The powerful Nuon Solar Team has taken out the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge for the sixth time beating off fellow Dutch team Twente by eight minutes in a nailbiting finish.
Based at the Delft University of Technology just outside The Hague in the west of the Netherlands, Nuon were the defending champions having won the 2013 Challenge as well as 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007.
The University of Twente team from Enschede on the other side of the country near the German border first entered in 2005 and their previous best result was third in 2013.
Four teams signalled they were the ones to watch early in the race: Nuon and Twente along with teams from the University of Michigan in USA and Tokai University in Japan who were winners in 2009 and 2011.
Michigan held the lead after the first day of racing but were overtaken by Twente early on Day 2 and held the lead through to the end of Day 3 although there were just seconds between them and Nuon.
Twente team leader Irene van den Hof said overtaking is very tactical and teams have to choose carefully where to make their move.
“Overtaking costs a solar car a lot of energy,” she said. “Besides, in and around the city of Adelaide, where the teams finish, there are a lot of hills and traffic lights. And if by that time there is not much energy left in the batteries, overtaking becomes a risky business.”
Nuon made its move on Day 4 edging in front of Twente. Nuon team leader Mark Hupkens said they chose a moment when they’re battery was full and there were no oncoming cars, however, the effort was almost for nought a few minutes later when they saw a train crossing the road ahead of them and feared they would have to slow down or even stop, losing momentum and giving Twente an opportunity to regain the lead.
Luckily for Nuon, the train completed its crossing and the gates opened just before they arrived allowing them to continue unimpeded.
Cloud cover on the final day raised concerns for both Dutch teams about how they would manage energy on the run into Adelaide given the batteries would be all but empty. But they managed good speed and reached the finish line around midday on Thursday. Their average speed throughout the challenge was 82 km/h.
Less than an hour later,the Tokai team crossed in 3rd place, just ahead of Michigan who had started the day in 3rd but were overtaken on the approach to Adelaide.
Clenergy Team Arrow from the Queensland University of Technology was the leading Australian vehicle in the race.
The World Solar Challenge began in Darwin on Sunday, 18 October with 42 vehicles from 25 countries competing in three classes. The fastest of these was the Challenger class with the traditional solar car design a of a flat sheet of solar panels surrounding a small bubble from which the driver watches where he’s going.
The Cruiser class was introduced in 2013 to encourage designs more like regular road cars and capable of carrying at least two passengers. The October issue of create magazine carries a feature article on the University of NSW entrant in this category, eVe.
Driving was only allowed between 8am and 5pm so as soon as 5pm was reached the car had to pull over wherever they were and the team had to camp for the night.