A clockwork 36 hours. Singapore airlines whisked us out of Melbourne on time and arrived in Singapore early. Normally that would allow more shopping time but he big spender Darren had already committed himself to Dick Smith in Melbourne achieving a lower price for an advanced video camera than was possible in Singapore.

Sixteen year old Therese, herself an A grade hockey player in the Hamilton women’s competition couldn’t resist posing with members of the Australian men’s Olympic champion hockey team. They were on their way for an important grading tournament in Hamburg.

Again Singapore Airlines had us off on time for the flight to Nagoya. We needed sleep and got very little on this flight landing ahead of schedule at the new Centrair airport in Nagoya. This was ready in time for the Aichi World Expo which is a must visit event.

Our jumbo taxi was waiting and we were soon in Suzuka at the familiar City Hotel High Serente. Now the pressure started. A fast visit to the supermarket to stock up on breakfast then out to the Suzuka race track to meet out solar car container. It arrived precisely at 1.00 PM delivered as promised by Mr Yoshioka of Nippon Express. The shipment was in perfect condition and we had Pit 1organised within an hour.

Fifteen Solar car tyres were delivered by Dunlop. New batteries were delivered by TIGA. Two way radios and a pair of race helmets were delivered by Nobuyuki Kishi. Everything we had asked for.

The car was operational so we concentrated on minor left over jobs and organizing the telemetry installation and the two way radios. A special training session was conducted for Derrick Rodgers and Dan Evans our two hot kart drivers. We have changed so many controls that it was important to make sure our drivers could get the most out of this difficult circuit.

We saw practice sessions for GT cars. Deafening and fast. It reminded us that solar car racing is peaceful in comparison.

By evening we were joined by the Apollo team from Taiwan. They had air-freighted their car into Osaka and were here at the Dream Cup for the first time.

We need sleep in preparation for our first practice run on the track commencing at 6.30 AM. That’s when we will know whether the improvements and the thousands of workshop hours have paid off.