AGORIA SOLAR TEAM FINISHES SECOND IN SOUTH AFRICA

STUDENT IN FOCUS

Flat tyres, a defective battery cell, a damaged solar panel, a skid, penalty time for speeding, the engineering students of the Solar Team will not soon forget their participation in the Sasol Solar Challenge. An eight-day cat-and-mouse game with TU Delft’s team ended in a deserving second place. Team leader Pieter April looks back.

From 8 to 16 September 2022, South Africa hosted the Sasol Solar Challenge, a 4,000 km race from Johannesburg to Cape Town. “For us, it was the first race on South African soil,” Pieter says. “Moreover, it was also the longest competition in the Solar Team’s history. So a real ‘challenge’ for the BluePoint Atlas and the team”.

Kilometres

The Leuven solar car passed the technical inspection and associated tests with flying colours. During the qualifying round, the team set the second-fastest time, just two seconds behind the Dutchmen from Delft. “A negligible difference,” notes Pieter. “In a race of that magnitude, not only speed is decisive. At least as important is a well thought- out race strategy. In the Sasol Challenge, it comes down to covering as many kilometres as possible. The team that manages to cover the most kilometres during eight days wins the race.”

Immediately after the start, the solar cars ended up in the hectic South African traffic, including the busy highways where toll booths caused delays time and again. During the first day of racing, the Leuven students already came into unpleasant contact with the road surface. “Shortly after the start, our follow car burst two tyres at once,” said Pieter. “A few hours later, an uneven road caused the solar car to land on two wheels and drag its side against the ground. That inevitably caused delays. Fortunately, we retained our second place”.

Secret weapon

From the start of the race, the Solar Team deployed its ‘secret weapon’: a folding fin. Immediately a first, as never before has a solar car been equipped with such an attribute. “Thanks to the fin, we could literally sail along on wind power when there was sufficient crosswind,” Pieter explained. “It would serve us well during the stage along the coast.”

The fin but especially the manoeuvrability of the car ensured that the Solar Team won the third day of racing with a 78km lead and took over the lead from their Delft colleagues. In the mountain stages, however, the Dutch came back strongly and the people from Leuven again dropped to second place. During the flat stage along the coast, they were able to reduce the gap to ten kilometres and victory came within reach. “Ten kilometres is peanuts in a race of that size,” confirms Pieter. “Especially when at times the competition looks more like an obstacle course with roadworks, diversions and unexpected obstacles.”

Battery cell

With such minimal difference between the two top teams, the final stage promised to be super exciting. The final night, things threatened to turn out wrong when a member of another team accidentally damaged the solar panel of the BluePoint Atlas. On top of that, the Belgians and the Dutch received a 10-minute penalty time for speeding. In the end, it was a faulty battery cell that killed the Solar Team. “With less battery capacity, we could not drive at top speed without jeopardizing safety,” says Pieter. “So we knew immediately that the victory was lost.”

Despite the setbacks, Pieter is proud of his team. “We fought for every kilometre and got the best out of the car and ourselves. Using the experience we now have, with fresh courage we will begin building a new solar car. Next year, our world title is at stake in Australia”.

Yves Persoons

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