Sasol Race Report #8

Here are the final results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, after 8 days of racing (click to zoom). The photo is from here (taken on day 8), and the daily “loops” are marked. Only the Challenger class is shown (City U, the only car in the Sustainability class, did 175.5 km). The big news was the penalty of 117.4 km imposed on Nuon when a sick team member dropped their bag in the wrong van. The kilometres subtracted by the penalty are marked with light orange in the chart above. They did not, in the end, affect the outcome of the race.

Nuon has some excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7, and day 8. In addition, I should note that SER came 3^rd in a tough race, which probably puts them in the world top 10. Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) have taken over as South African champions. Congratulations! And the high school team Sonke (from St Alban’s College and St Augustine’s LEAP School) also deserves a special commendation, displaying both talent and persistence.

After WSC 2017, several people (including me) attributed Nuon’s large lead (see the chart below) to clever weather strategy. But this race, where all cars have been more or less in the same part of the country, suggests that, as well as having flawless race strategy, Nuon have a car that really is significantly faster than all the others (roughly 7% faster than Tokai in Australia, and 6% faster here). This fact may encourage other WSC teams to stick with a tried-and-true catamaran design (as Canadian teams Poly Montreal and ETS Quebec have done). And Nuon themselves? I cannot see how they can possibly improve on Nuna 9S. Maybe they will try something radically different, just for a change.

---

Sasol Race Report #7

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 7 out of 8 (click to zoom). The photo is from here (taken on day 6). The big news is the penalty of 117.4 km imposed on Nuon when a sick team member dropped their bag in the wrong van. The kilometres subtracted by the penalty are marked with light orange in the chart above, and move Nuon down to 2^nd place. In my view, it reflects poorly on Tokai that they made a formal complaint about this incident, and it reflects poorly on the Sasol Solar Challenge that they imposed such a large penalty.

Nuon has some excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, and day 7.

---

A Day in the Life of Nuon Solar Team

This blog post is something a little different: it will use the GPS tracker data feed to describe a day in the life of Nuon Solar Team during the Sasol Solar Challenge. Specifically, it will describe Wednesday 26 September, which Nuon’s media team summarised in this 90-second video:

Wednesday 26 September (day 5 of the race) opened in Graaff-Reinet. On the Tuesday, Nuon had fallen 36 km behind Japanese team Tokai, due to electrical problems. The support engineers began work at 4:00 AM to return their car Nuna to tip-top condition. The morning was chilly, but sunny, which allowed some solar recharging of the batteries.

image credit

The plan for the day, as outlined in this livestream by media team-member Bianca Koppen, was to drive to the control stop in Jansenville faster than Tokai. At Jansenville there was an optional 65-km “loop” to Klipplaat and back. The plan was to drive this “loop” six times (Tokai was expected to do so only five times) and then continue to the end-of-day stop in Port Elizabeth, arriving there just before 5:00 PM. In line with this plan, Nuna sets off at around 85 km/h, soon overtaking Tokai:

image credit

The chart below (click to zoom) shows the progress of the day. The horizontal axis is distance, and the vertical axis of the main chart is the speed of the solar car. Underneath the main chart is an elevation plot. The letter A marks the start for the day.

The letter B marks the control stop at Jansenville, where Nuna initially stops for 30 minutes (as per the regulations; later stops will only be 5 minutes). Nuna then continues to the small town of Klipplaat, where the route simply loops and returns along the same road (see the map). However, the road to Klipplaat is uphill, and from Klipplaat is downhill. As the chart above shows, the shiny new “intelligent cruise control” adjusts the car’s speed to suit, running more slowly while climbing.

Point C on the chart is interesting. A few minutes into the 4^th Jansenville–Klipplaat leg (shortly after noon), Nuon’s strategy team decides that the plan isn’t going to work. Either because of the weather, or the state of the car (I don’t know the reason), they decide that they will only drive five loops today, not six. The whole plan for the day is recalculated, so as to still get to Port Elizabeth just before 5:00 PM (but having used less energy). Instead of peaking around 87 km/h, the next two loops only peak around 70 km/h. The strategy team in the mission control (chase) vehicle must have been working furiously on this plan. On the chart, there is a sudden slow-down at 12:05 PM, but the new driving pattern is established just a few minutes after that. A good strategy team is critical to winning a race!

Point D on the chart marks the last stop in Jansenville, around 2:10 PM:

image credit

Race regulation 6.1 requires that a driver can operate the car for at most 2 hours. Given the distance to Port Elizabeth, Nuna stops briefly for a driver change at around 3:45 PM, shortly after this photograph was taken (point E on the chart):

image credit

And just before 5:00 PM, Nuna indeed reaches Port Elizabeth. After some more repair work, taking advantage of the energy saved during today’s run, and as the result of teamwork and skill, the plan to drive one more loop than Tokai succeeds the next day.

Of course, much more goes on during a typical day than this story suggests. People are feed and housed. Sick team-members are looked after. Media reports are produced. Nuna, go, go, go!

---

Sasol Race Report #6

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 6 out of 8 (click to zoom). Only the Challenger class is shown. The optional daily “loops” are marked, the black spots indicate time penalties, and the photo is from here (taken by Tokai on day 4). I have calculated average speeds for the cars (hopefully correctly), and the short dashed lines show distances travelled in the 2016 event (which was a faster race, because the cars had larger solar panels).

