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Solar car qualifying at Gingerman
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NEWS RELEASE

07-12-01

Contacts:
Nick Mohr, Team PrISUm, (515) 451-5630
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917

ISU'S SOLAR CAR TEAM REQUALIFIES CAR FOR RACE

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's solar car team, Team PrISUm, has requalified its car for the upcoming American Solar Challenge. The team now will race the PrISUm Odyssey car in the July 15-25 race from Chicago to Los Angeles.

The team needed to go through a second "scrutineering" process and log at least 25 miles at the Gingerman Motor Speedway in South Haven, Mich., because they switched to a battery pack different from the one they used in a previous qualifying process. Scrutineering is an inspection, safety and performance testing process all cars must go through to qualify for the cross-country solar race. Scrutineering is followed by logging a specified number of laps on the racetrack while maintaining a speed of at least 25 mph to prove the car's endurance.

"We made it through scrutineering without a hitch and we took advantage of an opportunity to run our car on the track this morning and requalify for the ASC," said Nick Mohr, the student director of Team PrISUm. "Now we have a couple of days to prepare for the start of the ASC in Chicago."

The American Solar Challenge, a 2,300-mile race, is the longest solar car race ever attempted. The race course will follow along portions of old Route 66.

Approximately 40 university and private-industry teams are expected to compete in the ASC, which is designed to advance renewable energy and electric vehicle technologies, promote educational and engineering excellence, encourage environmental consciousness and teach teamwork. This is the sixth major solar car race Iowa State students have participated in since 1990.

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Editors:
ISU News Service will be sending out daily updates on Team PrISUm as it participates in the American Solar Challenge. Updates of ISU's team also can be obtained at www.iastate.edu or at www.prisum.iastate.edu.

To download a picture of the ISU solar car team with their Odyssey car, go to www.iastate.edu/~ur/ns/photos/01/prisum/teamprisum.html.

During the American Solar Challenge race cars will be tracked on the Internet at www.formulasun.org/asc/tracking/index.html through use of a global positioning satellite system that will pinpoint the location of participating cars. Daily race results will be posted at www.formulasun.org/asc, as will the official starting positions of the cars.