It would come as no surprise that a lake would normally have water in it. But what is surprising is that Lake Gairdner, the usually bone dry salt lake in South Australia, currently has a somewhat inconvenient amount of water in it. About 50mm of water right now according to Emirates Team New Zealand Land Speed Pilot Glenn Ashby who has just been to see the lake first hand in preparation for the set-up of the World record attempt.

It may seem like a show stopper for the World Record attempt, but 50mm of water is actually a positive thing for the eternal optimist Glenn Ashby. “Three weeks ago the lake had 120mm of water in it. So we are definitely trending in the right direction. For sure this does slide our programme back by a few weeks, but nothing that I am too concerned about right now. We just need to be a bit patient”

Emirates Team New Zealand Meteorolgist Roger ‘Clouds’ Badham has been monitoring the lake, the weather and atmospheric conditions for months now and expects to see the rates of water evaporation continue to increase. This time of year it is normal to see around 100mm of water evaporation each month and as the months clock closer to summer this will only increase. As will the winds expected over the coming months with September and October the windiest months of the year in the location.

Precisely what is needed to propel Horonuku to its World Record breaking speeds