The University of Queensland solar car, SunShark, has maintained its lead in the CitiPower SunRace today despite running on half its usual battery power in a race leg plagued with problems.
Team manager Alana Maher said SunShark was an hour ahead of its nearest rival, Northern Territory University's Desert Rose, and the team was "fairly confident" of victory despite facing major setbacks due to battery trouble.
"We blew our battery pack last night, which means we are running on only half the capacity we had - we now have the smallest battery pack in the field," she said.
"Because we have had such hot weather, one battery overheated and set up a chain reaction to the others. We lost one, then lost 10.
"It is a massive problem. We worked through the night to rebuild part of the pack, but for the rest of the race we will have only half capacity because the rules forbid using new batteries.
"It could have been all over for us, but the team has really pulled together and worked hard to maintain first place."
SunShark, which managed an average speed of 85km/h on the 240km leg from Swan Hill to Bendigo, was not the only team to meet trouble in the second-last day of the 1790km race.
Ms Maher said the University of New South Wales' Sunswift, which had been running second, was knocked out of the race after a traffic accident and Desert Rose, then in third place, skidded off the road when its rear trailing arm broke.
She said the team expected SunShark to take first place when the SunRace ends in Albert Park, Melbourne, tomorrow.
"We would have to break down and be stopped for a long time not to win the race," Ms Maher said.
"We're all feeling fairly confident. We could easily have given up a number of times during this race but we've been persistent and I think it's paying off."
For more information, contact Alana Maher (telephone 0402 049 713).
