Wind drives us towards gold on the world championship

Extreme conditions

Tuesday afternoon there were strong crosswinds coming up making a lot of solar cars swinging side to side on the road. Our car was caught by an unexpected whirlwind and slipped. This was fortunately corrected immediately by our experienced racing driver Bert Longin who held the BluePoint on the job. The team was able to safely finish the day but at night suffered from a storm pulling over. When the sand and rain storm passed over the camp, all our energy went to securing each other and the solar car, the BluePoint. One hour after the start of the fourth day we suddenly saw the solar car of Solar Team Twente are on the side of the road. Twente was almost the entire race in first place. "Due to heavy winds today two solar cars were blown off the track, for the team of Twente the race is over but fortunately did their pilot was unharmed. "says Inge Habets, a structural engineer. So we ended up second with mixed feelings. 

Overtaking maneuver

However, the team did not hang their heads and began a great overtaking maneuver. "Because we can focus our car with the nose to the wind, we can drive more stable," says Emmerick Vandervelpen. "Our predecessor had to slow down, while we could keep our strategic speed.", The aerodynamicist continues. Confidence in the car and the drivers were great and so we could all day our Dutch competitors on their heels. Due to the variable cloudiness it was not easy to reduce the lag. The difference is reduced from 43 minutes to 7 minutes. "We start tomorrow just after Vattenfall, we have to drive another 299 km. We hope to overtake them to be the first to cross the finish line! "Inge concludes.