Large bush fires at Barrow Breek closed the Stuart Highway on day 2, about 4 hours before the end of the day. As a result all teams have been delayed about 4 hours to maintain race position, with all but the top 3 being delayed at Tennant creek. Many teams arrived at Tennant creek on day 2 after the road closure, and didn't set off until this morning according to the time they came in. More arrived this morning, also being delayed 4 hours before they could set off again. As a result most teams spent much of the day in Tennant creek charging their batteries, blogging, and seeing the sights.
One team that was charging was the Philippines team, and after 2 hours it seems at least one of their cells became overcharged and the battery pack caught fire! Fortunately they were working on the car at the time, and were able to save the car. By the start of day 4 they had repaired the battery pack and were ready to start racing again.
NT news reports that the hotel at Barrow creek has narrowly survived the fires - good news!
The smoke was a huge factor for teams travelling past Tennant creek, greatly reducing solar power. Michigan reported that the fire was lapping up against the edge of the road with smoke blowing across the road in places, so they had to drive on the other side of the road for a bit to pass the fire!
Tokia has taken a commanding lead now being the only one past Kulgera near the border at the end of the day. Nuon and Michigan are both at Kulgura control stop at the end of the day, about 40 minutes behind Tokai. Tokai has been travelling at around 105kph, and pulling ahead.
Aurora, Twente, and Ashiya Sky Ace have been battling it out for 4th, stopping within a few km of each other at the end of the day, about 50km from Alice. Sunswift is 7th and Umicore is 8th, both just past Alice.
In order: Socrat, Stanford, Okinawa, Apollo, Nanyang, and Sakarya (Saguar) have not trailered and are past Tennant creek, while Qazvni (Iran), Principia, MIT, Onda (Italy), Philippines, Chile, and Calgary, are waiting at Tennant creek, but have not trailered.
Bochum is in Tennant Creek, having trailered only 250km so far.
Teams also report smoke between Dunmarra and Tennant creek on day 2, greatly reducing solar power. Lots of blogs were updated while teams waited in Tennant creek!
0 comments:
Post a Comment