A team from Belgium has taken first place in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) for the second consecutive time. The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) is held every two years. The participating engineering teams are mostly students from all over the world. They develop and drive solar cars from Darwin, the southernmost tip of Australia, to Adelaide, the northernmost tip.
In the Challenger class, which the Belgian team won, single-seater cars can only have one driver at a time, but can change drivers as needed, up to six times. The competition runs from 8 am to 5 pm each day, and teams must be self-sufficient, camping along the route at night and carrying everything they need to keep their vehicles in working order. If any rider weighs less than 80 kilograms (176 pounds), they will be asked to increase the weight to bring them up to the minimum standard.
In the last competition held in 2019, the leading car designed by the Dutch team caught fire and the Belgian team jumped to first place. In this year's race, the next one to be held after the 2021 event was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the Belgian Innoptus team held a narrow lead over the Dutch team for almost the entire race, completing the race in 34 hours, 4 minutes and 41 seconds. This is an improvement of nearly 5 minutes from the 2019 result. The Dutch Twente team ranked second with a time of 34 hours, 24 minutes and 58 seconds.
Cars participating in the competition cannot exceed 5 meters (16 feet) in size and 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) in width, and must have at least three wheels. The solar arrays that power the race cars are limited to an area of 4 square meters (43 square feet), meaning every bit of sunlight counts. This has been a challenge for runners along the route this year due to smoke from wildfires.
Innoptus team manager Cedric Verlinden said: "We got to Adelaide first because we followed our strategy over the 3000km of the race. There were a few things we had to anticipate: there were bushfires along the way, which meant less power coming in, and other things like cloud cover and changing weather, but we were able to stick to our strategy and keep forecasting, which ensures we're now first across the line in Adelaide."
Innoptus team members believe their success is partly due to the unique fins on top of the Infinite race car. The fins are designed to help the car remain stable when facing cross winds on the track.
"Twente Solar Fleet definitely didn't make it easy for us," said Pauline Vanvuchelen, who is responsible for marketing at Innoptus. "We worked really hard and held a lead for a few minutes until the end and we succeeded. The fins were our secret weapon and we used them well."
This is the 10th car designed by the Belgians for the BWSC, which has been operating since 1987. You can watch the "Infinity" reveal video below.