an incredible race with their amazing car. We would also like to congratulate Nuon on their successful recovery and race. They certainly made the last leg very exciting for us back at home.

Lastly, I would like to congradute our team in Australia on running an amazing race. Everyone in the States is so proud of how well the race crew performed. The team should be crossing the finish line this evening. I encourage everyone to follow Infinium into Adelaide using the GPS tracker.

Solar Enthusiasts,

I would like to thank everyone for the tremendous amount of support the team has received. In a couple of hours Infinium will start its fourth and hopefully final day of the race. The team is attempting to finish second in the World Solar Challenge, something that has never been accomplished in the team’s 20 year history. To finish second, the team will have to pass the four-time defending champions, Nuon, a task which will not be easy by any means.

To follow Infinium on the last day please take this link. Infinium’s position will be updated approximately every ten minutes. I hope everyone will track Infinium until it crosses the finish line in Adelaide. As soon as I hear from the team, I will post the final results.

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!

Steve Durbin
Interim Project Manager

After an intense day of competition, the team sits neck and neck with Nuon for second place. We are currently camped out approximately 2 kilometers behind Nuon, though they ended the day shortly after 5:00 PM while we ended at exactly 5:00 PM. When we pulled off at our campsite, our lead vehicle was directly behind their chase vehicle. Tokai University remains in the lead, already having passed Glendambo. Barring any great misfortune, they will emerge as winners of the race. Our team is excited to be in direct competition with Nuon for second place, who have finished first in all of their four previous races. Never before has Michigan finished higher than third in the World Solar Challenge/Global Green Challenge.

The day started with both us and Nuon just north of Alice Springs. We arrived there shortly after 8:30 with Nuon close behind. A cable was left unplugged at the end of the control stop, which forced us to lose some time at the exit of the control stop. Shortly after leaving Alice Springs, one of our MPPTs malfunctioned and tripped the vehicle’s circuit breakers. While we were on the side of the road, Nuon passed us to take second place.

We spent the remainder of the morning pushing on towards Kulgera, and ran across many entries from the Eco Challenge class of the Global Green Challenge. These vehicles were seeking to maximize their fuel economy while competing across the outback, and were running slower than we were! While navigating through the pack of Eco Cars, we even had a chance to run alongside Ford Australia once again. In the midst of weaving through the Eco Cars, we pulled into Kulgera about 10 minutes behind Nuon.

After passing the border for South Australia, we began to make up ground on Nuon as they slowed their pace. As we approached both Nuon and Coober Pedy, we received word of an overturned semi just 30 km north of the town. Traffic was restricted to a fraction of one lane–in the shuffling surrounding this, we caught up directly behind Nuon, and were prepared to pass them. However, debris from the accident punctured one of our tires and forced us to pull over. Thanks to an amazing tire change in less than two minutes, we pulled into Coober Pedy three minutes after Nuon.

Leaving Coober Pedy, we continued to close the gap with Nuon. Had the race day not ended when it did, our pace at the time would have allowed us to pass Nuon. Instead, we are camped out tonight with 808 km left to go until the end of timing, and a great end to the challenge head-to-head versus Nuon.

After starting the day just North of Alice Springs, Infinium was able to reach the checkpoint 5 minutes ahead of Nuna 5. Shortly after leaving the checkpoint Michigan was overtaken by Nuon and fell into 3rd place by 20 minutes. Throughout the rest of the morning the team was able to decrease Nuon’s lead to 12 min by the next checkpoint, Kulgera.

In the afternoon Infinium continued to catch up to Nuna 5 pulling into Cobber Pedy only 5 minutes behind. Tomorrow should be an intense day of racing; if weather holds out the top 3 teams will be crossing at end of timing tomorrow afternoon.

At the end of the second race day, Infinium is currently in second place, positioned 30 km north of Alice Springs. Tokai University, currently in first place, arrived in Alice Springs at 4:06 PM today, so we are essentially 90 minutes behind the race leader. We are 20 km ahead of four-time champions Nuon, although they have gained on us over the course of the day. Once again today, Infinium ran with great reliability, and we spent no time on the side of the road.

Today was marked by dust from a dust storm blanketing the sky for nearly all of our race route. Roughly 80 km into our day we reached the system, which continued all the way to Alice Springs. The dust in the sky limited the amount of power we were able to get from the solar array, forcing us to reduce our speed from the previous day’s pace. We anticipate that the dust should clear up tomorrow as we head towards the South Australian border. Once in South Australia, the speed limit will decrease from 130 to 110 kph, making it harder to catch any team ahead of us. However, if we keep a lead over Nuon, we will be in for some great racing for the next half of the race!

Infinium has just left Tennant creek, 30 minutes behind Tokai and at least 30 minutes ahead of Nuon. The team is currently in the middle of a large dust storm, which is affecting the amount of energy the cells can generate. With every team affected by this storm, Infinium’s large battery pack should help the team close the gap on Tokai!

After one day of racing, the team as traveled 746 kilometers. They are currently located 10 Kilos south of Elliot, 240Kilos from Tennant Creek and 747 Kilos from Alice Springs. Following the Umicore crash, Infinium remains in 2nd place, still about 30-40K behind Tokai and 50Km ahead of Nuon.