On June 25th, 2005 a solar drag race was held in Wenatchee, Washington that made history! World records were set in the high school and open divisions. More info is available at: http://users.applecapital.net/~jim/solardragrace.htm
The Race (1:21) for Broadband (5,156 KB) - for Dial-Up (423 KB)
The Press Conference (3:04) for Broadband (11,695 KB) - for Dial-Up (949 KB)
Drag race has its day in the sun
By Dan Wheat World staff writer
Monday - June 27, 2005
WENATCHEE - Darren Emmons pulled into the Confluence Technology Center parking lot Saturday morning for what was billed as the world's first solar drag race and wondered where the race was.
Half an hour to race time, and nobody was around.
"Us west-siders burn easily," Emmons, 45, explained as he lathered sun tan lotion on his arms, talked about being at the Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair the previous weekend in Wisconsin and described himself as a computer software engineer and "solar nerd," just come to watch.
He had driven from his home in North Bend for the race sponsored by Chelan County PUD and the Port of Chelan County.
By the 11 a.m. race time, Emmons had been joined by four other Western Washington solar-power buffs and Charles Jewell of East Wenatchee and his brother, Jack, of Entiat.
All spectators. But where was the show?
"There's a really good hot rod show down at the park, so all is not lost," said Ken Nielsen, 65, Kirkland, referring to the 27th annual Wenatchee Valley Street Rods Apple Run car show in nearby Wenatchee Confluence State Park.
"Guys stuck in the past and guys stuck in the future," remarked Andrew Maxwell, 43, Vashon Island, of the two events.
"This should be a big deal. People should care more about electric vehicles than petroleum," said Gray Purdy, a Seattle software designer, before giving up and leaving.
At 11:10 a.m., Mike Nelson, of Shoreline and founding president of Solar Washington, a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society, arrived in a pickup carrying his solar-powered go-cart and driver, Ben Heely, 16.
"You can operate a complex technological society on spring breezes, sun beams and rain," Nelson commented as he and Heely assembled the cart.
"What's exciting to me is the first place in the world that can go to a completely renewable energy economy will be Washington because we have the Columbia River hydro system and it provides us with the world's largest battery bank and it's a lot safer than a lead-acid bank," said Nelson, who was born in Wenatchee.
At 11:35 a.m., PUD energy service engineer and race coordinator Jim White arrived. He had been waiting nearby on Olds Station Road, which he planned to use for the 1.4 kilometer race course. But after arriving at the center, he decided Technology Center Way would make just as good a course.
White went home to get his solar-powered car, an extremely light, low cart with one wheel in the front, and about 10 feet of solar panels, two wheels and a small seat in the rear.
Other enthusiasts arrived, including Sambhu Kundu, a solar-panel research scientist from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of Battelle in Richland.
Kundu said it's pretty hard to visualize solar cars powerful enough for highway use.
But White said delivery trucks have room for panels and don't need a lot of power for local use.
The big race started just before 2 p.m.
Mary Meyer, Bellevue, dropped the starting flag. With no batteries, both vehicles took off slowly.
They passed a small, cheering crowd at the finish line, White in 46.5 seconds, Heely in 1.17 minutes.
"Aren't you guys proud," White's wife, Laurie, said to their children, Dawson, 7, and Denali, 11.
"He didn't really practice, so we didn't think he would win," Denali said. "But now we think he did pretty good."
"We had a serious failure of our flux capacitor," Nelson joked, referring a device of that name in the movie, "Back to the Future."
"Our intent was to arrive at the finish line shortly before we started, but we went backward in time, instead of forward. That's why we looked slow," Nelson quipped.
To estimate his speed, White had another vehicle clock him while he took a second run on the course. He said he reached 17 mph.
Then he took his strange-looking contraption down to the car show in the park to give the boys of the past a glimpse of the future.
Dan Wheat may be reached at 664-7150 or by e-mail at wheat@wenworld.com
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