courtesy of: The Morning News
The government of Aruba is elated and very proud of young Aruban Javier Sint Jago, who recently came in second in the World Solar Challenge with his Nuna6 solar powered streetwise vehicle. This race was held in Australia.
The Aruba Prime Minister who has shown much interest in the Nuna6 project, called the young racer to congratulate him for his tremendous feat.
The Nuon Solar Team has worked a solid year on their solar powered vehicle so that they could have participated in the World Solar Challenge. Their hard work paid off, for they succeeded in coming in at second place in the race.
Only solar powered vehicles were allowed to participate in this race. According to the reports published around the world, there was heavy competition on the last day with lots of tension between Tokai University and the TU Delft equipment.
It is believed that, the Delft team was defeated by a very small difference. Actually, they claim that the difference was the smallest in the history of this challenge, which has taken place now 11 times.The winner of the race is the vehicle of the Tokai University of Japan. They also won the previous edition of the World Solar Challenge. All the vehicles traveled a distance of 3000 kilometers through Australia.
Aruban Javier Sint Jago was one of the drivers of the Nuna6 vehicle. Javier indicated that he is pleased with his second place standing,although he regrets coming so close and not winning the race. He said,..."We performed expertly and yet came in second. And, we are proud,also because our vehicle performed flawless from start to finish." Javier is contemplating ways to ship his vehicle to Aruba for demonstrations.
What was a tremendous challenge for the racers was the wild fires in the woods. The winds were high, there was a tornado and towards the end there was heavy rainfall. "We experienced practically every type of weather, " said Sint Jago. He claimed that one of his greatest challenges was when he encountered heavy winds on one side of his vehicle, because his vehicle weighs a mere 140 kilos. When he had to make a right hand turn, the wind was pushing him back to the left. That made it very difficult for him to stay on the road. But, as it stands, he succeeded withflying colors and came in an impressive second to win the silver medal.
At the end of this month the Aruba GreenConference will convene here and it would be wonderful if Javier could realize his desire to bring his Nuna6 to Aruba...and, in time for the conference.
