Today was another day of preparation at Victorville, CA. When we arrived at the pit area, there was a definite cloud of smoke over the entire region. Although the fires were many miles away, a smoke alert was in force. Anyone who experienced breathing problems would be taken out of the region. Thankfully, by late afternoon, things had cleared up a lot. Several more team members arrived today. DARPA has pushed back the start of the qualification rounds by half a day. Evidently some of the teams had trouble getting here because of the California wildfires.
We had our first practice run at noon. The practice areas are quite large this time and there is ample room to try some real maneuvers. Each participating team gets a practice slot. Additional slots are provided tomorrow, by request. Many of our friends arrived today including Lotus Engineering, Northop Grumman, Comtrol and SICK. It’s great to see everyone again. Thank you for all your support! Oh, and PCMedEvac, everyone signed your banner today, includng the Lone Wolf. Watch for pictures.
The Lone Wolf is a very popular car. Since it is the only sports car in the race, almost everyone stops to admire the shiny Lotus. There were many press and DARPA folks through our pit area today, including Dr. Tether, the head of DARPA. He stopped for a photo opportunity. At the end of the day, there was a welcome meeting where we received more information about the competition.
Tonight we dined with our Lotus friends at Rosarita’s, except for the software team who went back to the hotel validate some things. Tomorrow morning we leave at 5:30am. The Opening Ceremony starts at 7am sharp.
Pictures may be found by Clicking Here
October 26th, 2007 at 1:13 am Welcome to California all of you. Looking forward to seeing all of you again. Can’t believe it was 2 years ago that I saw you in Fontana,CA. Congratulations on coming to CA,for the DARPA Challange. I have been keeping up with all your progress since I saw all of you last. You are in my thoughts and prayers. Can’t wait to see THE LONE WOLF. All of you take care. See you soon. Joann Holicky
October 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm Go Insight Racing! The Raleigh News & Observer had another big write up for you guys on page 4B. Everybody’s watching and rooting for you guys. The Lotus looks great! Have a great run! /Rick Regan Regan incorporated authorized SICK distributor