Cape Town - A party broke out at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town as teams competing in the Sasol Solar Challenge reached the finish line having traveled a combined total of over 27000km.
Dutch team Nuon from Delft University in The Netherlands emerged victorious after they clocked up the most distance in their solar car in the eight day long challenge, which started in Pretoria last weekend.
They accumulated 4716.7km, beating their strongest competitors Tokai University Solar Team from Japan by 172.5km and Hungarian team GAMF by 683.5km.
Nuon also broke the previous solar challenge record of 4630km which was set by Tokai in 2012.
A South African team from North-West University came fourth out of the 11 teams which participated.
They covered a total distance of 3524.9km.
On the first day they broke the record for the furthest distance traveled by a South African team.
They travelled 560km, 200km more than the previous record set by the University of KwaZulu Natal in 2014.
One NWU driver, Lorraine Laubscher, who studies mechanical engineering, was ecstatic at their achievement.
“It's been an amazing experience. It's a privilege to be on the team.”
NWU was the first South African team to do the challenge without carrying their solar car on a trailer at all.
Nuon's Sarah Bennink Bolt said her team was elated that a new custom solar panel they made for the car had performed so well.
“It's emotional. A lot of people have been working towards this for a long time.”
She said the team had started celebrating in the support vehicles shortly before arriving in the mother city when they realised they were going to win.
The event's director, Winstone Jordaan congratulated the team saying they had the right ingredients for a winning combination.
“They've got professionalism in the team, they're well organised, work together and have a good car,” he said.
Tokai's Max Bishil said his team was pleased with their performance.
“We are very happy, but of course we always wish to be the best. Nuon deserved to win this year, but it does not mean we're surrendering, we're going to work harder.”
The teams will be recognised in an awards ceremony tomorrow.
@Gabi_Falanga
Independent Media