ADELAIDE, Australia – A Dutch team won a solar-powered car race across Australia for a seventh time on Thursday, with a University of Michigan car likely to take second place in the biennial event.
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The Nuon team’s Nuna 9 car averaged more than 80 kph (50 mph) to reach the World Solar Challenge finish line in the southern coastal city of Adelaide after five days of racing across 3,022 kilometers (1,878 miles) of Outback highway from Darwin in the north.
The Delft University of Technology-based team has competed eight times.
The U.S. car Novum had yet to finish but was in second place followed by the Punch Powertrain team from Belgium, Tokai University from Japan and Solar Team Twente from the Netherlands.
Nuon team engineer Marten Arthens described the win as the “best feeling ever.”
“We’re going to celebrate, but first I’m going to take a shower. I haven’t done that a week,” Arthens said.
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This year’s race attracted 95 teams from more than 20 countries.
The event marks 30 years since the first World Solar Challenge in 1987.
