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The Arizona Solar Racing Team was established in the Summer of 1997 at the University of Arizona, with the goals of enhancing engineering education and renewable energy at the University. The team’s first project was building a competitive solar car for Sunrayce 99, the fifth iteration of a biennial solar vehicle competition open to Colleges and Universities across North America. After recruiting several students as team members and developing funding over the next several months, the Arizona Solar Racing Team began designing and constructing its first solar powered vehicle early in 1998.
It is often very hard for a rookie team to develop the resources necessary to build a winning solar powered vehicle and to create a lasting project that will bring long-term success. As an example, 54 teams attempted to build cars for Sunrayce 99, the largest entry field since Sunrayce began in 1990. However, only 29 teams successfully passed race scrutineering and the minimum requirement of 125 qualifying miles. Most of those turned away were rookie teams with their first car.
To avoid the problems of most rookie teams, the Arizona Solar Racing Team (then called the Daedalus Project) began by extensively researching previous successful solar vehicle designs, especially low-effort and low-cost engineering solutions that could be successfully implemented by a small team. The concept for Daedalus was to build as robust and reliable a solarcar as possible.
As a result of this philosophy, Daedalus, as completed in late March of 1999, was approximately 100 pounds heavier than the Sunrayce-average but proved surprisingly robust and reliable in initial testing. This success carried over to the Sunrayce 99 Qualifiers, an event in which the total number of miles that could be driven in one day determined the starting order for Sunrayce. Held at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds in Milford, MI, Daedalus managed to run the 6th greatest number of miles with impeccable reliability, beating out many more established teams in the process. Although not the 6th most efficient car in the field, this was a testament to the design strategy of Daedalus, as it was one of the only cars to run flawlessly for all 8 hours. This placed the Arizona Solar Racing Team as the best-qualified rookie team in the history of Sunrayce.
Buoyed by this initial success, the team continued preparations for its first cross-country race, from Washington, DC to Orlando, FL. Testing in varied locations from Tucson Raceway Park to state highways and the streets of Tucson, Daedalus continued to rack up miles reliably and the team’s confidence grew for the upcoming race. The team showed perseverance to make it to the race after the race trailer tow vehicle broke down in New Mexico, and soon afterward gusty winds blew the trailer off-road in Texas. After extensive repairs were made in each case, the team finally made it to Sunrayce a day (and a few thousand dollars) behind schedule.
After passing race scrutineering, Daedalus lined up 6th in front of the capitol building in Washington, DC for the start of Sunrayce 99. Under a full cover of clouds and a steady drizzle, the race got underway, amazing the media who expected the cars to require sunshine to run (a battery pack stores energy gathered by the sun to allow the car to drive in unfavorable conditions). Unfortunately, the team quickly discovered that Southern Arizona had not provided an ideal testing environment for the hills, small towns and cloudy conditions encountered on the East Coast in Sunrayce. One major problem was the almost complete lack of waterproofing. As the gallons poured in, several problems were caused due to inadequate waterproofing throughout the course of the race.
Sunrayce 99 quickly proved to be a race where strategy, not overall speed, determined finishing position. With cloudy conditions on 8 of the 9 race days, and rain for most of those days, no team was able to gather enough energy with their solar array to drive all 1423 miles of the race. Those miles not completed were driven with the solarcar in a trailer, with a system of penalties attached to the number of miles trailered each day.
An integral part of race strategy is an electrical telemetry system on the car which provides accurate measurements of battery state-of-charge, allowing a team to make important race decisions, such as when and where to trailer. Unfortunately, the telemetry system for Daedalus was not ready by the time of the race, and the team was limited to making strategy decisions based on incomplete information.
These problems limited the team to an overall finishing position of 24th, despite a car which could have placed much higher with simply more experience. Even so, the Arizona Solar Racing Team finished as the best new team in the race, and gained experience that is necessary for a rookie team to make the jump to the next level.
The lessons of Sunrayce 99 (dubbed Rainrayce by some) and Daedalus were incorporated into the design of the team’s second car, Monsoon, named partly in homage to the experience of Sunrayce 99. With the additional manpower and greater financial investment afforded by a more experienced team, Monsoon was able to incorporate better-optimized engineering solutions that allowed the team to be more competitive against the best that other University teams have to offer. However, no one will forget the experience of Daedalus and the team's first solar racing opportunity in Sunrayce.
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