ETNZ: Project Landspeed, holding for a couple of weeks

With the team poised to make the most of the 25-35 knot winds on Lake Gairdner this week, the party has once again been spoilt by surface water that has moved onto the designated sailing area of the lake.

A very disappointed Land Speed team have therefore decided to put ‘Horonuku’ back in the shed for a couple of weeks to have a break while allowing more time for the surface to dry out in the increasing temperatures.

Ashby who has been like a coiled spring waiting to get Horonuku out there for a high-speed attempt said, “It’s pretty brutal to have to put the program on a temporary hold at the moment, but as you can see there is water in the lake.

We have been pushing really hard out here, but as it turns out you couldn’t have picked a worse time to try to do a Wind powered Land Speed World Record attempt on a dry lake.

This year in Australia has been unbelievably wet, the whole central and east coast of Australia has been absolutely hammered with rain- unprecedented rain. The rainfall has broken records since records have begun.”

Although it is anticipated to only be a two week hold, Ashby is always one to keep things in perspective.

“We have dealt with the weather for our whole lives, so this is nothing new with what we do. But what has happened with this rain to a lot of farms, a lot of houses and a lot of people being displaced, for us you have to keep it all in perspective.”

“We have been up to just shy of 160km/h on non-ideal surface so far. We know we cannot break records on a damp surface so we need it to be dry and we certainly will be monitoring that in the coming weeks to make sure we are here ready to go when that surface is prepared for us. It will dry out."