Day 2 – The longest route
While the last two days were marked by many difficulties, today’s racing was quite smooth. All this was mainly thanks to the electrical department and some supporting people working another entire night shift in order to fix yesterday’s technical difficulties. After packing up all our camping and fixing equipment as well as a quick breakfast, the Covestro Photon left the Zagora base camp shortly after 8 a.m.
Because Chalmers Solar Team stayed a little longer to charge their car, we started the race already ahead of them. While cruising through the gorgeous but also quite mountainous terrain we overtook Top Dutch as well making a grounds in the race. The lead group consisting of the three other teams was still quite far ahead but we were driving without any technical difficulties and for some time even charging more than using while going at the speed limit. This got the whole team quite excited.
When the sun was up a little higher we had a quick charging stop in the morning sun in order to prepare for the upcoming route. The Covestro Photon was coping really well with the steep windy roads and at 12:18 p.m. we reached the checkpoint at the Noor Solar Park. This solar park based in the Moroccan desert is the largest contrated solar power plant in the world with its 1.4 million square metres of mirrors capturing the sun’s energy – quite a sight to behold!
A hard tactical decision
After driving for a few more hours without any major problems the team made the hard but tactically correct decision to load the Covestro Photon into the trailer and finish the rest of today’s route this way. This was due to the race organization communicating that every vehicle that takes part in the race – no matter solar car or convoy car – must be in the desígnated camp by 7 p,m. If not, the team can be penalized heavily.
Even though we are a little sad that we cannot drive the Covestro Photon the whole day, we are still delighted that the main issues after the crash seem to be fixed and we aim to move up the leaderboard in coming race days! Greetings from the whole team that is currently sitting below the marvellous starry sky at Merzouga base camp.