Electric Stock Car Racing at the Phoenix Solar and Electric 500 John Takes c.1992 John Takes After having attended the 1991 Solar and Electric 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Bob, Peter, and I realized that we would be entering the 1992 event. Our 1981 Volkswagen Dasher was nearly finished. We felt that with its battery carrying capability and relatively good aerodynamics, it could be a competitive vehicle. Preparation Stan Barr, who is a writer and former auto magazine publisher joined our group and began a sponsorship drive. Before long, we had equipment and/or funding from companies such as Michelin Tires, Cruising Equipment, KTA Instruments and many others. Then we got two big breaks. Ernie Holden, the founder and organizer of the race, suggested that we contact Bill Cheesbourg, a former Indy 500 racer who presently owns and operates a Volkswagen specialty shop in Tucson. Although Bill had never been in an electric car he was one hundred percent supportive and enthusiastic from the start. He had ideas for suspension modifications and suggested that we get the vehicle to his shop for work and testing. The other break came in the form of sponsorship from Eagle-Picher Batteries of Missouri. They had nickel-iron batteries in a six volt package that would not only fit our existing lead acid battery cases, but had been tested at 200 amp/hrs discharge at a C/2 rate! Our calculations with our existing lead acid batteries showed that we would only get 55.5% of the available energy during the two hour limit of the race. This would mean that we would have to lower our amperage draw to around 65 amps continuous (pretty hard to imagine since we were drawing about 95 amps at 60 mph). Actually, we had been interested in these batteries for about three years but had always been told that each module (6 volt) would cost about $2,500. Eagle-Picher not only ran discharge tests according to our specs., but they sent out two nickel-iron engineers, Don and harold, who worked with us in Tucson and at the race, installing, charging and testing the performance of their batteries in our vehicle. Shop Work Bob towed the Dasher from our shop on the Mendocino coast to Bill's shop in Tucson, Arizona two weeks before the race. Bob and I had been driving the Dasher for six months and we felt very good about its performance, range and reliability. The main area that we knew needed work was the suspension and handling. The car sat low with over 1200 pounds of batteries. Bill had a crew of six or seven people and in a few days the modified suspension was installed along with a full roll cage and aluminum racing seat. Bill told me that one evening he didn't realize that he had left a door open on the Dasher, and a slight evening breeze caused the vehicle to gently roll up to his desk (about 15 feet away). At this point, Bill felt that we were doing well as far as rolling resistance was concerned. Fine Tuning New equipment arrived daily and was quickly installed. Then the batteries arrived. They were lighter (9 lbs. each) and fit perfectly. We installed metering for amperage, voltage, cumulative amp/hrs and motor, controller and battery temperature. After several afternoon and evening of road tests between Tucson and the Mexican border we were ready for Phoenix. Race Day We were all at the track at 8 a.m. on the day of the race even though our event wasn't scheduled until 3 p.m. The crew chief from the zinc-air was interested in how our batteries were doing (a good sign). Practice and races in other classes continued throughout the morning and early afternoon. After what seemed like days we were called to the starting grid. All of the twenty cars looked good, ready for competition. I knew that few, if any, of these vehicles would be able to make the full 124 miles in two hours but somehow they all looked like they could. We set up our equipment behind the pit wall. Don and Harold organized for time keeping. Bob and I stood on the wall, gritting our teeth and wondering what else we could possibly do to be more ready. What could we have forgotten? I went over my mental checklist again and again. Tire pressure, metering, battery connections, instructions to Bill, all had been checked and rechecked. Main Event The flag was dropped and these silent, elegant vehicles were off. At the end of a somewhat disorganized pace lap the green flag was dropped, the cars surged ahead and the race was on. At the wheel of the Dasher, Bill was almost instantly in the draft position behind the two air-zinc cars. It looked like our coaching (paranoia) had paid off. It was apparent that the zinc-air teams strategy was to have the Saturn conserve its energy by drafting the zinc-air Honda until well into the race and then the Saturn would make its move. After a few laps, several 'trains' of vehicles drafting each other were proceeding around the track. It was clear that Bill was very experienced in this technique. Our two-way radio system failed almost immediately after the start of the event, but we had a back up system of hand signals