This year’s Eco Shell Marathon competition took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, from April 10th to the 15th, Sunday to Wednesday. The first two days were work days. We had multiple people working on the last touches of the car. A couple of people were working on the motor controller, some on the wiring, and others were making sure that Lux passed the safety inspection. We found out that our motor controller was not working, and when it was tested with Lux, it compromised a couple of the electrical components of Lux. The rest of the day was spent troubleshooting, and going for new parts needed to finish Lux.
On Tuesday, we were still working on the motor controller, but by this point, Lux was not going to be ready to compete. Nevertheless, we still put Lux through the safety inspection (which a car needs to pass to be allowed on the track). We passed all checkpoints that relied on the mechanical parts of the car, we even got compliments on the breaks. Then, we went to the track to see some cars as they raced by. The next day was competition day, we had extreme weather conditions, so Shell decided to close the track.
Although we were not able to race this year, we enjoyed the experience. We met people from other teams. They were all supportive, lending tools and giving out advice. We saw designs that we can get inspiration from, witnessed other teams’ cars on track, and ended up with renewed determination to come back next year, ready to race.
