Today was the first day of scrutineering and the team was well rested and prepared. They needed the rest for the very busy day ahead.

Upon arriving at the speedway and unpacking, we started our first section of scrutineering: General (aka Mechanical). It started with simple questions. The judges were impressed with the car, and questioned us about our destructive testing and steering. The judges pointed out a couple of quick mechanical changes, but their major worries were about egress (exiting the car). They were concerned that in the event of a battery fire, the driver would need to climb over a fire to exit the vehicle. While SOCKEYE wasn’t breaking the rules, the judges decided to rule the car unsafe until we came up with a solution. Given the difficulty of moving the battery pack to a different location, we decided to create a firewall for the battery.  

Our team rolled the car back to the garage and began conversing and then working quickly on the simpler mechanical fixes. While working down our list, the team was called to the tilt-and-turn scrutineering station. We successfully tilted our car 20 degrees in each direction and turned within the required space, which passed SOCKEYE for the station.

While the car was out for scrutineering, middle school students came to watch and observe our race cars to prepare themselves for high school and get interested in solar cars. In order to fix our battery issue, Zach left to buy aluminum sheets and a fire blanket, which we used to create a fire shield above the battery.

Next, we had the electrical scrutineering section and after over an hour of talking, we managed to finish scrutineering with only minor issues to fix. According to Jude, “Electrical scrutineering went well and there weren’t any major issues, just some high voltage signs and wires on the mpptt.”

Today was also our first chance to see our fellow solar car teams. It was exciting to say hi and get to know our garage neighbors, but we will really get a chance to meet everyone by day three when most teams have finished scrutineering.

Additionally, our confidence was bolstered by the fact yesterday’s solar input was, according to Hika (our solar panel specialist), “Way better than expected. Output was double what we predicted.”

As for the team’s progress through scrutineering, according to Hagen, our president, “It could have been better, but shouldn’t be an issue. We know what we need to finish for tomorrow. In the past we have completed all stations in one day, but the issue with the battery is new.”

After returning to the hotel, we attended the award banquet. We gathered and ate before Dr. Lehman Marks, the race director, gave a speech about contributions to society as a whole and reiterating that this “race” is about collaboration between schools and students.

In summary, today we went through mechanical and electrical scrutineering with mostly minor problems and completed tilt and turn and we are looking forward to completing scrutineering soon! Tomorrow, we plan to make our second attempt at the mechanical station and electrical station, and our first attempt at the brake test, the slalom course, the endurance test. This would give us scrutineering day three to test our array and meet with other teams.

If you want to follow our team through the race days follow the Solar Car Challenge Youtube. They’ll be streaming from July 14-17th and lookout for our blue solar car SOCKEYE! (www.youtube.com/@SolarCarChallenge)