AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's Fusion solar race car ran laps around all but one car at this week's qualifying race for the North American Solar Car Challenge.
Fusion, the $350,000 solar car built and raced by Iowa State students, completed 366 laps over three days of racing on the 2.1-mile track at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan. That performance easily qualified the team for this summer's 2,500-mile solar car race, won the stock class of the competition and was good for second place overall.
Justin Steinlage, an Iowa State senior in mechanical engineering from St. Lucas, Iowa, and the director of the solar car project, said Fusion performed up to the team's expectations.
"We ran it to the limits of what it could do," he said. "And our team worked together really well and we had a decent strategy."
The University of Minnesota, competing in the open class of cars equipped with more powerful solar systems, completed 410 laps for the overall win.
The North American Solar Car Challenge will be a race from Austin, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The racing begins July 17 and ends July 27. The route will take the solar cars into Iowa between Sioux City and Sioux Falls, S.D., beginning the evening of July 19 until about noon on July 21.
Steinlage said Team PrISUm will do some tweaking to make Fusion a faster race car for the summer road race.
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