| In the summer of 2001, the University of Missouri-Rolla will defend its national title. We won Sunrayce 99 by racing 1400 miles from the steps of the capitol in Washington D.C. to Orlando, Florida. That race weeded out many teams as the lack of sun truly tested car efficiency and team preparation. The American Solar Challenge, which will take place in July of 2001, will be one of the most trying solar races ever. The proposed route travels from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA via Route 66. This will bring about a longer race than even the World Solar Challenge in Australia. This route will prove to be very exciting, elliciting the utmost in solar car performance to finish the race. Creating a championship caliber solar car team requires more than only superior design. Equally important is the capacity to make those designs a reality. The World Solar Challenge will not only feature university teams, but also privately sponsored teams. These rules make way for potentially unbounded technology to be employed on these cars. This proves to create stiff competition as privately funded teams or generously sponsored universities sport powerful, expensive arrays and/or batteries. While this is very exciting, a "technology gap" can easily occur between teams that do not have the financial resources to buy the better equipment. That is why the American Solar Challenge will feature a Stock class and Open class. The Stock class cars must have terrestrial grade solar cells and lead-acid batteries. In the Open class any technology may be employed. The defending University of Missouri-Rolla team is undecided on whether to race their next car, Solar Miner III, in the open or stock class. The amount of funding raised will determine this. The race will prove to be very exciting as it will reach much of the country, exposing thousands of people to the power of environmentally friendly energy resources such as solar technology. The University of Missouri-Rolla's Solar Miner III will improve on the national champion design of Solar Miner II and strive to stay competitive and remain in the winner's circle. If you are interested in helping the UMR champion team stay on top or have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. I am the current VP of Operations in charge of fundraising and public relations. If you want to know more about the race go to www.formulasun.org. The University of Missouri -Rolla's solar car team page is at http://solar42.umr.edu. Tim Alfermann
VP Operations
UMR Solar Car Team
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