ISU solar car team finishes 11th in race

AMES -- Iowa State University's solar car team, Team PrISUm, finished 11th out of a field of 13 schools still remaining in the 1,100-mile American Solar Challenge.

The race from Broken Arrow, Okla., to Naperville, Ill., ended Saturday. Team PrISUm and the other competitors showed off their solar-powered cars at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago on Sunday.

The top three finishers in the American Solar Challenge were the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and Germany's Bochum University of Applied Sciences.

Team PrISUm finished the race strong, after electrical problems hampered the early days of the race, which put Anthelion (the name of ISU's car), hours behind most of the competitors. But ISU team members made repairs and kept in the race, and overtook four teams on the road on the last day.

Now, “The car is really fast,” said Pat Sanderson, team project director and a senior from Iowa City majoring in mechanical engineering. “We went as fast as they'd let us go.”