Steady start for NZ students in solar road race

A team of Hutt Valley High School students got off to a steady start on one of the world's toughest endurance races yesterday.

Hutt Valley High School's solar-powered car was doing a steady 30km/h within a couple of hours of the start of the Darwin to Adelaide solar challenge -- a 3010km race from the top of Australia to the bottom using sun as the only form of energy to keep the cars moving.

The Hutt Valley High School students are the only New Zealand entrant in the race which has attracted some of the world's big corporations and universities with multi-million dollar budgets. The Wellington students have a budget of about $140,000 but will come back to New Zealand in debt.

The 17-strong team, including 11 students, were taken to Darwin on an air force Hercules.

The race has attracted 38 cars and 14 cycles which will be on the road between 8am and 5pm each day, setting off in the morning at the spot where they stopped the previous afternoon.

The Hutt Valley High car has the race number 75 to mark the school's 75th anniversary.

The first of the cars was expected in Adelaide on Friday or Saturday. The New Zealand students were expected to finish three or four days after the leader.

- NZPA