Thursday October 1st, 5:50 – The month of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge has commenced as the Nuon Solar Team alarm clocks sound just before 6 am. As opposed to some of the other working days the team has little problems with getting up this morning, as today might just be our most rigorous day of testing to date. 12 of 15 team members feature, as do all three of our convoy cars and of course Nuna8. The goal: top 500 kilometres of driving in a day! What does such a day look like? The timeline below will tell you!
7:00 – Sort of awake we arrive at Nightcliff Primary School, with our convoy cars having been loaded yesterday. As part of the final preparations the crew driving our Scout vehicle (the car in front of Nuna) loads Nuna8 onto her trailer, team leader Mark makes the team some coffee and packs our lunch and Nunas battery is loaded into our support vehicle. The clock shows 7:23 as we head off, ready to rock the road!
9:00 – Shortly before 9:00 we arrive at Blackmoore Water Bridge, a bridge in the Cox Peninsular Road. From this bridge onwards we are allowed to drive Nuna8 on this public road, so we unload our stuff on a parking spot alongside the road and start the final checks on Nuna. Mechanic Bart fastens the wheels, Scout-driver Jorden applies Nunas aerotape with high precision and driver Tim prepares for his drive. As we are about to put our array down and drive off our friends from Solar Team Twente arrive, we’re not the only ones to test today! Shortly before 9:30 we drive off, ready to beat our 500 kilometre target!
10:15 – Time for the first stop of the day, a necessity both for turning (we’re only allowed to use a 60 kilometre section of the Cox Peninsular Road) and for finetuning details on our solar vehicle. Executing our stops quickly is essential for success in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, and due to changes in the regulations for static charging of solar vehicles this kind of practise is even more important! Our first stop is not yet race-ready (and that’s an understatement), at least we execute all our actions safely thanks to the watchful eye of Safety Officer Bart.
13:00 – Lunchtime! Driver Tim climbs out of Nuna8 (quite sweaty and rather stiff) after a three hour drive, with over 240 driving kilometres under his belt! Our solar vehicle has functioned flawlessly, now we can only hope for a similar performance this afternoon. We won’t be given the luxury of an extended lunch though by race manager Jacco, as he barks instructions to start preparing for departure after just 20 minutes. As the clock ticks 13:30 everyone is seated in his or her car, Joris now driving Nuna8.
14:00 – Seated on the rear seats of Mission Control (Nunas chase vehicle) are strategists Emiel and Renzo, who are being tested this afternoon by race manager Jacco about the team’s strategy. This afternoon’s goal is to drive as efficient as possible, meaning amongst other things that Nuna drives faster on the back end of the route than she does on the home stretch (which has to do with the headwind faced on the home stretch, according to Emiel). The strategists are having a torrid afternoon though, as the weather is of one of the hardest types to face (strategically speaking): the sky is clattered with clouds. Traditional weather models have large difficulties predicting this weather type, hence confusion is predominant on Mission Control’s rear seats. In the end though the weather predictions turn out to be quite accurate, meaning Nuna8 storms over the roads amidst bright sunshine and spots of shadow.
15:00 – In order to break the 500 kilometre barrier Nuna accelerates to just under 100 kilometres an hour, meaning driver Joris is severely put to the test. At these speeds encountering slower traffic is unavoidable, these are the situations where our Scout vehicle comes into play. Using driver Wouter’s instructions and under Marlieke’s watchful eye for other traffic Nuna8 is safely navigated past other traffic, such that our strategically ideal speed can be maintained as best as possible.
17:00 – The clock approaches 17:00 as we arrive at Blackmoore Water Bridge, with Nuna having covered a massive 520 kilometres. The goal of our day of testing has been achieved and Nuna8 has passed here most intense test to date with flying colours. Due to the heat our drivers have been tested more than ever before, more was asked of our supporting crew than ever before due to plenty of turning procedures and race manager Jacco faced a bigger crew than ever, but all of us drive home at 17:30 pleased with our performance.
18:30 – After unloading Nuna8 a pleasant surprise awaits us when we arrive back at our office at Nightcliff Primary School: Bas, Thijs and Bianca have made hamburgers for the entire team! After finishing our meals we all head back to our accommodation in central Darwin, to recuperate from all of the day’s efforts. Truth be told, we only covered not even a fifth of the total distance of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, so more days of testing such as these are required. The next one? Upcoming Monday we’ll assemble again lads!
