6-26-97
Contact:
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917
TEAM PRISUM FINDS UPHILL STRUGGLES IN KANSAS
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's Team PrISUm fell short
of making it to the finish line in day seven of Sunrayce 97.
The ExCYtor car made it to McDonald, Kan., about 20 miles
short of the St. Francis, Kan., finish line when the team
decided to pull over and charge their batteries.
The University of Minnesota was the first team to finish the
166-mile leg from Smith's Center to St. Francis, taking 3
hours, 27 minutes and 48 seconds for an average speed of 48
mph. MIT was second (47.9 mph) and California State
University - Los Angeles was third (45.56 mph) today.
Overall, Cal State - Los Angeles is the leader, followed by
MIT and the Stanford University/UC Berkeley team. These
unofficial standings and times do not include penalties
assessed against any of the teams.
For Iowa State, low batteries and a steady uphill grade took
their toll on ExCYtor.
"We didn't leave until noon so we could charge our
batteries," said Team PrISUm director Beth Hunter. "The
entire day we were going uphill. We had to pull over once and
recharge our batteries."
Team member Eric Flakne added that the decision to stop in
McDonald was a strategic one. "We decided to pull over in
McDonald and begin charging so we can complete tomorrow's leg
of the race," he said.
Team PrISUm began the day in 28th place, less than 22 minutes
behind California State University - Long Beach.
Tomorrow's leg of Sunrayce will be from St. Francis, to
Limon, Colo., a distance of 140 miles.
Sunrayce 97 coincides with the week of the summer solstice.
The 1,230-mile race began June 19 in Indianapolis and ends
June 28 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
- 30 -
Editors:
The ISU News Service will provide daily updates on Team PrISUm to reporters covering the race. Contact Skip Derra, (515) 294-4917 or (515) 255-3422 (home).
Official race standings and times can be obtained by accessing the Sunrayce web site at http://www.sunrayce.com/.
Iowa State homepage
University Relations, online@iastate.edu
Copyright © 1997, Iowa State University, all rights
reserved
URL:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/releases/sr97day7.html
Revised
6/27/97