Solar-powered vehicles competition
The Sasol Solar Challenge is a biennial solar-powered vehicles sports competition in South Africa. It is open to engineering teams from all over the world. It is one of the world’s toughest competitions in this class of machines, with teams testing each other on an eight-day journey from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The aim is to cover as much distance as possible on public roads by the end of each day.
Revismo team member Ardo Tiits is the first Estonian to participate as a judge in the Sasol Solar Challenge. The event has been organised since 2008 and has now been held eight times.
Technical inspection of the vehicles
I arrived at the Red Star Raceway, an hour’s drive from the capital, to carry out a technical inspection of the vehicles, i.e. to check that they complied with the technical regulations for the competition. Louis Smuts, who was the Chief Technical Inspector, assigned each judge the areas to be responsible for, according to their skills. I was in charge of the mechanics, the race vehicle lights and the driver’s field of vision. The vehicles were of very different price ranges, which in turn determined the quality of the vehicles. I was inspecting very unique technical solutions, as well as those of questionable value – there were extremes. Despite the peculiar solutions of some of the vehicles, all of them were authorised to drive on the circuit after two days of inspection.
Racetrack
All the competition vehicles had to pass a series of tests on the track before they were allowed on the public roads. One of the tests was a timed slalom to see if the vehicle could manoeuvre at a high enough speed. Then was the length of the breaking distance from a fixed line measured. And also the completion of the number 8, which was marked off with cones.
On the final day, all the vehicles completed a single lap to establish the starting order. The fastest vehicle was the first to start. As a judge, it was my job to instruct the driver on the track just before the start of the test to make sure everything was still safe. One of the most bizarre incidents was with the Solaris team vehicle S11, which lost the right wheel in one of the S-bends. The reason for this was the loss of the wheel nut because the team mechanic forgot to tighten the nut.
The competition
The start of the competition took place on 13 September at 9:00 at the Graceland Hotel on the outskirts of Secunda. The 12 teams then set off on a journey of around 3,000 kilometres through South Africa. The route was Secunda – Sasolburg – Rustenburg – Zeerust – Kuruman – Augrabies – Springbok – Lutzville – Riebeek Kasteel – Cape Town. The winner of the competition will be the team that covers the most kilometers.
Observer
My day at the competition was as follows: I woke up early in the morning, around 05:15 am. After the morning activities, I packed my things. One of the tasks before sunrise was to open the team’s battery box, i.e. to check the correctness of the seal. After the morning meeting, which was at 6:20 am, I found out the team I would be joining for 24 hours. I was an impartial referee who was called to be an observer. My job was to note down all the factors that could affect the result of the race vehicle. As part of the team, I drove in the support car alongside the driver and the support car drove behind the sun-powered vehicle. It is worth noting that on public roads, the support car and the sun-powered vehicle act as one vehicle. If one stops, so must the other. Perhaps I had the best seat to watch the competition unfold.
The start of the solar vehicles was at 8 am, when the first distance was covered. After two hours, the race regulations provided for a driver change in the competition vehicle.
On reaching the end of the first stage, there would be a 30-minute control stop during which no one was allowed to touch the vehicle. If touched, the timer had to be restarted from the beginning. In addition, the penalty minutes from the previous day had to be carried over to the control stop. The team was then given the opportunity to drive extra kilometres. The vehicles had the option of completing an extra lap of approximately 40 kilometers, always ending with a five-minute loop stop, which was subject to the control stop rules. The team could complete as many loops as they wished, but they had to take into account the fact that the second distance had to be completed by 5 p.m. In case of a delay, the vehicle was given penalty minutes, which in turn reduced the following day’s distance. The end of the day was at 5 p.m., when the vehicles would remain in the Parc Fermes. I then sealed the battery cable disconnected by the team and handed over the documentation for the day to Andrew Eva, the track marshal.
After 6 p.m, the teams were allowed to take the vehicles to the maintenance area and operate the vehicle. It was my job to make sure that the vehicle’s battery was placed in a special battery box, which I sealed. During the maintenance, I observed and recorded all the activities carried out on the vehicle. It was the team’s job to look after me as a team member.
Did anything exciting happen?
- The winning team drove 703 km in one day.
- I was involved in an accident with the support car on a four-lane road. On a steep climb, one of the competition vehicles started to roll backwards and collided with the support car.
- I saw the DC converter burst into flames.
- On one vehicle, however, the electrical wiring was so bad that the plastic under the circuit breaker melted.
- I watched a battery pack being repaired with burnt elements. With safety in mind, I asked for all the fire extinguishers to be retrieved from the accompanying vehicle.
- On the track, one team did a 360 degree turn coming out of a corner and did it while doing a fast lap. The driver still managed to keep the vehicle on the track.
In short, things happened. There were moments both exciting and scary.
Result
The Challenger class was won by Innoptus Solar Team and the Cruiser class by Onda Solare.
In summary, all teams learned to be better. The competition was long and tough, but there were no quitters.
Text written by Ardo Tiits.
