It was a great week for the natural forces, wind and sunshine.

On 29 December 2005 the maxi yacht Wild Oats XI smashed the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race record completing the 1163 km journey in 42 hours 40 minutes. It averaged 14.7 knots or 27.22 km/h.

The following day, 30 December 2005 the Melbourne based Aurora 101 solar car smashed the 24 hour solar car world record covering 1701 km at an average speed of 70.88 km/h. The previous mark was 1255 km.

Accompanying the Aurora 101 solar car was the start up team from Hamilton Victoria in their Southern Aurora solar car. They also had a trouble free run and exceeded the previous record covering 1339 km.

The record venue was the superb high speed track at the Ford Australia Proving Ground located in the You Yangs hills near Geelong. This track has special banking so that test cars can travel at 160 km/h with no generated side force. What it doesn't have is shelter from the weather.The two Aurora teams were locked up for 30 hours in the track infield, completely self supporting for food, fuel, portaloo, communications and sleeping accommodation.

Starting at 9.00 PM on Thursday 29 December the solar cars ran through the night following the Mazda 6 lead car for guidance and slowly exhausting the battery. This meant a running speed of 66 km/h. With daylight and a clear sky the speeds built up to 85 km/h and extra solar energy was pumped back into the battery in order to run beyond sunset and on to the 9.00 PM finish. Both cars performed faultlessly and were assisted in their achievement in running on special low rolling resistance Michelin solar car tyres. About 70 cents of electricity was used.

The daytime temperatures reached 39 degrees C; inside the solar car it climbed to 49 degrees C. This was too much for the four drivers to maintain the planned 3 hour driving schedule so more frequent changes were made. A strong 40 km/h wind was blowing across the track buffeting the solar cars severely as they emerged from the shelter of the banked corners.

Aurora 101 used four drivers on rotation. Veteran driver Andris Samsons from Bosch in Detroit had Kon Kotsonis as an experienced compatriot. New drivers Sally Forsyth and Ian Dyk completed the quartet.

Twenty year old Selleys sponsored Ian Dyk has had a great year in the Carrera Porsche Cup series and also won the Formula 3 supporting race at the A1 Grand Prix meet at Eastern Creek late last year. He survived the 3 hour sessions of extreme heat in the solar car but commented that although his Porsche got hot he could retire to the air-conditioned driver's lounge and have a cool drink. Well he did get a cool drink!

This world record capped a great year for Aurora 101 having gained third place at Japan's biggest solar car race, the Suzuka Dream Cup and second in the Darwin to Adelaide World Solar Challenge.

On 24 January 2006, the Aurora 101 will be put back on the road to attempt to set a new mark for the Melbourne to Sydney trip.