The Antakari team from the University of La Serena and MLP is going for its second victory in this Atacama Desert rally.

At 9 in the morning, the second day of the Atacama Solar Race began, led by the representative of the Coquimbo Region, Intikallpa 3, who is escorted just 6 minutes away by the Japanese team from Tokai University.

Daniel Garrido, driver of the Antakari team and with the experience of having driven in the 2013 Australian World Race - where the Intikallpa obtained 2nd place - is cautious with this leadership. “There are many days of competition left and yesterday there was a lot of wind that complicated the race, we have time in our favor, but we should not get complacent,” he said.

The start of the second day took place at the Topater monolith in the city of Calama, in the direction of Toconao, one of the most complex routes where vehicles must negotiate roads located at 3.400 meters above sea level.

“Indeed, it is the most difficult section for the vehicle since it requires traction and spending a lot of energy, in addition to having enough power to reach Toconao with speeds between 90 and 100 kilometers per hour. We use an engine whose nominal power is 3.5 KW, which due to design and experience would allow us to reach those speeds and complete this route in reasonable times,” said Jaime Muñoz, minutes before starting the second stage.

After completing the section to Toconao, the cars still in competition must continue to the commune of San Pedro de Atacama, thus completing the 175 kilometers of this day, which in the opinion of Natalia Espinoza, director of the NGO La Ruta Solar, “ It will be a very close competition between the Tokai team from Japan and Antakari from La Serena, where both teams have a very good level and the race will get more complicated due to the curves and slopes that come.”

In this way and according to the official data of the organization, the position table would be headed by Intikallpa 3, the car from the University of La Serena and Minera Los Pelambres, followed by the Japanese Tokai, in third position would be the ESUS of the University of Santiago, while in fourth place would be the DAS of the University of Concepción, the fifth position would be occupied by the Ergón of the Federico Sana María Technical University and in sixth place would be the Solar Mechatronics of the Catholic University of Santiago.