Delft solar team finishes third in Australia
The Brunel Solar Team (BST) finished 3rd at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (WSC) with an average speed of 82.7 km/h. Losing out to Twente University’s Solar Team Twente (87.4 km/h), and their biggest rivals, the now 2-time consecutive World Champions, Belgian team Innoptus (88.2 km/h).
The Bronze Medal winners celebrating by cooling off after a heated race. (Photo: Jorrit Lousberg, Light at Work Photography)
Outback setbacks
The Delft team suffered from several setbacks during the race, from unexpected headwinds, wildfire smoke hindering visibility, a flat tire (which was deftly changed, in just 2.5 minutes), to a mistimed traffic light stop costing them a few minutes.
Ultimately though, they conceded that none of these setbacks were wholly unexpected, and the other teams most likely dealt with similar minor issues over the 3000 km race. The minutes these costed were insignificant compared to the two-hour lead of the Twente and Belgium teams. Prullard relays: “For us it was a perfect race, but there were two teams that were just better than us. We were impressed with them.”
The Big Three
It is not a surprise to see these three teams on the podium once more. The Twente team has won the Solar Challenge Morocco in 2022 (an alternative to the WSC when it was cancelled due to the pandemic), with Innoptus coming in 2nd. Last year BST won against Innoptus at the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa.
Despite the 3rd place finish, the Delft team is proud. “Of course, we had hoped for more. We fought extremely hard and ran a flawless race. Nuna performed well, and we made no mistakes. A third-place finish is simply the best we could achieve,” said team leader Lennart Hessels in a recent press release. (OG)
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