World Solar Challenge: Day Five

We made it to the finish line! Anna T drove Arctan into downtown Adelaide in sixth place after the team executed a perfect race.

We woke up for the earliest sunrise yet at 5:35 am event time and played pump up music from the Chase vehicle’s speakers while we ate breakfast and did array standing. Everyone was very excited for the end of the race, but we knew we had to keep our game faces on. The morning was chilly and windy, so everyone bundled up and kept moving while we got ready for the day.

Anna O took the first shift, bout 100km from our campsite to Port Augusta. There, Anna T traded in as the driver and much of the team returned to the same positions where they started the race — for complicated urban driving, we needed everyone at their best. The next 300km involved lots of traffic, stop lights, and hills, which asked a lot of our solar car driver. Everything went smoothly.

We pulled into the finish line staging area around 1:30pm, swapped into the WSC-provided finish line escort vehicles, and proceeded to the finish line. Hooray!

We were greeted by SSCP alums and supporters with beer and donuts. Since we’re done racing Arctan, we even put one on the array!

 

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Eating donuts off the array because we donut care anymore.

As is customary, after finishing we were rushed to the fountain in Victoria Square by teams who had already finished. It wasn’t quite hot enough to jump in a fountain, but after a week in the Outback it felt so good!

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Jumping in the fountain after crossing the finish line.

The rest of the week we will display the car at the finish line festival by day and go bar hopping with other teams by night. After WSC, everyone trades their team shirts and race jerseys, so we made sure to bring a lot of extras. Sunday we are going to be in a parade and then go to the WSC closing ceremonies, and then the team is free to explore Australia.

We did it!


Comments

One response to “World Solar Challenge: Day Five”

  1. Chris Shaw Avatar
    Chris Shaw

    Awesome effort everyone. A very consistent and well run race. A true testament to testing and preparation. Enjoy exploring Australia.

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