Flying Dutchmen: WSC Day 1

The Nuon Solar Team from the Netherlands has set a blistering pace to make up 12 positions and lead the event on day one.

After shocking the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge with pole position on debut, the Australian Team Arrow has slipped back through the field to fifth place.

Nuon Solar's Nuna7 solar car covered roughly 640km on the first day's racing in 39 degree heat, after the biennial solar race got underway in downtown Darwin at 8:30am, State Square, Parliament House.

Thirty-eight teams begun the taxing 3000km journey to Adelaide, and as the clock struck 5:00pm on Sunday October 6, racers in the premier 'Challenger' class had to pull up on the side of the Stuart Highway and make camp, as per the rules.

With a large support crew and one of the fastest cars of the day – we clocked the Nuna7 at 115km/h – the Dutch team was very happy to be leading after day one, despite qualifying in 13th place the day before.

"It feels good," said Marlese Hak, Nuon Team manager. "In the beginning it was a little chaotic. There were a lot of cars. We had to do a lot of overtaking," she told motoring.com.au from the station access road where the team was setting up camp, about 10km south of Dunmarra.

"Eventually we got the road to ourselves and it went very well, clear skies, a lot of solar energy harvested. It's great," exclaimed Hak.

The Nuon Solar Team manager said if the ultra lightweight Nuna7 vehicle can maintain momentum at the front, it could make Adelaide in just three more days.

Second place was held by another Dutch outfit, Solar Team Twente, whose RED Engine solar car maintained a solid pace after qualifying fourth the day before and was about 10km behind team Nuon.

Defending champions and odds-on favourites, Team Tokai from Japan, qualified in 20th position but ended up finishing less than a minute behind Solar Team Twente to hold third place after the first day's racing. It was a herculean effort from the Japanese team, which spent the first half of the day charging through the field, overtaking competitors and civilian traffic with gusto. However 50km shy of Katherine the Tokai Challenger solar car's support vehicle came down with a bad case of flat tyre. To finish in third place suggests the competition car is still the fastest in the group and is likely to reclaim the lead tomorrow barring any problems.

Fourth place is held by University of Michigan Solar Car Team, while the Australian underdogs, Team Arrow, are still in the hunt in fifth place.

Tune in to Instagram (motoringcomau) and Twitter (@motoringcomau) for colourful updates from the Bridgestone Solar World Challenge as motoring.com.au heads to Alice Springs tomorrow.

World Solar Challenge 2013

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