Page 53 - Silver Lakes_Issue 10_2022

MOTORING

of private engineers based in Mpumalanga,
and the current World Champions, a team
of Belgian engineers who entered as the
Agoria Solar Team.

Strategy and adventure were the key
themes for this year’s solar challenge,
with the ultimate aim being to cover the
greatest distance. To make the event more
exciting, this year’s challenge incorporated
special stages, including: a marathon stage
(which started in Kroonstad and finished
in Gariep) that required teams to work on
their solar cars in a closed and secured area
with a limited workforce; as well as half-
and full-blind stages, where information
relating to the route was withheld until the
night before the teams took to the road.
This forced them to strategise at the last
minute without prior preparation.

“The teams found these new developments
to be quite daunting but exciting at the
same time, as they required them to work
together to fix their solar cars, navigate the
route, measure speed limits, while also
taking into consideration the need to cover
as many kilometres as possible. The Sasol
Solar Challenge is the first-ever solar event
to incorporate such stages. This shows how

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