Slow and Steady
The second day of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge has come to an end!
Together with the Tokai University Solar Car Team, Top Dutch Solar Racing Team, and Kogakuin University Solar Team, we started the day at Dunmarra, the second control stop. The previous day, Tokai ended there approximately 25 minutes before us, in 5th place. We had just overtaken Top Dutch and Kogakuin, and were newly sitting in 6th place, with the two other teams trailing within 2 minutes behind us.
During the competition, teams are only allowed to drive between 8 AM and 5 PM. If they drive past 5 PM, the amount of extra time they spent driving gets deducted from the next day. Yesterday afternoon, we arrived to the Dunmarra control stop at 4:55 PM. Given that we need to stay at each control stop for 30 minutes, that left us with 25 minutes of pointing at Dunmarra this morning.
We set off at 8:25 AM sharp. At 8:26, Top Dutch set off as well, and Kogakuin followed at 8:27. During the morning, we experienced some fog, but luckily the skies eventually cleared. Then, we noticed a seal dangling off Astrum’s aerobody, and needed to make a quick stop to remove it. But Astrum performed flawlessly aside from these minor setbacks.
During the morning, we mostly kept pace with Tokai, following them from about 20 minutes behind. In the early afternoon, we arrived to Tennant Creek, the first control stop for the day. The next control we arrived at was Barrow Creek, where we were now only 10 minutes behind Tokai. Slowly but surely, we were gaining ground.
Prior to arriving to Barrow Creek, our weather vehicle, which drives about an hour ahead of the main caravan to report on weather conditions, saw that there were severe bush fires up ahead, impacting visibility and engulfing the entire area in smoke. Worried about the amount of smoke, we made sure our driver, Ethan, wore an N-95 mask while driving during this leg.
Luckily, we were able to drive past the bush fires unscathed, although they were quite the sight. We arrived to our end of day location in Ti Tree at 5:03 PM, and it happened to be the same place Tokai planned to stay for the night. They had arrived at 5 PM—a mere 3 minutes ahead of us.
Overall, today was a great day with lots of smooth driving. Tomorrow, we will begin driving at 8:03 AM. We hope to pass Tokai and close the gap between us and the 4th place team, Sonnenwagen Aachen from Germany. Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!