For the 9th time in a row Kings Day was celebrated at the Federal parliament. Just like the previous years the Chairman of the Senate, Armand De Decker, invited the Chairman of the Chamber, Patrick Dewael, the Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy and the Royal Family to the parliament.
This year the Kings Day celebrated King Albert I and also ''Scientific Research''.
In 2009 it has been a hundred years since King Albert I took the Constitutional oath. The intrests of King Albert I went to science and to the economical and industrial realisations in our country. Because of the involvement of King Albert I in scientific research, this theme was chosen.
Because our team had made some magnificent performances the last year and because we promote and visualise the clean energy principles, we were chosen to present ourselves at the King's Day in the Senate. The Royal Family and ministers were all very excited and interested in our machine... :-)
Click on a picture to enlarge:
Demo at Turino: won the sprint race
2009-10-10
To thank our sponsors and to promote the Formula Zero championship, we decided to be part of a demo race wich was held at Turin, Italy. Located in front of the Eco-Efficiency Biennial ‘09 in the Valentino Park, Turin, we won the sprint race convincingly in a track record time.
These are the sprint race results and the time added is the best time driven during the sprint races.
SPRINT RACE RESULTS GRAND PRIX TURINO
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points (24,24 s)
1st UnizartecH2, 2 points (25,21 s)
2nd Greenchoice Forze, 3 points (25,52 s)
3rd Imperial College London, 4 points (32,84 s)
Unfortunatly we did not participate in the main demo race because one of our motors had broken down. We congratulate the Dutch team for winning the main race in Turino. The Spanish and Dutch teams are very evenly matched. We recently located the root cause of the our motor problem and found out that it could easily be fixed.
winners of the Formula Zero Championship!
2009-09-03
As the Formula Zero championship comes to an end, the Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team can proudly call them selves champions. 4 Races were held all over the European continent. All teams had there own home Grand Prix. After a very good start in the British GP things seemed like they could not go wrong for our team. But in The Netherlands we had a small technical diffuculty in the main race which cost us the Dutch GP. The testsessions were always very usefull for us as we could tune our kart to perform optimaly for each circuit. With our heads held high and a kart now in top condition we were destined to win all remaining races. First there was our home GP in Belgium were our main sponsor, Solicore, could proudly watch as we blew past the competition and even set a new trackrecord in Genk. This gave us a very comfortable posiition going in to the last race in Spain. We managed to finish it of in style with another clean win in both the sprint and the main race. At the end of the championship we got 7 out of 8 wins were we only lost 3 points to Spain in The Netherlands. This is the scoreboard at the end of the Championship, where you can clearly see the gap with the other competitors.
As our kart is still in mint condition, we hope to show it off at some events to thank our sponsors and plan to do even some more racing in October...
vici
Official Standings after Spanish GP
SPRINT RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO SPANISH GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2 , 2 points
2nd Greenchoice Forze, 3 points
3rd Imperial College London, 4 points
MAIN RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO SPANISH GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 3 points
2nd Greenchoice Forze, 7 points
3rd Imperial College London, 5 points
STANDINGS AFTER FINAL ROUND (4 OUT OF 4):
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
1st UnizartecH2, 18 points
2nd Imperial College London, 37 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 38 points
Home sweet home: Belgian GP
2009-08-29
The site will be updated with a full report of the Belgian GP as soon as we are back from Spain.
This pictures summarizes our feelings after the event. ;-)
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st Greenchoice Forze, 2 points
2nd UnizartecH2 , 3 points
3rd Imperial College London, 4 points
MAIN RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO BELGIAN GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 3 points
2nd Imperial College London, 5 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 7 points
STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 3 OUT OF 4:
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
1st UnizartecH2, 13 points
2nd Imperial College London, 26 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 30 points
I still know what you did last summer...
2009-08-23
Almost one year ago the first race for hydrogen powered took place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Now we were back in the same country to get some revenge... with a clean winning streak so far in the European Championship it seemed like there was nothing holding us back from a victory in Oss (Netherlands).
(click on image to open panorama of the track inOss:
In early practice sessions on saturday 22nd the news got to us that Greenchoice Force was still having problems with there electronics. This was also the reason why they could not start in the main race in Mitchett Place. Because there is a short time in between races the risk that teams who damage their kart have very little time to fix it (transport time between the countries also has to be taken into account). On sunday they sadly announced that their kart would not be running in the Dutch GP.
