After staying in Alice Springs last night, the Tokai University team arrived at today’s starting point, about 30 kilometers away, at 5:00 a.m. Currently sitting comfortably in first place, the team members appeared to be a little more relaxed. Engaging in lively banter, the team conducted thorough preparation for today’s race, including charging the solar panels and checking the underside of the car.
At 8:00 a.m., the Tokai Challenger started its race from the suburbs of Alice Springs. The first driver was Kota Tokuda, who proceeded to reach the controlled stop checkpoint in Kulgera at 10:08 a.m. Kenjiro Shinozuka took over from there, departing at 10:18 a.m. for the next stop in Coober Pedy.
Mr. Shinozuka completed the 400-kilometer interval to Coober Pedy, the longest of this year’s race, and arrived at 2:10 p.m. without incident. Kohei Sagawa, the next driver, arrived at the day’s final controlled stop in Glendambo at 5:07 p.m. (race standard time; 6:07 p.m. Adelaide time). Thus ended the third day of the race.
Today, the Tokai Challenger covered 901 kilometers, the longest distance of the three days so far. This brought the three-day total to more than 2,400 kilometers, a journey that has seen the team enjoy trouble-free driving.
According to Mr. Shinozuka, “Although the car was occasionally bounced around by uneven road surfaces, there was little effect from the wind, and all-in-all the drive has been without incident.”
Currently, the Tokai University Challenge Center Team is approximately 230 kilometers ahead of the team from Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), which passed the University of Michigan (US), and is ahead of the University of Michigan by approximately 235 kilometers.
| | 
Appearance of check work of the Tokai Challenger
Pattern of running of the Tokai Challenger
Order: 1st
Total mileage: 2,432km
Power generated by Sharp compound solar cells
Power generated in the morning: 0.738 kWh
Power generated in the afternoon: 11.28 kWh
Power generated in the evening: 0.8 kWh
Peak output power in a day: 1.72 kW |
| Note: These values reflect measurements taken under conditions where the intensity of sunlight, the incident angle of sunlight, and hours of sunlight were not known. | |