A strong qualifying round allowed the RED E to start in second place. The lead then changed hands for hours between Solar Team Twente, Germany’s Sonnenwagen Aachen, and Belgium’s Innoptus Solar Team. The final standings saw Solar Team Twente complete 320 laps, Innoptus from Leuven 310, and Top Dutch Solar Racing from Groningen 287.
Exciting until the end
‘After the morning, we started to believe we could do it. In the final two hours, we had a ten-lap lead,’ says team event manager Nikki van de Rijdt. ‘It would have taken an hour to close that gap. Still, it remained exciting right until the end. One mistake and you’re out. Two teams dropped out along the way. And you have to cross the finish line under your own power at noon.’
Because the car was built with four wheels, it was more stable on the road than other cars, which had three wheels. This gave the team an advantage in a race that was held in the rain for long stretches. ‘One advantage of the rain was that our tyres wore down less quickly. We only had to change them once.’
An additional challenge was managing the available battery capacity strategically, as the team was only allowed to recharge twice during the race. ‘At night, we put our fastest driver behind the wheel, and he also managed to set the fastest lap time, at 2 minutes 55 seconds. But that was a strategic gamble. After that, it started to rain.’
Swing-top bottles
Among the spectators were teams from previous years, as well as family and friends who had travelled to Zolder. ‘When the car crossed the finish line, there was definitely a celebratory atmosphere. On the podium, as is tradition, we sprayed the contents of our swing-top bottles everywhere. After that, it was pretty much straight back to packing up and heading home, because tomorrow we simply have to go back to work. We’ll have to make up for that celebration sometime soon.’
It was the last time Solar Team Twente will compete in solar races. From next season onwards, the team will focus on electric rally racing.
