North American Solar Challenge: 2008
Americans and Canadians watched, perhaps with a twinge of envy this July, as a group of University teams traveled gasoline free, racing from Texas to Canada in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge.
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1. University of Michigan
2. Principia
3. FH Bochum Solar Car Team
The competitive importance of the race also needs to be understood in the context of the race's importance as an event, whose goal was to showcase the power of solar power as an energy source.
In many ways, that goal also can be considered successful. For example, originally the race was an American event, held exclusively on American soil. Beginning in 2005, the race course changed to include both Canadian and American roads. Participant interest in the race has also broadend. Originally, teams from approximately twenty-five different institutions, including three European and six Canadian entrants, were expected to compete. Of these, fifteen participants from Canada, Europe and the United States passed the qualifying round consisting of basic technical, safety and durability standards, and started the race.
Covering a 2,500 mile race across international boundaries posed technical problems. While different local and national news outlets provided occasional coverage throughout the ten day race, the news crew from CTV in Calagary followed the race from start to finish, capturing the thrill that 10,000 race supporters generated at the finish line.
Team bloggers turned out to be the real news behind race coverage. Most of the teams recounted their daily activities in words, pictures, audio and videos on their blogs. The team from Missouri University of Science and Technology demonstrated their enthusiasm and innovation by double blogging the event (see Solar Miner VI - blog 1 and Solar Miner VI - blog 2).
Green Nature's strictly unofficial photography contest awards the Solar Miner VI team first place for excellence in photography for their picture of the lutefisk in Madison, MN. It demonstrates the significance of the race as an event reaching out to everyday people.
Second place goes to the University of Minnesota. The picture's contrasting foreground and background provide extra highlights for Centaurus, demonstrating the beauty of the cars in the race.
Third place goes to the University of Arizona. The car may be absent in the picture, but wow, what a nice picture. Clicking on the link at the top of the page provides the shortest route to pictures of team Arizona's car and crew.
Team Primcipia and their daily Principia podcast demonstrated another notable achievement in race coverage by offering listeners the opportunity to relive the race on a daily basis.
With communication technology changing so rapidly, it would not be surprising to see teams mount cameras on their cars for the next race, so spectators can get a driver's eye view of the race in progress.
Finishing a race review that saw the University of Michigan team gain top honors is rather easy. Not only did they win, all things being equal, they ran fast and smooth and with style. Recognizing that Americans and Canadians love a parade, team Michigan celebrated their arrival in Canada by participating in a parade in downtown Morris, Mt. One picture is worth a thousand words and team Michigan provides three pictures.
© 2008 Patricia A. Michaels