Live Blogging The 2009 EcoMarathon - Race Day 2 (Saturday)

1:10pm - We did some dyno testing in the morning, delaying our first run of the day. It paid off as we moved into 2nd place with 2160 mpg.



Universite Laval is still in first, up to 2757 mpg, besting our 2008 mark by 5 mpg.

Mater Dei is in 3rd place just over 2000 mpg, and hard charging Rose Hulman, who briefly held 3rd place, is in 4th at just over 1800 mpg.

2:20pm - After a quick ECU adjustment, we made our second run of the second day of competition. We were close, but did not best our previous mark, with 2147 mpg.
3:20pm - After pumping up our tires to 80 psi (25% above rated, and first time up that high in our new tubeless setup we unveiled today), Tim lengthened our 2nd place lead up to 2358.7 mpg in a near perfectly timed run 15 seconds short of the maximum time.

We also did another ECU update prior to this run. To save time, Verent set up the tuning computer right outside the door to the fueling garage.


4:30pm - On one final run, 400 mpg behind 1st place Laval we went for broke, pumping up our tires to 95 psi (60% higher than the rated pressure).

We ultimately did not get any higher than our 2nd to last run, breaking the pawl on the rear wheel and nearly exploding a tire, but we finished all 7 laps at 1993 mpg. Narrowly, Kevin's 5 year driving career ends with no rides in the breakdown truck.

6:00pm - While we did not have enough to overtake 1st place Laval (who apparently was very concerned about us on the last run), we were able to hold on to 2nd place. Actually as it turned out, each drivers best run was enough for 2nd (Michelle at 2147, Kevin at 2160, and Tim at 2358.7) as we barely held down Mater Dei and Rose-Hulman. The three of us were very close, with Rose-Hulman falling just outside the prize money. By pulling back into 2nd, we have finished as the Top US College for all 3 years of the competition.

The Combustion Prototype Division Final Rundown:
1. Universite Laval (Quebec) - 2757.1
2. Cal Poly - 2358.7
3. Mater Dei HS (IN) - 2083.6
4. Rose-Hulman Inst of Tech (IN) - 1800.4
5. Cedarville Univ (OH) - 1257.5
6. UCLA - 1239.5
7. Grand Rapids Technical HS (MN) - 1058.9
8. Colorado School of Mines - 951.5
9. Loyola Marymount Univ #1 (CA) - 858.4
10. Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia) - 782.8
11. Louisiana Tech - 696.3
12. Colorado - 657.8
13. Northern Arizona - 651.5
14. College of the Redwoods (CA) - 563.3
15. Loyola Marymount Univ #2 - 531.1
16. LSU - 459.4
17. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - 254.1
18. Monrovia HS (CA) - 235.6
19. State University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) - 231.7
20. Wright State University (OH) - 176.7
*Teams listed above are all Prototype-division combustion vehicles that completed a run

6:45pm - We also won one of the secondary awards at the competition this year, as we took 3rd place in the Use of Advanced Technology Award. This one is pretty much all thanks to Bob and our awe-inspiring, if not functional, DAQ system.

12:35am Sunday - Since we probably all got a total of 14 hours of sleep the last three days combined, we decided to stay in Southern California an extra day instead of driving, probably dangerously, 5 hours back to SLO with only 2 certified trailer drivers. Back in the hotel, everyone had a chance to unwind, including the newest member of the family...