Hello all,

Both the Tasmanian and Victorian Model Solar Challenges were held over the weekend and the Western Australian event takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The weather at the Tasmanian event wasn't great for racing. There wasn't any rain but it was just really overcast. The sun level sat between 5 and 10 percent (possibly up to 15% at times) for most of the round robin event and only cars in 4 separate races out of the 60 odd that we ran officially managed to make it over the hill (the overpass on the Tasmanian track is very abrupt and, as a result, the slopes are a lot steeper than the national track's).

The light picked up for the finals slightly and managed to crack 25% a few times. The fastest lap of the day went to the eventual winner from Queechy HS. They got around in 30 seconds which is not too bad on the Tasmanian track at those sunlevels.

The top 4 were in the end were:

1st - Queechy HS
2nd - St Patrick's College (first year of competing in the event)
3rd - Queechy HS
4th - Rose Bay HS

I haven't looked at how they turned out but I took a couple of scrutineering photos of the top 4 and will be hoping to get those up on the Tasmanian website. I'll also get to posting some up here in the next few days.

I also have some racing shots and might include some of those aswell.

To all of you Victorians out there, how did the Victorian event go?

miseli

Some of the results from the victorian event:

1st - Scorpion, Syndal South Primary School
2nd - Killswitch, Box Hill High School

Best Engineered - Nigresta, Box Hill High School

I will add the remaining results when I can find out exactly who won them. I believe another car from syndal south got in the top four.

The conditions on the Saturday were rather overcast with a bit of rain in the morning. Several cars did not make it around the track. On the Sunday the light level was fairly constant around 40% for the morning with it occasionally jumping to >100% for short amounts of time (as little as 10 seconds or so, but still enough to affect races).

PS. I was on the team that made Nigresta

Thanks for the info unussapiens.

I spoke to Ian on Saturday night and he did mention that Syndal South very doing very well. If I remember correctly, he also made a quick reference to your car and its aerodynamics.
If you won the best engineered car award, I expect that you will probably be given an AIMSCC wildcard.

miseli

Yeah, we're pretty hopeful about getting a wild card, we had the 3rd fastest time on Saturday. Our car will be at the nationals whether or not we're competing. Look out for the transparent torpedo (I can post photos if people want them).

Yes we want photos. Please post.

Yes, please do.

Here are some photos of the top 4 in the Tas event (select to enlarge):

1st - Queechy HS - Hot Chilli




2nd - St Patrick's College - The Bat Mobile




3rd - Queechy HS - The Flash




4th - Rosebay HS - Pink Sparkly Barbie Fairy




miseli

Ahh, 3-wheeler galore!
Great looking cars, Congrats for the top 4.
Curious to see Victorian cars.

Yes, basically all cars down here have been going with 3 wheels ever since Hobart College won the national event in 2005 and 2006.

For those of you in WA, let us know how the seeding goes if you can. Some pics from the first day of racing could also be good.

miseli

Hi all,

The results from the WA event are in. The conditions over the two days were brilliant, I didn't get a look at a meter but sun was probably around 100% most of the time.

The results:

1 - Girrawheen Senior High School - Explorer
2 - Aquinas College - Nemphis Mensa ( )
3 - Winthrop Baptist College - Bound for Glory
4 - Guildford Grammar School - name??

Fastest Qualifier -Girrawheen SHS (Explorer)

The nationals track really made a difference and I hope it comes back to WA next year!

See you in Melbourne!

Nice Christian, well done.
Show us some photos please, cars, and setups your running.

Yeah no worries, my team-mate will be getting some photos soon.

The competition was very strong this year, there were at least 10 highly competitive cars which all could have made the top 4.

Cheers

Yes, congratulations to you and well done to the others in the top 4.

Do you know what kind of times you guys were getting?

I have a feeling that the WA cars will be very hard to beat this year in Melbourne if the conditions are right.

See you there,

miseli

I think the fastest time was somewhere in the 16s, on average the top cars were in the 17-19 bracket. Light went down a bit towards the end and there was some shadows over the track from the nearby buildings.

That seems about right. The top cars should be doing around the mid 16s in 100% sunlight.

I expect that times and sunlights are recorded on a spreadsheet of some sort during the event.
Does anyone know who to contact to get hold of this info?

BTW, how did your car end up going Redlands?

miseli

I was on Nemphis Mensa from Aquinas, the car that came second

It was a tough day and we had to eliminate our sister car in the quarters. I'm very happy with the result as we came 3rd in 2007 and 4th last year.

Cannot wait to return to the AIMSCC competition in Melbourne!

I didn't realise. Well done.

I will be in Melbourne overlooking the seeding and sorting of the main knockout draw.

How close was it between you and Girrawheen in the final? What kind of gear ratio did you end up going with and/or did you make some changes and do some testing throughout the day?

miseli

Guys ive got hold of some NSW photos, ill post them up in the next few days.

Girrawheen were pretty dominant, i believe there was a good second that they beat us by both times in the end.

We ended up running a 16-100, or 6.25, however we are looking at reducing the size of our gears for nationals for better leverage. Testing proved that we were overall doing best with either 6.25 or 5.88...

How many of the top cars were running with 3 wheels and did anyone have any stability issues with the panel being set 30mm or so higher this year due to the milk bottle?

I look forward to seeing some photos.

miseli

Only one of the top 4 was running the design, being Winthrop. With stability the cars that werent stable also werent that great in terms of speed so there werent that many cars coming off. However there was one interesting accident where the Winthrop car came off its track and tunnelled into a Belridge car. Both, however were fine.

Here are some of the pics we got. Nothing from scruitineering however so you cant really discern the designs.