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| 7/23/2010 12:18:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Stony Point team in solar car race
Annual Hunt/Winston Challenge kicked off in Fort Worth
LAURI ZACHRY
Education Reporter
Members of Stony Point High School's Solar Car Team have gone on a cross-country adventure of sorts this summer. However, that trip was only at the average speed of 33 mile per hour since their car was running on battery power and the power of the sun.
The Hunt/Winston Solar Car Challenge cross country solar car race began July 18 in Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway and will conclude at the beginning of next week in Golden, Colo. Stony Point's team is competing in the classic division.
Throughout their journey, solar car teams have made stops in towns such as Abilene and Amarillo. There are 12 cars competing in this year's Solar Car Challenge, with two of those teams competing in the advanced division, two teams competing in the open division and eight teams competing in the classic division, said Stony Point Solar Car Team member Andre Demings, in his first year as a member of the team.
The members of Stony Point's Solar Car Team (Tom Mullaney, team captain, Demings, Michael Mullaney, Paul Barron, Ricardo Olivera and mentor James McElhanon) spend about eight hours a day driving the car. Tom Mullaney, Demings and Barron take turns driving while Michael Mullaney serves as the navigator since he cannot legally drive. These drivers then switch duties every two hours, Demings said.
To have a safe experience on the road solar car team members travel on the shoulder of the road throughout the race, especially on busy thoroughfares such as Interstate 35 and I-40 through Amarillo. They also have a lead car driven ahead of the solar car while a chase car is driven behind it.
Stony Point's Solar Car Team has faced challenges such as an electrical problem the first day of the race and losing time to one of their rear tires wearing out on the second day, Demings said.
Team members, though, overcame those challenges and moved on. On day three of the race the car's tire held out well and the power of the car exceeded its predicted capacity, Demings.
"We attribute the increased capacity to getting to take advantage of a great tail wind on day three," Demings said.
The team faced a few advantages compared to other teams competing in the race. Since this is the fifth year the school's solar car team has competed in this race, team members only needed to make a few modifications to the car's 5-year-old chassis such as dropping 150 pounds of battery weight from the car to lighten the load and installing an actual racing seat inside the car, Demings said.
"Reducing the weight from the batteries allows us to go faster and we're not using as much power," Demings said. "Unfortunately, we don't have as much battery power but we can run on solar rays for our power and that has worked really well. Our car is incredibly rugged and made of chrome-alloy steel. The solar panels can even withstand 1-inch hail."
Tom Mullaney said the Stony Point Solar Car Team is open to any Stony Point student. Team members begin working on the car at the start of the school year. During the school year the team meets each Thursday or Friday to work on the car.
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