Dutch teams finish first and second in solar-powered race across Australia

ABC News : The World Solar Challenge car race is a 3000-km drive between the Australian cities of Darwin and Adelaide. The winning Dutch Nuon team completed the trip 3 minutes and 35 seconds faster than their fellow Dutch Twente team. Nuon has won the race 6 of the 12 times it’s been held since 1987. Teams from 25 countries entered 42 cars in this year’s race, which began on 18 October. Twente’s car, Red One, held the lead for the first four days of the race until being passed by Nuon’s Nuna 8 in a maneuver that Twente says was illegal and that forced Red One’s driver to apply the emergency brake and use up an extra 1% of the car’s battery power. Third place was taken by the Japanese Tokai team, which passed the American team from the University of Michigan within 30 km of the finish. The Belgian Punch Power Train team rounded out the top five.