Team RUG/Hanze does surprisingly well
Groningen solar car nabs third place in World Solar Challenge
‘It went really well’, says RUG student Friso Resink when he talks about TopDutch solar team’s first day of the World Solar Challenge in Australia. It was ‘super hot’, though; temperatures reached 41 degrees Celsius. Their current position: third place, with a time right behind the team in second.
‘We’ve driven 635 kilometres’, says Friso over the static in his satellite phone. TopDutch was only thirty seconds behind the Delft team and just ahead of Belgian team Agoria from KU Leuven.
Currently in the lead is a team from Twente, who managed to drive an extra fifty kilometres. ‘It was a great day. And the mood is good’, says Friso.
Monitoring
Friso doesn’t drive Green Lightning, which is what TopDutch named their solar car. He’s in the ‘chase’, a car decked out with equipment which monitors whether Green Lightning is doing everything it should and keeps an eye on the weather.
Friso, a physics student, worked together with another team member to design a program that calculates how fast or slow the driver has to go to make the best time.
‘I’m just staring at screens that display data all the time. I’m not even looking at the car itself.’ Was he nervous? Only at the start of the day, he says. ‘We didn’t have a lot of time to test the models, but after a while, everything just fell into place.’
Landslide victory
The real start of the race was on Saturday, when the qualifying rounds were held at the Quorn circuit in south-east Australia. To everyone’s surprise, the Groningen team won in a landslide victory: they had the best time of any solar car ever. This was an especially great feat for a newcomer and earned them the starting spot on Sunday.
‘We’re at the same camp site with the other teams’, says Friso. You’d think all those students would have a great time together. Sitting around a fire with a guitar and a didgeridoo. But no, says the RUG student. ‘It’s seven thirty here right now. After we hang up I’m done, I’m going to bed. We have to get up at five in the morning.’
The Groningen team has another 2092 kilometres to go before they get to Adelaide. Will the stage be Dutch only? ‘If we’ll get to the stage, you mean?’ Friso asks. ‘The way it’s going now…’ But he’s wary to make a real prediction. ‘We’ll have to wait and see.’
You can follow the solar races on Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.