A stressful but fun Thursday, as I took off work for the day to volunteer as a technical inspector, or scrutineer for the Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge.

In the searing heat of a freshly-laid black asphalt parking lot (which reportedly reached 150 degrees on the surface), Mark Farver and I represented AustinEV by volunteering to help perform safety inspections of the solar cars prior to the start of the race on Friday. Being involved with electric vehicles made us well-suited to performing electrical system inspections, so we manned station 2, inspecting such things as fuse ratings, battery placement and restraint, solar array sizing and wiring safety.

At the end of the day, we were totally exhausted and a bit burned (I had a sunburn even under the brim of my hat thanks to a bright white t-shirt), but a little sad we couldn’t stay on for the next two weeks as race judges. Though I may never be able to spare two straight weeks from work, this is something I’m certain I’d like to be a part of again in the future.

Photos on Flickr.

UPDATE: Photo gallery now installed. Though it’s not very well integrated with the rest of the site yet, you can see all the photos from Thursday and Friday morning here.