During the testsessions on Saturday the teams had time to adjust to the longer track (+/- 650m) compared to the 480m in the U.K. The temperatures (27 - 28 degrees Celcius) was the highest we had to race in so far. This also meant that the Fuell Cell, which is cooled with a cooling circuit of deionised water, would not cool so efficiently since all teams use a radiatror. Imperial Racing Green had no problems with the cooling it seemed but seemed to have mechanical issues. The Spaniards seemed to be the ones with the least of troubles although they are always busy in their pitbox. At the end of the day things were still looking good for us for the sprint race: we managed to fix an issue with our emergency stop and got some nice laptimes.
Recorded testsession times:
Zero Emission Racing Team: 37.280 s
UnizartecH2: 39.889 s
Imperial Racing Green: somewhere in the low 40's
After a nice supper, apparently in the same restaurant as our closest rivals UnizartecH2, and a good night sleep youu could feel the tension in the pitlane in the morning. The normmal raceschedule had to be adjusted so it would fit a race with three competitors and still show the public anough racing action. The qualifying would determine wich kart should drive the semifinal first, the two best semifinnalists would advance to the final and had to race a third time for victory.
The sprint race had every potential of becoming a real thriller with testsession times sometimes only being a few hundreds of a second apart between us and the Spaniards. The British team would have to focus on the main race and hope reliability would leaad them to victory. Last year every kart had difficulties with keeping the fuel system running, but the past week (in the U.K.) all teams were running a very reliable kart it seemed.
Sprint Race
Here are the times of the qualifying round:
Imperial Racing Green: 42,773 s+5% = 44,870 s
UnizartecH2: 40.478 s
Zero Emission Racing Team: 38.769 s
Greenchoice Forze: DNS (Did Not Start)
The 5% added to the time of Imperial Racing Green is actualy a penalty time Formula Zero introduced so all teams would be conform to the regulations. In a sprint race like this one these penalty times are very hard to recover from.
Semi Final Sprint Race:
Imperial Racing Green: 44,559 s+5% = 57.287 s (due to mechanical issue ? )
UnizartecH2: 39,937 s
Zero Emission Racing Team: 38.893 s
Final Sprint Race:
UnizartecH2 [ 41.784: 38.302] Zero Emission Racing Team
Main Race
In qualification for the main race our kart performed as expected and our driver (Erwin Janssens) knew exactly how fast he had to drive to keep ahead of Imperial Racing Green and UnizartecH2. During the semi final the British kart ran in to some mechanical issues again and lost a lot of time. This meant that the Spain and Belgium just needed to run a reliable race in order to advance to the final. The Spaniards were off first with some nice laptimes in the beginning but slowing down at the end. The chances were very good for our kart, but then disaster struck. Our kart had a technical issue of a yet unknown source... this meant we lost some valuable time.
In the end the Spaniards deserved this title but we were left with a bitter feeling, exactly one year after what happened to us in Rotterdam, happened again. All teams will be on their toes for the next GP in Belgium.
Qualification Main Race:
Zero Emission Racing Team
UnizartecH2
Imperial Racing Green
Greenchoice Forze (DNS)
Semi Final Main Race:
Zero Emission Racing Team
UnizartecH2
Imperial Racing Green (lost time because of mechanical issue)
Greenchoice Forze(DNS)
Final Main Race:
UnizartecH2
Zero Emission Racing Team (lost time because of yet unkown technical issue)
Official Standings after DUTCH GP
SPRINT RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO DUTCH GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 2 points
2nd Imperial College London , 3 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 4 points
MAIN RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO DUTCH GP
0th UnizartecH2, 0 points
1st Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
2nd Imperial College London, 5 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 7 points
STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 2 OUT OF 4:
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
1st UnizartecH2, 7 points
2nd Imperial College London, 17 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 21 points
As you can see anything can still happen in this championship. The Spaniards have gained a point on us, but we are destined to win.
The next event will be held on Sunday 29th of August in Genk, Belgium. This will be our home GP and will be very important in the outcome of the Championnship. (Entrance is free)
See you there!
flawless victory in British GP
2009-08-21
On Thursday the 20th of August, the first Grand Prix of the Formula Zero Euopean Championship took place. (click on the link to open google map of all track locations)The weather during the testsessions was really hot so we managed to set the fastest lap in the testsessions (20.7 seconds). This gave us some confidence going in to the sprint and main race the next day. During the testsessions we had some minor electronical problems which we managed to pinpoint and solve in time for the day after. (click on image to open panorama of the track)
The first part of the GP was the Sprint Race. Here each team had to drive just one lap as fast as possible. They are only given one chance to set the time.
