Races in Oz- serious and not so…

Every two years the World Solar Challenge is held- this is an

event based on a competitive field of solar cars crossing the Australian continent powered by nothing but the sun. Teams are required to research, build and design vehicles capable of completing the 3000km journey from tropical Darwin in the Northern Territory, to cosmopolitan Adelaide in South Australia. [link]

This year the race was won- for the 4th consecutive time- by the Dutch team from Delft University, Nuon, with their car the Nuna 4

The car traversed the 3010 km distance from Darwin to Adelaide purely on solar power. previous years competitions have established that these solar cars can travel as fast as normal cars so this year the requirements were changed to make the specifications closer to a normal family car.But this is not the real inspiration for this note on races; this is being written on the eve of the Melbourne Cup horse race- the race that stops a nation. One of the few countries that actually has a public holiday (in Melbourne, where the race is held) for a horse race. Sport and gambling come together in this race with bets being placed by almost every grown person in the country. Offices run their own pools and even in places where the day is not a holiday, all work comes to a standstill for the 3 and a half minutes or so that the race runs.

For the not so serious races, consider these:

The Henley-On-Todd Regatta, held in the town of Alice Springs in the red centre of Oz- is held on the banks of the Todd River to raise funds for charity. It’s been held annually since 1962, making the one to be held on 30 August this year the 46th race.

In 1962, Reg Smith and his compatriots at the Alice Springs Meteorological Bureau proposed they hold an actual regatta along the lines of the famous Henley-on-Thames, a race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities. The idea was taken up by the Rotary club of Alice Springs, and the fact that the town was 1,500 km’s from the nearest large body of water was never seen as a problem.

Yes, you read that correctly- the regatta is held on land on the very dry bed of the river Todd! Reading on, at their site:

Watching seemingly sane people race in bottomless “eights”, “oxford tubs”, “bath tubs” and yachts through the deep coarse sand of the Todd River provides an unique spectacle amongst world sporting events. The multi-event program attracts many local and international participants from the audience who often finish up on world TV news paddling canoes with sand shovels and in “land lubber” events like filling empty 44 gallon drums with sand.There are crazy bathtub races too and whole naval battles by, among
others, “Vikings” and “Pirates” crewing battle boats on truck’s
chassis, bristling with mortars and high pressure coloured water
cannons hurling flour bombs at their opponents. But if it rains and
there is water in the river, the boat race has to be cancelled.

Pictures of some participants in past years, here.

And then there are reports of annual goat races and wheelie bin races at a Lightning Ridge, an opal mining town in New South Wales!