On Wednesday, Nuon tried to do one more loop than Tokai, but decided halfway through the day that they couldn’t manage it, and slowed down again. On Thursday, they did manage it, and are now 22.7 km ahead of Tokai.

Despite some troubles on Wednesday (a strong wind gust ripped the array off the car, requiring some repairs), the Swiss team (Solar Energy Racers) is hanging on to 3^rd place.

Nuon has some excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, and day 6. See also the online tracker and my teams list and information page, which includes links to team social media.

---

Sasol Race Report #5

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 5 out of 8. Only the Challenger class is shown. The optional daily “loops” are marked, the black spot indicates a time penalty, and the photo is from here (taken on day 4). I have calculated average speeds for the cars (hopefully adjusting correctly for time spent in control stops and loop stops).

Tokai still holds the lead, Central University of Technology have finally gotten their car to pass scrutineering, and three cars are in a battle for 3^rd place.

Nuon has some excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, and day 5. See also the online tracker and my teams list and information page, which includes links to team social media.

---

Sasol Race Report #4

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 4 out of 8. Only the Challenger class is shown (not the car from Hong Kong, which is driving non-competitively). The daily “loops” are marked, and the photo is from here. See also the online tracker and my teams list and information page, which includes links to team social media.

Nuon had some minor technical problems today, allowing Tokai to take the lead. Nuon has some excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4.

I’m beginning to doubt that Central University of Technology (CUT) or Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) will ever get their cars working; but they clearly have not yet given up. In hindsight, universities offered the chance to start new teams should have been approached much earlier. However, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) has done a fantastic repair job after the storm damage on day 1. I hope that they will be able to make it to Australia next year.

Weather forecasts for the rest of the race route are:

• Wednesday Sept 26 (Jansenville): Mostly sunny
• Thursday Sept 27 (Kareedouw): Mostly sunny
• Friday Sept 28 (Mossel Bay): Mostly sunny, possible showers
• Saturday Sept 29 (Struisbaai): Mostly cloudy

---

Sasol Race Report #3

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 3 out of 8. The big storm at the end of day 1 is marked. Only the Challenger class is shown (not the car from Hong Kong, which is driving non-competitively). Black spots mark time penalties, and the photo is from here. See also my teams list and information page, which includes links to team social media.

In the Sasol Solar Challenge, teams drive a fixed route each day, with the option of detouring around a “loop” 0, 1, 2, 3, … times. These “loops” are highlighted in the chart above. For example, on day 1, Nuon and Tokai both drove the fixed route as well as driving the 76.1 km loop five times (however, these “loops” actually happen somewhere in the middle of the day’s route, not at the end).

These “loops” mean that strategy essentially becomes a version of the difficult knapsack problem. Teams must maximise the sum of the lengths of the chosen loops, subject to time and energy constraints. This is further complicated by the uncertainty of future energy input (will it be cloudy in 4 days time?) and the psychological cat-and-mouse between the leaders (something which Nuon generally excels at). It will be interesting to see how Nuon and Tokai play the strategy game over the next 5 days.

Nuon has excellent videos about the race (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1, day 2, and day 3.

Update: NWU apparently had battery problems. CPUT is still hoping to fix their car so that they can get it off the trailer and onto the road. Days 4 and 7 will see some shorter loops, so some distance might open up between Nuon and Tokai then. Weather forecasts for the race route are:

• Tuesday Sept 25 – Windy
• Wednesday Sept 26 – Sunny
• Thursday Sept 27 – Sunny
• Friday Sept 28 – Rain
• Saturday Sept 29 – Mostly cloudy

---

iESC Race Report #3

Detailed results for the recent iLumen European Solar Challenge (iESC) have just been released. The two charts above (for Challengers) and below (for Cruisers) visualise the results. The “Total” bar on the left in each case is the sum of the other bars, which reflect points for the various sub-challenges. In the Challenger class:

• Twente won, with Red Shift (which did the most laps) and also came second with the older Red One (which did almost as many laps, as well as doing the fastest lap and winning the KO chicane);
• Aachen came third in their Sonnenwagen, having put in a good all-round performance; and
• Megalux came fourth overall, having come third in the lap count.

In the Cruiser class:

• Lodz won, with the highest calculated cruiser score (they also won the safety sub-challenge, about which I’ve heard nothing);
• Bochum came second and third in their sexy SunRiser and blue.cruiser; and
• Kratos EAFIT–Postobon came fourth overall, in their lovely solar sports vehicle, having run the fastest lap, won the regularity sub-challenge, and come third in the KO chicane.

See here for more information on the teams. Well done to everybody for coping so well with the terrible weather!

Update: And don’t forget to watch the great series of videos from Bochum.

---

Sasol Race Report #2

Here are the results for the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa, as at day 2 out of 8. The storm at the end of day 1 (which blew tents away and damaged TUT’s car) is marked. Only the Challenger class is shown, and black spots mark time penalties. See also my teams list and information page.

Nuon has vlogs (Dutch with English subtitles) for day 1 (with the storm) and day 2.

---

iESC Race Report #2

The iLumen European Solar Challenge (iESC) in Belgium has just finished, under extremely wet conditions. Lap counts are shown below. Twente clocked up about 85% of the laps they did when they won in 2016. I will post about official results when they are released. However, Twente are clearly Challenger champions, while Lodz Solar Team has won the Cruiser class on points.

---