First of was a qualifying lap to determine which karts should race against eachother in the semi-final. Because the Imperial Racing Green team had some technical difficulties on their kart, they had to face the fastest qualifier, which was the Spanish team UnizartecH2 (21.215 s). We had to face the Dutch team Greenchoice Forze which seemed to be very strong in practice sessions and who set the third fastest qualifing lap.
xxx (meaning I do not know the official time at this moment)
Semi Final Sprint Race:
Imperial Racing Green [ 30.764 : 21.564 ] UnizartecH2
Greenchoice Forze [ 22.383 : 21.332 ] Zero Emission Racing Team
3rd-4th place for Sprint Race: Imperial Racing Green [ xxx : 25.8 ] Greenchoice Forze
Final Sprint Race: UnizartecH2 [ 21.4 : 21.2 ] Zero Emission Racing Team
Main Race
The Main Race has a very different edge to it. All the karts had to run 8 laps. In the last event in which these karts competed almost a year ago, there were a lot of karts with reliability problems...so one year later this Main Race would be very interesting.
Semi Final Sprint Race:
Greenchoice Forze [ xxx : xxx ] UnizartecH2
Imperial Racing Green[ xxx : xxx ] Zero Emission Racing Team
3rd-4th place for Sprint Race: Imperial Racing Green [ xxx : DNS ] Greenchoice Forze
Final Main Race: UnizartecH2 [ xxx : xxx ] Zero Emission Racing Team
Official Standings after British GP
SPRINT RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO BRITISH GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 2 points
2nd Greenchoice Forze, 3 points
3rd Imperial College London, 4 points
MAIN RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO BRITISH GP
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 3 points
2nd Imperial College London, 5 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 7 points
STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 1 OUT OF 4:
0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
1st UnizartecH2, 5 points
2nd Imperial College London, 9 points
3rd Greenchoice Forze, 10 points
The next event will be held on Sunday 23 August on the evenement wordt Kombikart Circuit Nieuw Zevenbergen (Oss, the Netherlands).
Soon we will be participating in the European Championship. Everybody is welcome to join this spectacle. On August the 29th 2009, the first Belgian Grand Prix will take place for these Hydrogen powered go-karts at the karting circuit in Genk. (click picture to enlarge)
Coming UP
2009-05-19
At the end of this week(24th of May) the Zero Emissiono Racing Team will be showing the kart at the Helmond Car Classic. This year's theme is 'Car journey trough time'.
The week after, on the 31st of may, we will be showing our kart at Bobbejaanland.
On the 7th of may 2009 the start of the countdown for "Clean Week 2020" was held at the race circuit in Zolder. The event was a great succes. Not only because of the large crowd, the incredible enthousiasm of all the attendants and the number of different alternative energies that were shown there...but also because the Zero Emission Racing Team broke 2 World records that day!
The first World record that was broken was that of the Formula Zero organisation. It was established September 16th 2007. And consisted of a run of 1/8 mile from standstill. The old world record was 11,591s...and we obliterated the record by more than a second! Due to the disappointing absence of the bailiff, the world records could not yet be homologated.
The new record times are 10.396 seconds for 1/8 mile and 18.833 seconds for 1/4 mile.
Congratulations to the whole team and everyone who made this possible!!
Besides these pictures you can also check out the media page for links to movies and articles about the record attempt..
I wish to just quote the organisation of Formula Zero on this, :_(
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Dear Formula Zero teams,
Unfortunately we are forced to cancel the upcoming race at Brands Hatch of 1-3 May and postpone the British FZ-GP until further notice. ......
Godert van Hardenbroek & Eelco Rietveld
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Zolder: Clean Week
2009-04-11
The Zero Emission Racing Team will be attending 'clean week' at the racing circuit in Zolder, Belgium. Here, our kart will be giving a demonstration of its true potential on the 7th of May ... Be there!!
As like all the other participants in the Formula Zero championship, we are very eagerly awaiting the next event. We are still waiting for a definite go on behalf of the organisation for the next race.
The next race will be held on the go-kart circuit of Brands Hatch from 1 - 3 May.
Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points (24,24 s)
UnizartecH2, 2 points (25,21 s)
Greenchoice Forze, 3 points (25,52 s)
Imperial College London, 4 points (32,84 s)
