Dunedin trolley racers Team Zoom Car Wash set a record time at the Auckland Domain last weekend and cleaned up the $10,000 top prize.
Manager Jason Greig said the team returned to Dunedin early yesterday after beating 40 teams to win the 2013 Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix on Saturday.
''Now it's all done and dusted, it is sinking in and the elation is just awesome.''
The team set a record time of 45.56sec in their non-motorised trolley on the 650m winding downhill track in front of about 80,000 spectators.
''We averaged 16.9m a second, which equates to 60.84kmh. We were cruising. We beat the second place by 1.6sec, about 28m.''
And on the record run, the brakes failed on driver Paul Wrigley, he said.
''Our driver wanted a little more movement in the brake pedal so we loosened them off and when he came to go down the hill, there was virtually nothing there - we don't know what happened ... we watched the footage from his helmet camera and at quite a speed, he somehow squeezed through the smallest of gaps between some trolleys at the bottom.''
At the last big corner, the trolley ''slid out'', but Mr Wrigley managed to ''catch it''.
''He managed to correct it and bring it back around. In the footage, it looks like he is drifting. He is at full opposite lock in the steering and he flicked it back - we don't know how he did it.''
Before the race, a ''Crapillac'' body kit covered the trolley to fool the crowd and was discarded when it entered a ''car wash'' in a pre-race skit to reveal the sleek red racer.
''When we came out of the car wash, the crowds just went ''woah'' because they weren't expecting it. It was really good.''
Some of the prize money would be donated to a Dunedin soup kitchen and the rest would be reinvested in defending their title at the next grand prix, Mr Greig said.
Team owner Richard Cathro said the trolley would be displayed at the Dunedin Ice Stadium from the weekend.
