We are happy to hear that Nuna 5 is getting back on her feet wheels. They report having received a great deal of support from all their sponsors who are working hard with the team to get her race-ready. More important than that, though, is the amount of support that Nuon have received from the other solar teams around Darwin.

They make a very good point, which we want to reiterate to our supporters as well: that the World Solar Challenge has not yet descended into petty rivalry. The spirit of the competition is flourishing, and teams are able to maintain a friendly relationship (look out for Jonathan’s post about some epic Nuon-CUER nights out – coming soon!) while still competing with each other.

The response to the Nuna5 crash is a great demonstration of this. Resources, manpower and materials are freely offered and shared – a common acknowledgement of the immense amount of time and effort it takes to build and race a solar car. An accident of this severity so close to the race strikes a chord with everyone, and empathy is inevitable. It could easily have happened (and might still happen) to any of us. The fact that it happened to the reigning champion just serves to illustrate that no team is above suffering from such a catastrophic failure. In part, perhaps, the willingness of the other teams to help with Nuna5’s recovery is a reflection of the very certain knowledge that, in the next couple of weeks, it could be one of us in that position.

This level of solidarity is very rarely seen in other forms of motorsport. Winning becomes paramount, and a competitor’s crash is seen as a lucky break for the rest of the field. Pessimistically, it might be suggested that this attitude is merely the result of working with an ultimately doomed technology. When fossil fuels run out, it won’t matter how efficient the F1 engines or aerodynamics are – they won’t be going anywhere.  The race to improve performance becomes just a race to cross the finish line first, and the ensuing tunnel vision makes it so very difficult to see the bigger picture. So ruthless attitudes and dirty tricks become the norm, because all that matters to the sponsors, the spectators and the teams is winning.

In contrast, the World Solar Challenge is not just a race to the finish line. It is a push towards an entirely different technology. It is a race to prove that such technology works. In that respect, we are all on the same team, and built into everyone is an awareness that, for every car that doesn’t make it to Adelaide, there will be another question mark hovering over the reliability and suitability of renewable transport. For every technological paradigm shift that takes place - each attempt to change the familiar for the better – there will be thousands of doubting voices, skeptics and naysayers who will look for any reason to hold these changes back. Every failure out on the Stuart Highway next fortnight can be used as such. 

For this reason, if no other, we are all bound to help each other, and every WSC event presents a Spirit Award in recognition of that unique attitude. In 2007 it went to the Aurora Solar Team for providing a spare motor to a stranded competitor.

Supporters, sponsors: be mindful of this – there is more than one prize to contest! Nuna5 may well cross the finish line before Endeavour, but neither of us will have made it there alone. We help each other, and will continue to do so, because, ultimately, none of us can cross the finish line until we all do.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 6:54 am and is filed under WSC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.