On-road Operations

Open

Open

• Minimum of 10 people to have a functional team… definitely want more though

• Lead navigator operates the radio

• Want members who can do repairs in the lead and chase vehicles

• Make sure to bring water and also maybe have someone to take care of the solar car driver (passengers) - at least 2 people in the solar car during the race

Observers

• Their job is to observe and record whatever happens

• There’s a different one at each checkpoint

• Every time you change your driver, you have to change your ballast

  • there’s a penalty if you don’t (i.e. insufficient ballast

• Observers are instructed to not obstruct team members but if there’s a safety issue, they can intervene

• Need to provide them with lodging and food (they stick with you throughout the race)

• Have freedom with intra-radios (i.e. only for team use)

• Start talking after holding the button for a bit → takes a second for the connection to be established and talking right away risks your transmission being cut off'

• NOT USED BY DRIVERS

• Make sure there is a clear chain of command and someone who has the final say → you want to avoid arguing during the race

• Recommend keeping car music low/off in support vehicles (lead or chase)

  • especially in urban areas so that you aren’t distracted when doing transmissions

• If a driver is not feeling well or feeling tired at any point, be sure to swap them out → need multiple drivers for each day

• Truck and trailer drivers should get some practice before the race

• Truck and trailer route might overlap sometimes but is separate for the most part

• Need to make sure all vehicles are registered (spectators, etc.)

• If you leave a teammate for scouting or media collection, make sure to pick them up afterwards

• Before the race, 4 route books will be given to each team

  • Study beforehand if you’re a navigator

  • Each is about half an inch thick

  • Always be aware of the speed limits and locate signs on the sides of the roads → will be penalized for speeding

• Shoulder → useful for planning where you can pull over

• It’s okay for other vehicles to come between the lead vehicle and the solar car but you don’t want the lead to be too far away from the solar car

• Lead, Solar Car, Chase

• Traffic dumping (not applicable if you’re driving at the speed limit) → If there are more than 5 vehicles piled behind the chase vehicle, you need to pull over as soon as it’s safe

  • If there’s no shoulder, you don’t need to stop yet but make sure to communicate over radio

  • Sometimes there’s a passing lane though

• Bogeys → unaffiliated vehicles inside your caravan

Pulling Over

• First people that exit the vehicles should be your cone flaggers

• Might not be necessary to have the cones in the front and back fo the solar car as long as you have them behind the lead and in front of the chase

• Notice - chase vehicle is pulled up closer to the white line of the lane

• Practice and test-drive with the team before the actual race!

• Only one concern → want the lead and chase vehicle wheels are pointed towards the ditch

• Want to pull over a little more (solar car) but not bad

• Do not bring in cones until everyone else is in their vehicles

• Blocking side road, no rear cone flagger

Questions

When do teams receive route books?

• Months before the race, these are created

• Teams usually receive a PDF version once they are created and then they’ll receive at least 4 physical copies at the race

Do you have any advice on timing with stoplights to avoid solar car stops?

• No easy answer because different states/towns have different methods of stoplight timing

• For cruisers, it takes a lot of power to start from a stop - not entirely sure if there’s a clear cut method but you do want to avoid making a complete stop whenever you can

When pulled over, is there a maximum distance a team member can ‘stray away’ from the vehicles (i.e. media person taking photos)?

• Nope, just make sure you’re being safe and not impeding any other teams

This event seems to be pretty logistically challenging and benefits heavily from experience, do some new teams participate in it as their first event (assuming they quality from fsgp)?

• Yep, it happens sometimes - depends on what the teams are comfortable with

• For new teams, it’s a good idea to just sign up for FSGP (not fun if you pay the ASC fees but don’t end up qualifying) but if you have a competent vehicle, go for it

• Conditional Qualifying → might not fully pass scrutineering and are then given the condition that the first checkpoint needs to be reached by a certain time

what are some things winning teams have done during ASC that set them apart regarding on-road operations?

• One is practicing a lot → via social media, you know which teams practice and they tend to do better

• Being organized, having checklists of everything you have to do at different times (morning, driver changes, night, etc.)

  • Simple stuff like having food in vehicles, getting water for the drivers, etc.

• Situational Awareness → not just for safety but also for efficiency

  • has seen teams lose track of time and they leave late from checkpoints (after 45 minutes) and it costs you

  • Always want to make sure you know what time it is and where you have to be at certain times

• Always need to make sure everyone’s in the cars, that all the cars are ready to go

  • Make sure lights, horns are working

  • Basically everything the observer checks → do it in advance so that you aren’t scrambling last minute

• Practice, practice, practice!

• Go to YouTube to get an idea of what it’s like to pass other teams, pull over for repairs, etc.

• Fun fact - there used to be 'quick pit change' competitions

  • Award in scrutineering for this

  • there was also a pull/push race. → how fast can you pull your car from point A to point B