American Solar Challenge 2003 - July 15th

Goodbye to Rolla

This morning at 9:10, we left UMR and are now heading towards Joplin. We placed 11th at the Rolla stage and are in close competition with the 8th - 13th place teams.

The top 6 cars have demonstrated superior performance. The race officials are amazed at how fast the top solar cars can travel. It is very interesting to see that on average, the most expensive cars ($200,000 - $500,000 budgets) leave the $100,000 cars in the dust. Needless to say, we've left a few cars in the dust ourselves.

We're nearing Springfield, MO as I'm typing. There are a few clouds, but we're in the sun right now.

Our tires have held up well; much better than we expected. We haven't had any flats, YET. Daniel is driving right now; Jeff will drive this afternoon once we reach Springfield, MO.

Chris Trueblood
truebcp@auburn.edu