that Bill had worked out with us. Don and Harold timed every lap and indicated that we were just about right at 62-63 mph - just what we would need to go the full 124 laps in two hours. Strategies From the beginning of the race it was obvious that James Worden in Solectria's #99 zinc-bromide powered car was moving substantially faster than the other vehicles. He continually increased his lead until he was maybe five or six laps ahead of the second place car. At some point, maybe an hour or so into the race, Bill got bored and pulled out from behind the zinc-air team. We were soon delighted to see the electronic scoreboard broadcast second place #5 Bill Cheesbourg! The thought that most of the other cars couldn't make the full 124 miles without stopping to charge made us feel that our chance of winning were very good. We watched as Solectria's #99 car pulled into the pits. The crew was checking the tires and suspensions and the race announcer speculated that there were suspension problems. James was quickly back on the track. Then, about an hour and twenty minutes into the the race Bill pulled the Dasher in and indicated that the voltage had dropped. I checked the battery temperature and it was high, but still within normal range. Don checked the battery voltage and then decided that the batteries were discharged and we were through. Our cumulative ammeter read (-146), nowhere near the (-210) that we had hoped for. How Disappointing! We had enough power for the last few laps so we would be counted as finishing the race. Shortly after Bill pulled in James and the zinc-air cars pulled in followed by Michael Hackleman's Honda. At this point we had fallen to sixth. Calamity on the Track All of a sudden there was commotion and excitement coming from the far end of the pit area and crews and spectators were moving quickly away. Apparently the #99 car had developed a hose problem and its recirculating electrolyte (zinc-bromide solution) was in the car and on the track. The race was stopped and we soon learned that James had to be hospitalized and about 15 people were being checked for bromine gas inhalation problems. The accident was extremely unfortunate and James and the others of us were quite lucky - it could have been much worse. The accident certainly raised safety awareness in both the participants and the race officials. The race organizers and tech people are well experienced in fossil fuel racing but they are new to electric racing. Fossil fuel racing safety has had decades to evolve to the point that it is at today but electric and solarelectric racing (on this level) is relatively new. New standards and safety measures are being formulated and implemented to prevent such accidents in the future. Hindsight After the race, Bob, Don, Harold and I looked back on our efforts from a technical perspective to try to determine what went wrong. It seemed obvious that our batteries somehow hadn't received a full charge, but why? On Saturday, there had been a 25 lap heat race and we had told Bill that he could "do anything he wanted to". Starting in tenth place he was in second place by 3/4 of the first lap. About ten laps later our 200 amp circuit breaker tripped and Bill pulled in. We decided to call it a day since this race was not critical to our winning the main event. It was about 4:30 p.m. and this race had left the battery cores hot. With hot cores these nickel-iron batteries are reluctant to take a proper charge rate. On top of this, the track officials were closing the garage area and making everyone leave. In our testing in Tucson the week before, we had heated the cores and Don and Harold ended up waiting around from 7:00 p.m. until midnight to be able to properly charge the batteries. Since we had to leave the garage, we guessed at the charge rate and apparently this didn't work. What would we have done differently had we foreseen the outcome? We agreed that we would have skipped the heat race and trickle charged until Sunday's race. 20/20 hindsight. Conclusions My overall impression of the race was that the level of engineering had greatly improved over last year. This was really becoming a professional racing event. I didn't have the luxury this year of being able to share ideas with other builders or to even check out many of the fine entries. Those that remain to me examples of superior engineering and innovation include the Solectria cars (3), Michael Hackleman's 1992 Honda and Formula E racer and Lon Gillas' TR-7 Triumph. I truly believe that events like this will accelerate our transition into quiet, less polluting vehicles. Batteries, photovoltaic panels, motors, controllers and monitoring equipment are all being tested here with the hope that people will see these vehicles as a practical alternative to the environmentally degrading fossil fuel vehicles that we now drive. Access Author: John Takes, 1258 North Main St., Unit B2B, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. John is the owner of Burkhardt Turbines. He is presently converting gasoline vehicles to electric power.