Solar Team Twente started the first race day of the World Solar Challenge in Australia with a chaotic opening, but with an impressive catch-up race, the Twente student team quickly climbed to third place in the standings.
The team looks back on a good race day that exceeded expectations. "The plan was to connect with the top as quickly as possible, but we did not expect to finish the day as third," says race leader Kirsten Bouwman.
Chaotic start
Solar Team Twente started on Sunday morning from the 11th position. In theory, that would mean that the team would start around 8:06 am. However, the team left seven minutes later due to misfortune from an earlier starting team.
Catch-up race
After the Twente start, the focus was on making pace. The team also had nine other teams ahead of them. Despite several traffic lights that all just turned red on leaving the city, Solar Team Twente had a good pace. The Twente students quickly caught up with six teams. Even before the team left Darwin, they were already in fifth place.
Lots of traffic
With Darwin in their rear-view mirrors, they left the traffic lights of the Stuart Highway behind and braved the outback. In the outback, it quickly became clear that Sunday is not a day off for road trains. Heavy traffic regularly held up the Twente racing convoy. With limited overtaking opportunities, the team still managed to overtake Top Dutch Solarracing, the student team from Groningen. As a result, the team came in fourth behind the Innoptus Solar Team from Leuven, Brunel Solar Team from Delft and the German team Sonnenwagen Aachen.
Forest fires and whirlwind
After the first stop, the team was forced to slow down due to a forest fire along the road. (See photo) Thanks to training in the race simulation, the team knew how to pass the fire safely. Several smaller forest fires followed later, but the team did not have to reduce speed for these. RED X suddenly braved a withering wind, but came away with only a scare.
Sprint race
After the forest fire, things calmed down on the road. As per the strategy, the team drove on to the next control stop at Dunmarra. Just before the stop, Team Sonnenwagen Aachen came into sight. The ‘Tukkers’ caught up with the team - which left first this morning - even before Dunmarra. At the control stop, there was another real sprint race. Drivers from Aachen and Twente rushed out of their cars. Just 11 seconds ahead, Twente driver Danique pressed the finish button just a little earlier to finish third on the day.
First night stop
After the control stop, Solar Team Twente drove on for another 45 minutes until the first night stop some eighty kilometers past Dunmarra. Here it arrived at 17:00. As a result, the team will start again tomorrow at 08:00 local time. Ahead of Solar Team Twente, only the Innoptus Solar Team from Leuven and the Brunel Solar Team from Delft are still racing with an estimated lead of 33 and 21 minutes respectively. Bouwman concludes, "Tomorrow will be an important day in which we need to increase the pressure in pursuit of the lead position."