The water fight at Zolder
On September 22, it finally started: After months of preparation, we participated for the first time in the European Solar Challenge, a 24-hour race in Zolder, Belgium. The aim is not only to cover the greatest possible distance within 24 hours, but also to score points with innovations in vehicle development, the most consistent lap times over 8 laps and the fastest lap time.
The biggest challenge, however, was once again the weather. It was already raining cats and dogs when we arrived in Zolder, which caused our sun car to spin in the knockout chicane during qualifying and we lost the chance for a better starting position. Since it was still dry at the start, we started with tires with a flat profile and were able to not only establish ourselves in the top third of the field shortly after the start, but even pull away from the rest of the field. After other teams had to admit defeat to the weather and checked their vehicles in the pits, it finally hit us as well: Due to the rain, moisture got into the interior of the Sonnenwagen, causing the engine to malfunction. Our electrical engineering team immediately took care of solving the problem and at the same time the driving strategy decided to switch to rain-proof tires in order to build up sufficient grip on the wet concrete of the race track. The change was to pay off - from then on, the race went smoothly.
However, at 1:40 a.m., the shock: while entering the pit lane, the sun car collided with the perimeter of the pit entrance due to the impaired visibility. Fortunately, our driver escaped with a scare, but the sun car had suffered serious damage as a result of the incident: The collision had broken the carbon body shell and torn the chassis from its anchorage. With the help of everyone and the specialists from the day shift, we managed to do the almost impossible in the middle of the night - three hours of hard work later, our sun car was running again.After a few careful laps and checks in the pit lane, we fought our way back to the leading field bit by bit and even drove the fastest lap of the race in the early morning of Sunday, which allowed us to gain important points in the overall standings.On Sunday at 1 p.m., we finally reached the finish line after 147 laps. We managed not only to get the car roadworthy again and thus to finish the race over 24 hours, but also to get third place in first-time participation and exciting hours in the pit lane.