Top Dutch Racing Team’s Green Spirit started Wednesday’s leg of the Solar Race in Morocco with a time penalty. The team was forced to load the car onto a trailer in order to make it to the finish line on Tuesday.
In an Instagram post, the team says that Tuesday has been ‘a particularly difficult day’. ‘The route through the Atlas Mountains took a lot out of Green Spirit’, they wrote.
Time penalty
The team persevered for as long as possible and even managed the steepest incline in the race quite well, but the second stage’s finish line turned out to be too much for them.
All teams should reach the finish line before dark for safety concerns, but Green Spirit didn’t make it. The Groningen team decided to put the race car on a trailer and transport it to the finish line that way, even though this resulted in a time penalty.
During the first stage on Monday, Green Spirit did manage to finish in time. According to the team’s blog post, they arrived at 6.41, coming in fourth place. Even though they were the first to start because they won the qualifying race on Sunday and they lost three places throughout the day, the team says its happy with how the first race day went.
Moroccan traffic
The racers spent the first twenty kilometres getting used to the busy Moroccan streets. The convoy, consisting of a lead car in front and a chase car behind, had to find its way through streets filled with buses, donkey-drawn carts, and cyclists. The solar car also had to navigate tricky roundabouts. On one roundabout, the people riding in the media car even witnessed an accident.
The Groningen team held on to its lead position for approximately an hour. That’s when the Belgian team, which started in third place, overtook them.
Leaving the busy streets of Agadir behind, Green Spirit headed for the mountains, passing through small Moroccan villages on the way. The team says it’s been an interesting experience and that, in spite of Tuesday’s setbacks, they hope to do better on Wednesday.
Cancelled
Five teams from various countries will finish five race stages. They should finish where they started on Friday, in the Adrar stadium in Agadir.
When the World Solar Challenge in Australia was cancelled because of the Covid-19 restrictions, several teams came up with the idea to organise the Solar Challenge Morocco. The Australia race is held once every two years and takes drivers straight through Australia from north to south. During the last race in Australia, the Groningen team came in fourth place.