SYDNEY, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Students from the University of Western Sydney (WSU) became the first from their country to win a prestigious international solar car race in the United States on Monday.

The 14-person crew beat last year's champions from the University of Michigan by 16 minutes in their completely solar-powered car named Unlimited 2.0.

"The fact we've actually won the competition is unbelievable," project leader Saami Bashar said.

"Michigan is a high-calibre team, they are such fierce competitors, they had a lot to prove by racing against us and they haven't lost a competition since 2001."

The American Solar Challenge is a global competition for tertiary students to design, build and then race solar-powered cars 2,800 km across North America.

Racers travelled from Nebraska to Oregon at speeds of around 90 km per hour with data streamed from their vehicles to monitor progress.

"The race was physically gruelling for the WSU students, alumni and volunteers involved in making sure the car was ready to race each day," WSU Computing, Engineering and Mathematics School manager Michael Walsh said.

Unlimited 2.0 will now be shipped back to Australia where it will be used for further research.