UK had great success today in the first day of raycing. After the events of last night, with motor controller problems, the team is pleased that the car was perfect all day. For the race hours between 8 AM and 6 PM, our car was stopped for only 15 minutes. During that time in the pits we change drivers and tires when necessary. Drivers can stay in the car for a maximum of six hours and we have four (Sam Nicase, Kassy Lum, Stevo Hughes, Nick Such). We are very happy since we have one of the lowest maintenance and most reliable (during race hours) cars in the race.

The course is 1.7 miles long and our lap times ranged from 3:30 minutes to 6:00 minutes depending on weather conditions. It was cloudy for most of the day, thus keeping our speed down, but the sun came out during the post-race charging period and our battery is mostly full for tomorrow. Just to give you an idea, we typically say that our battery can last for 75 miles at 30mph so having a full charge to begin the race should give us a nice boost. Cars are allowed a stationary charging period before the race for 1.5 hours and after the race for 2 hours.

Currently we are in 4th out of 11 teams. We completed 109 laps for a total distance of 185.3 miles. University of Minnesota is leading the race with 169 laps, University of Waterloo is in second, and Northwestern is in third.

Tomorrow we expect more sunlight and faster speeds. Our battery should be completely charged by race restart at 8 AM (CDT). Look here and on our Twitter for more updates.