Early morning smoke and cloudy skies took the edge off yesterday’s pace as the field slowed slightly. The windy conditions gave the Belgian Innoptus team plenty of opportunity to show off their futuristic fin as they held the lead throughout the day.

Dutch team Twente in RED X have now more than halved the gap from the previous day to just 24 kilometres and extended their lead over compatriots and long-time rivals Brunel in Nuna 12 to around 90 kilometres. Will it be Twente’s year to shine? Or have they gone too early?

Tonight, six Projecta Challenger Class teams are spending their first night camping out under South Australian stars on the outskirts of Coober Pedy. The big movers today were US team Michigan in Astrum moving up two places into fourth and now sitting 80 kilometres behind Brunel. Japan’s team Tokai and Germany’s Sonnenwagen are in a tussle of their own for 5^th and 6^th place.

Top Dutch in Green Thunder are camped just south of Alice Springs, with Japan’s Kogakuin in Koga, Sweden’s JU in Axelight and UK’s Durham in DUSC23 rounding out the top 10.

Canada’s Eclipse is ahead of Australia’s Western Sydney University in Unlimited 5.0 who are now in Alice Springs with aCentauri.

In the CSIRO Cruiser Class, most of the field is now south of Alice Springs and now make their way tomorrow to the critical time point of Coober Pedy for their second opportunity to charge where the CSIRO will be measuring their impact on the electricity supply.

For the full leaderboard and to follow team progress visit the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge VAILO Car Tracker.